<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style>
<![endif]--><o:SmartTagType
namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="State"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="City"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="place"/>
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]-->
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Bookman Old Style";
panose-1:2 5 6 4 5 5 5 2 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p
{mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
span.EmailStyle18
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:Arial;
color:navy;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Article from a Vietnam Vet who is a
grandfather.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>
<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center tabindex=-1>
</span></font></div>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> hckiely
[mailto:hckiely@comcast.net] <br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, June 06, 2006 9:38
PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> Undisclosed-Recipient:;<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> THE ROT FROM WITHIN by
Doug Nelson</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><a name=top></a><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> </span></font> <o:p></o:p></p>
<div align=center><!-- body: left nav -->
<table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width="100%"
style='width:100.0%'>
<tr>
<td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>The Rot From Within</span></b><br>
By Doug Nelson<br>
t r u t h o u t | Perspective</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> Monday 05 June 2006</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> We should not be
surprised that a platoon of Marines went berserk and killed twenty-four Iraqi
civilians. Similar incidents occurred during the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Viet
Nam</st1:country-region> conflict, and have occurred during our present <st1:place
w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place> involvements. Soldiers have told me that
Army vehicles carry an extra shovel to leave at the scene of the killing of
an Iraqi male of "insurgent" age, to explain the man's body as an
IED emplacement interrupted. Knee-jerk "patriots" can Swift Boat
the messengers, but the facts remain. To understand the similarities between
the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Viet Nam</st1:country-region> conflict and
the current <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>
debacle is to shed light on how decent American young men would think, for an
instant, that they were justified in killing moms, dads, little girls and
innocent taxi passengers. To try to explain it only in terms of the grief and
pressures these young guys were under, however, is to ignore some very
painful facts about us and about the society from which they come.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> Many people the age
of those who committed this massacre have apparently not yet sorted out a lot
of issues about who they are and how they are to relate to others around
them. They look to older soldiers and Marines for examples and for
leadership. It is difficult to imagine military training, from West Point and
<st1:City w:st="on">Annapolis</st1:City> to the Primary Leadership
Development Course at the lowest-ranking enlisted Reserve and Guard levels,
that would not examine the errors in judgment and leadership surrounding the
My Lai incident in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Viet
Nam</st1:place></st1:country-region> in 1968. This incident in <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region>, like <st1:place w:st="on">My Lai</st1:place>,
was an egregious failure of leadership, from the platoon sergeants to
company-level officers, to the field-grade officers who lied in cover-up
attempts. It may be indicative of a failure of leadership at very high
levels.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> A fact of My Lai,
Abu Ghraib, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Guantanamo</st1:place></st1:City>
and no doubt countless other atrocities is that when the cause is rotten, the
rot filters down to everyone involved in it. The cause for which my
generation was sent to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Viet
Nam</st1:place></st1:country-region> was a false one, later admitted by
those who orchestrated it. Those of us who did our duty in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Viet Nam</st1:place></st1:country-region>
enabled our country to poison the land and water of that poor country with an
especially virulent form of dioxin, Agent Orange. We would need hundreds of
Memorial Walls to contain the names of the Vietnamese killed in that foolish
war.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> The rot in Iraqi
Freedom and in the social engineering of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> is found in the lies
used to justify it, and in the disgraceful lack of debate, discussion and
concern shown by Americans, from senators and congressmen to those of us
driving buses and balancing accounts. The rot lies at the foundation of our
hastily considered invasion and occupation of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>, based on fear, and on the
flip side of the fear coin, hate. The communities from which some of our
service people come preach hatred of Islam in their churches, demonize the
rest of the world, and foster ignorance through inadequate and incompetent
education. Lets us not forget that some of the most hateful vilification of
Specialist Joe Darby, who blew the whistle on Abu Ghraib, came from within
his own community in western <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Maryland</st1:place></st1:State>.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> In 1968 I smugly
thought I understood the hypocrisy of a military chaplain telling me that the
Viet Cong were the "forces of evil." I rejected that, to the point
of not setting foot in a church for years, except for chaplain services at
the deaths of two buddies. Yet, I must have retained some fragment of the
notion of Vietnamese as "gooks" to have allowed my friends to throw
bars of soap from a speeding truck at passers-by on a hot, dusty road near
Long Binh in 1968. We were not under stress, and we did not recently lose a
buddy in combat. We were stupid, immature 21-year-olds with no leadership at
that moment, angry at the heat, the dust, with being in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Viet Nam</st1:place></st1:country-region>. I
can tell you that not one of us ever spoke of the incident. We knew we were
wrong.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> This notion of a
"Christian" nation, and our constant lip service to "freedom
and justice for all" have made our country a sick joke in the rest of
the civilized world. Our history of violence against women, blacks, Native
Americans, immigrants, dissenters, and religious minorities surfaces through
every crack in our national foundation. No sooner do we identify a
"threat" or an enemy, whether it is believers in Islam, abortion
providers, immigrants, or marijuana users, than someone is proposing rounding
them up, putting them in jail or worse.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> Our national
obsession with punishment and prison is a root cause of <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Guantanamo</st1:place></st1:City>. Civilized systems of justice
have, as a distinguishing feature, careful consideration of the facts of the
individual case and the application of law to the particulars of the case.
