Ron Kovic (Born On the 4th of July) wonders if the president has any idea what he's getting us into

[bigtree]

from HuffPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-kovic/a-letter-to-the-president_b_337002.html


October 28, 2009

Ron Kovic: A Letter to the President

Dear Mr. President,

As a former United States Marine Corps Sergeant who was shot and paralyzed from my mid-chest down on January, 20th, 1968 during my second tour of duty in Vietnam, and who has lived with the wounds of that war for the past forty one years, I am writing this letter to you deeply concerned with General Stanley A. McChrystal's request for a troop escalation in Afghanistan.

Escalating this war and deploying more of America's sons and daughters to this conflict is a huge mistake -- another Vietnam disaster in the making. We are at a crucial turning point Mr. President and the decision you are about to make in the coming days and weeks may very well be the most important decision of your presidency. I cannot begin to comprehend the thoughts going through your mind as you contemplate this difficult decision, the awful burden it must be.

Many of us who served in Vietnam promised ourselves long ago that we would never again allow what happened to us in that war to ever happen again. We had an obligation as citizens, as Americans, as human beings to raise our voices in protest. We could never forget the hospitals, the intensive care wards, the wounded all around us fighting for their lives. Those long and painful years after we came home.

In your recent address to the VFW on August, 17, 2009 in Phoenix, Arizona, you stated that the war in Afghanistan was a "war of necessity." I remember as I watched and listened to you that day wondering if you had any idea what you were getting us into, if you knew anything of Vietnam and the painful lessons I and others of my generation had learned from that war. You were three years old when I joined the Marine Corps out of high school in 1964, seven when I was shot and paralyzed in 1968, ten when I joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and began to protest against that war . . .


read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-kovic/a-letter-to-the-president_b_337002.html

[bigtree]

1. .

[bvar22]

2. K&R

no comment necessary.
:patriot:

[flyarm]

3. well he should have read "The Secret Team" by L. Fletcher Prouty"

or those around him should have, which i am sure they did..

It is now Obama's war..and what he does now, will be his legacy.

And the dead and the blood will be on his hands.

He has the choice..he can stop it or accelerate these wars.

His base wants the wars stopped, as do the majority of Americans.

There is no "winning" of either war, with the continuation of either.

He can declare victory and bring our troops home ..completely..or his legacy will be these wars! As with all the dead bodies.

[i miss america]

4. Meet the new boss...

...same as the old boss

[bigtree]

5. .

[Liberation Angel]

6. I Marched with Kovic in Denver-2008 Democratic Convention) with IVAW-He is such a national treasure

too bad he had to be immortalized by Tom Cruise but. hey, at least Cruise did a good job of it.

Born on the Fourth of July is a great movie

Kovic is a true hero!

In Denver IVAW reached an agreement with Obama which prevented Denver from burning down (I was a marshall in this march and many anarchists (some were plants, I'm sure) were ready to riot. IVAW and the march marshalls kept them in line. But if the cops had attacked the three or more platoons of troops (Iraq veterans) who were marching peacefully towards the convention center, Denver might have burned down that night with potentially lots of dead veterans who oppose the war and who were ready to throw down if Obama had not agreed to a meeting with the IVAW leadership.

I do not think I have ever been prouder to be an American than standing alongside soldiers fighting nonviolently for peace and prepared to die for their right to protest these wars.

I slept with them in the "Freedom Cages" (so called free speech zone where the vets and protesters were treated like lepers by the Bush soldiers)

[azul]

7. Appoint Ron Kovic for Sec of Defense, do the world a good turn,

Mr President. (WTF was the idea of keeping the criminal Gates on board?)

Read the book, the movie does not do it justice.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

God bless Ron Kovic

[Liberation Angel]

8. +1

nt