JoeClarke.Net

I am always amazed by those who did their best to escape Vietnam, but later wish that they had been part of that war, ne police action. People have privately approached me as if seeking some sort of absolution for their faux Vietnam War service. I, of course, tell them to "go and peace, and sin no more," or, maybe something not quite as biblically dramatic.

Yet, I am still puzzled as to why, especially libs, who were very much anti war, and, indeed, tried to lose Vietnam as much as they try to lose Iraq and Afghanistan, would claim to be part of something that has not been known as one of America's winningest moments - by a long shot.

While on leave from the Marine Corps during the Vietnam "era," I was spit upon - by a lesbian - just because... After serving 16 months in Nam in S-3 Operations, and as a helicopter aerial gunner, I was medevaced out of country for nervous condition and disability retired for life at the age of 21. God had better plans for me, though. In any event, if anyone knows history, Viet vets were thought of as either crazy ( I was labeled "Psycho Joe") or society tried to ignore us, hoping we would just go away.

Hollywood was overly eager to depict Vietnam Veterans as wild men, ever ready to lose it and commence firing on anything or anybody that moved - in civilian life. The American cultural zeitgeist just did not know what to do with us. In subsequent years I witnessed many brothers in arms commit suicide (I even tried), go crazy, drink or drug themselves to death, get divorced, etc. Quite a few made the transition, yet always somewhat burdened with the stigma.

The lib media and academia, after winning at losing the war for the U.S., became so energized that it has kept a stranglehold on nearly all of our sacred American institutions (including the churches) for lo these many years.

But why would aging, grey pony-tailed ex-hippies be wanting to redo their past so much that they would, quite commonly as we see, desire to be retro/redux soldiers?

Probably because they see how that despite the socialists best attempts, we still honor our veterans - from WW I, WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, to the Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan. They just have not been able devalue our great American military, which by the grace of God, has been a pillar of our economic and societal stature in the world. Never mind, the commies working overtime to undo that greatness, employing every tactic to decimate the military's morale as well as its budget.

The same Commies who provoked the Kent State students (near where I live in Ohio) and the same Fascist totalitarians who undermined the Vietnam conflict, have not been so successful in stealing the hearts of Americans, except for the aberrational administrations of Clinton and Obama.

I honor all Tea Partiers, Soldiers of Christ, and Patriots in general who are fighting the fight against modern day tyranny, just as much as I honor my fellow veterans. Serving your country includes not only those who wore uniforms, but all those who would like to rescue these United States from the clutches of evil. After all, the Colonial fathers were heroes long before they donned a uniform, and they were great men after the Revolutionary War as well.

Not everyone would like to so honored. I understand that the Family Guy creator Seth McFarland, after ridiculing Sarah Palin's son in his cartoon, has now produced an episode where a former Viet Cong mocks the Vietnam Veterans Wall, shouting, "I killed him and him," as he points to the names of those dead veterans who died in action. I don't know about you, but I never fought to protect the Family Guy's freedom. Only someone deranged would lay down his life for Seth McFarland. I might lay down McFarland's life, but not mine, certainly.

The Huffington Kos (they're all the same to me) remarked about Blumenthal's lame apology; "Vietnam veterans were not really scorned after they returned from Vietnam as we have heard," according to some psychobabble study by a lib professor who was probably not even alive during the Vietnam War. Then again, because he's a lib professor, he will probably pretend he was alive during the Vietnam War some day.