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Retired Green Beret takes
on John Kerry
An Open Letter to John Kerry:
My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year, and the recovery
is terribly painful. Then, she developed a staph-epi infection, and
they had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just
thinking about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a
second time in the same wound, makes me cringe.
That experience, however pales in comparison to what
I am going through right now, in my heart. The old hurts are
surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow citizens, and their
leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart again. I am being cut
in the same scar. How did we who served in Vietnam suddenly become
cold-blooded killers, torturers, and rapists, of the ilk of the Nazi
SS or the Taliban? Most of us were American soldiers who grew up
idolizing John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and all the other heroes. That was
why I volunteered. But for political expediency, John Kerry has
rewritten history, again.
After spending only four months in the country of Vietnam, John
Kerry testified before Congress in 1971 with these exact words about
incidents he supposedly witnessed or heard about from other vets:
"They personally raped, cut off ears, cut
off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals
and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly
shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun,
poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South
Vietnam."
I was a green beret officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and
fought in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces
A-team on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the
elite. We saw the most action. Everybody in the world knows that.
But we did not just kill people, we built a church, a school,
treated illnesses, passed out soap, food, and clothing, and had fun
and loving interaction with the indigenous people of Vietnam, just
like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon, and everywhere
American soldiers ever served. We all gave away our candy bars and
rations to kids. Our hearts to oppressed people all over the globe.
My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those
horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced,
unprincipled liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and
all my fellow Vietnam veterans. Sure, there were a couple
bad-apples, but I saw none, and I saw it all, and if I did, as an
army officer, it was my obligation to stop it, or at the very least
report it. Why is there not a single record anywhere of you ever
reporting any incidents like this or having the perpetrators
arrested? The answer is simple. You are a liar.
Your medals and mine are not a free pass for
lifetime, Senator Kerry, to bypass character, integrity, and
morality. I earn my green beret over and over daily in all aspects
of my life.
Eight National Guard green berets, and other National Guard
soldiers, have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you totally
dishonored their widows and families by lumping National Guard
service in with being a draft-dodger, conscientious objector, and
deserter, just so you can try to sabotage the patriotism of our
President who proudly served as an Air National Guard jet pilot.
I have a son earning his green beret at Fort Bragg
right now, and his wife serves honorably in the Air National Guard,
just like President Bush did, and I am as proud of her as I am my
son.
I volunteered for
Vietnam and have no problem whatsoever with President Bush being our
Commander-In-Chief. In fact, I am proud of him as our leader.
John Kerry, you
personally derailed the Vietnam Human rights Bill, HR2883, in 2001,
after it had passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote, and thousands of
pro-American Montagnard tribespeople in Vietnam died since then who
could have been saved, by you. Earlier, as Chair of the Senate
Select Committee on MIA/POW Affairs, you personally quashed the
efforts of any and all veterans to report sightings of living POW's,
when you held those reins in Congress.
You have fought tooth and
nail to push for the US to normalize relations with Vietnam for
years. Why, Mr. Kerry? Simple, your first cousin C. Stewart Forbes,
CEO, of Colliers International, who recently signed a contract with
Hanoi, worth BILLIONS of dollars for Collier's International to
become the exclusive real estate representative for the country of
Vietnam.
"Hanoi John," now that it
works for you, you beat your chest about your Vietnam service, but
to me, you are a phony, opportunistic, hypocrite. You are one of
those politicians that is like a fertilizer machine: all that comes
out of you is horse manure, and you are spreading it everywhere.
Medals do not make a man. Morals do.
Don Bendell Canon City,
Colorado
Don Bendell served as an
officer in four Special Forces Groups, is a best-selling author with
over 1,500,000 books in print, a 1995 inductee into the
International Karate Hall of Fame, and owns karate schools in
southern Colorado.
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