Yet, the knee-jerk reaction to nearly every social problem seems to be
treating all members of a group as if they are criminals. Mob justice is
simply mob violence disguised. By extension, we occupy a foreign country and
treat the inhabitants as inmates, subject to search, home invasion, torture,
beatings, and death. In consenting to surveillance of our own communications
within our own country, we are consenting to being treated as inmates.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> Of course, all
societies engage in mob justice. We only need to look at the behavior of
colonial powers and the present ethnic tensions in <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>.
We sneer at "tribalism" in Africa, only to imprison innocents in
the <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York City</st1:place></st1:City>
area after 9-11 because they had Arabic names. The difference between us and
the rest of the world is the punch line of the sick joke that we have been
proclaiming for our entire history: that we are better, that we are
Christians, that we are "bringing democracy." The rest of the world
does not call us on our hypocrisy because they are all too aware of their own
history, some of it quite recent. The Arabic world, as well, will ignore
their own behavior in <st1:place w:st="on">Darfur</st1:place> and in the
streets of Iraqi cities as they righteously proclaim the gross injustice of
the deaths of the people of Haditha.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> It is important that
we refrain from engaging in mob judgment in dealing with these soldiers and
Marines who come from our homes, our schools and our churches. It is
estimated that 72% of the troops in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> favor a rapid if not
immediate pull-out. The troops know that their country does not support this
war, and that people their own age who support the war will gleefully let
them serve three and four combat tours without enlisting themselves. They
know that they will not have the jobs waiting for them in the private sector
that they left when their Guard and Reserve units were called up. They know
that this administration has worked diligently to phase out veterans' health
care, and has neglected care for those suffering from PTSD. They know that
they are likely to be sent back into combat, with only Prozac to help them
with deal with the same conditions that caused their PTSD. Their blogs and
emails are being censored, or shut down, as if they do not deserve the
protections of the Bill of Rights for their sacrifice.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> Demand punishment
for the truly guilty, especially their leaders. Please realize, however, that
many of our military people have taken the Iraqis into their hearts, doing
all possible to try to alleviate their suffering. They are troubled when they
come home at the death and injury to the innocent that they have witnessed.
The war is not the fault of those at whose feet we lay it. Welcome them back,
and encourage them in their readjustment. Don't give them an empty thanks for
their service and walk away; demand from your government that their medical
and psychological needs be met.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> The best we can do
for our service people is to end this debacle and bring them home. They are
not to be sacrificed for a "democracy" that is not ours to bestow,
and for which we have given up credibility by not practicing it in our own
country. We will need their help in bringing back integrity and
Constitutional checks and balances to our government. They are better people
than those who sent them to war. They are better people than those who have
remained silent through their imprisonment in endless deployments, pain and
suffering.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> Finally, to the
people of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
I am one American citizen, a veteran of another foolish war, and a somewhat
humbled person who finds refuge in the Christian faith to help me to deal
with the wrongs I have done in my life. I see nothing in my Bible that tells
me I should hate you for your Islamic faith. In fact, I am struck by the
tragedy of all three great monotheistic traditions allowing false prophets to
lead us in the ways of hate and violence toward our fellow human beings. For
the depredations against your people, for the deaths, the injuries, the
destruction, and for the lies and indifference that have led to them, I am
sincerely sorry.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> -------- </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=4 face="Bookman Old Style"><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Bookman Old Style"'> <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>Doug Nelson is a father, grandfather and
stepfather, a Viet Nam veteran, and a member of Veterans for Peace and Viet
Nam Veterans Against the War.</span></i></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<!-- footer --></div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>