Kerry's Rise Lifts Fellow Vietnam Vets

[DenverDem]

By David Maraniss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 29, 2004; Page A01

Since the searing spring day in 1968 when a grenade blew away his legs and left only a stump of his right arm, Max Cleland has been on what he calls a long and discomforting search for meaning. He has wondered about the purpose of his time in Vietnam, the lessons of his wounds, the reasons for his survival. For seven minutes on Thursday night, when he rolls his wheelchair to center stage at the Democratic National Convention and introduces his friend John F. Kerry to the nation, Cleland thinks he will be closer than ever to answering those timeless questions.
(snip)
"John Kerry is really the tip of the iceberg, and the iceberg under the surface is the unconscious sense of lack of resolution of the Vietnam War," Cleland said in an interview Tuesday after taking part in a ceremony honoring veterans at Bunker Hill. "His success is like a validation of all this angst, storm and stress, and search for meaning, for people of his generation, not just for veterans, but especially for veterans because he personifies and embodies our own experience."
(More) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22228-2004Jul28.html>

[Pachamama]

1. What he said about Vietnam was so important...to talk about the experience

the dangers, the comradery, the fear, and then coming back to the US and taking on the leaders who failed their soldiers...

This was important for a lot of reasons....first, it helps with the healing for a lot of Vietnam vets...this country was hard on them and they came back and were not always treated well and felt alone. Second, it helps answer any Repuke that challenges how he could have come back from Vietnam and "protested" the War....

It was a great, great speech....

:kick:

[Merlin]

2. What a piece of history we experienced tonight! Yes, it does help heal Nam

I share that sense of unfinished national emotional business about Vietnam. I still tear up thinking about the fucking lunacy of it, the people killed on both sides, the lost dreams, the demagoguery, the complete lack of undertanding on the part of our "best and brightest" leaders.

But I know one thing I feel, and I'll bet most Nam vets feel. Don't you ever send American troops to die in a mistaken war again. Don't you ever fail to understand the facts of the situation on the ground. Don't you ever bend truth to your ideology. And above all, don't you ever claim that those who go and fight your godam foolish war and come back and protest it are in any way unpatriotic! We have earned that right!

Thank you Max. Thank you JK. Thank you DU. Thank you Democrats. Thank you America. A new day has begun!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

3. I've heard Clark say the exact same thing..."don't send us into another...

...war based on lies".

[PATRICK]

4. The same forces

that did not resolve Vietnam and in fact capitalized on its decisions are in play this year. Truth. Facing facts. Confusion of blame. All these simmering relics in fact caused much of the mad reaction and filling of the void with even worse evils. The restoration of illusions by any side was never healthy. The society pretended to walk away.

At the very least the nation as a whole has to face the whole truth not ease into accommodation with cancerous lies which will again be the roots of worse civil plagues in the future.

[soothsayer]

5. Let's hope Iraq doesn't last for five presidents, the way Nam did n/t