Bou's voice is smack-on-the-money.

She speaks VOLUMES about what goes on within the mind of any returning-Veteran.

They want NOTHING ... but do SO WANT TO JUST TALK IT ALL OUT that it will be put to rest.

One pities a Vet, one is risking a blackened-eye. One figures out a very-special way, an honest, sincere way, to get any VET to open up, then one has therefore not only done a Service, one has gained a friend & supporter for LIFE.

THANKING a Veteran for the nightmares, the trauma, the experiences in defense of Freedom is as NOTHING in allowing & encouraging that Veteran to just TALK IT ALL THE WAY OUT so as to make a tad-bit of sense of it all is the VERY-BEST Service (and THANKS!) that any non-combatant American Citizen can give.

The way the Left in this country treated our guys coming home from Viet Nam was a disgrace!

"The Left" Who are you talking about. Some idiot 18 year old hippies spit on some vets and call them baby killers. Suddenly, those people speak for the entire left side of the political spectrum in this country? Ludicrous.

In reality, it wasn't "The Left" who did that. Did you see the Democratic Party and many Democratic politicans coming and saying, "Fuck those Vets, they were just killing babies anyway." No, just some far left-wing radicals.

And far as the non-reception Vets got from most of America, well that's not "The Left's" fault either. By the mid-70's the American people hate that war. They hated that we fought it and hated that we had to leave without victory. So it took until the 80's for the American people to finally gives the homecoming they deserved in the 70's. That was America's fault, not "The Left".

Hey, every time a right-wing kook says something racist, can I say that this proves that those on "The Right" are all racists? Just checking.

Have you been drinking again Sally?

"Some idiot 18 year old hippies spit on some vets and call them baby killers."

Actually, it was more like an entire nation of hippies spitting on American vets and calling them babykillers.

There are times when I read about that shit or watch old footage on the news, and I think hippies were more concerned with being hippies (breaking whatever rules they saw fit all the while smelling like unshowered ass), than they were with what was actually going on in Vietnam. A case of getting swept up in the frenzy of [fill in the blank], as Americans are want to do (celebrities, fashion, music, fads).

The only reason the elected members of the Democratic party wouldn't outright say shit like that themselves is because they were in a position where they had to behave themselves with a modicum of decorum.

If you're a US senator, I think it does not look well, in the long run, for you to be rubbing elbows with people calling US troops babykillers, any more than it does Nancy Pelosi well to schmooze with the asshole who shit on the flag at the Portland peace rally.

"And far as the non-reception Vets got from most of America, well that's not 'The Left's' fault either. By the mid-70's the American people hate that war."

I can't think of a single American person who actually loves the fact that we are in a war. I hate it, too, but I don't blame George Bush for it, because if I were president, I'd go to fucking war, too, given the fearless, unflappable nature of our enemy.

The men and women who go to war and defend America's ass don't deserve to be treated like shit when they get back, because A) They are defending your country, B) They are human beings, and the only thing which separates the Vietnam vets from the current Iraq/Afghanistan vets, is that the Vietnam vets were drafted, so it's not like they even had a choice...

So, yes, the Left treated the men returning to our country from Vietnam disgracefully. It's really quite indisputable, and shameful. I'm sorry if you don't see that.

Sally.......

It was just some 18 year old hippies spitting on the vets not the left side of the political spectrum? Huh? All the mainstream news folks from ABC,CBS,NBC,NPR & all the rest of the liberal socialist groups did not dress like hippies & were not 18 years old. No, they took part in creating news rather then reporting it. They were successful in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

You continue to apologize for the traitorous actions of those who follow the drumbeat of which you find so dear to your heart. I said it before & I`ll say it again......It is treason,those who have taken part in these actions are traitors & those who support the left do not deserve to live in this country.

Erica is right, none of us want war , none of us want the war to continue but we recognize war is sometimes neccessary for when you deal with barbaric people this is the only viable means to deal with them.This has been proven time after time for hundreds of years to be the case.To follow the path of appeasement & ignore reality only delays the inevitable war to come.

In a previous post I stated some liberals are natural .."Born Stupid".... Some like Jeremy stated have ALS ....."Acquired Liberal Stupidity". Some of you spent enormous amounts of your parents money or got the money from us thru student loans to attend college where you acquired the liberal stupidity you embrace & shield yourselves from influence of reason or common sense. What a pity , some day you & most who believe as do you will realize you were wrong, I hope it will not be too late.

I asked you before... who`s side are you on? Will you ever admit you are wrong? Will you ever do the right thing?

To ALL those Republicans who decided to punish the Congressional Republicans by staying home and not voting, you helped give the nation what we have now, Democrats in charge.
There just isn't time to list all the evil things that may or will happen, but I predicte that there will an attack on several major US cities, there will be a major war and I blame the un-American behavior of the Democrat Party, which was 100% behind President Bush, until October, 2001.

After that date they gave hope to our enemies so thay would continue their terror activities. After all, the USA has not won a war since 1945, so why start now?

Let's just hope that the people are smart enough to realize that it is the Congress' war now and since November, what ever happens now is not Bush;s fault. But when things go badly, I'd bet that the voters will think about Britaney Spears andblamne Bush not Scumer, Finestein, Boxer amd the other unpatriotic, traitors in the Democrat Party.

Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, and all the other commie losers were not 18 year old kids during the Vietnam war. Most of the protesters I saw at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago destroying property were much older than 18 as well. Most of the whiners then were very much like the whiners now: too chickenshit to serve in the military to begin with. Sally never served a day in the military. And never will. But she or it will continue to exercise first amendment rights while others die or get maimed to protect them. Most of these gutless wonders espouse this dim propaganda deeply ensconced in their parents basements, driving a Hyundai their parents bought them as well. Hard to get this bunch to do anything for this country when they are too damn sorry to do anything for themselves. Generation X and it's current spawns will be the ones that put this country in the toilet. You got people pulling their fourth tour in Iraq because none of these gutless wonders will step up to the plate. Not only are they too cowardly to serve, but they bash the people serving every chance they get. These morons care more about their whore hero Anna Nicole than US politics or foreign policy. Just remember kids, you reap what you sow.

Sally,
You fail to realize what most of us on the right having been saying for quite a long time now. We don't paint the entire left as radical, not completely anyway. However, the left has refused to condemn the radicals on the left therefore making them accomplices. Guilt by association you know. The right has it's own radicals but we aren't afraid to condemn them, and we often do. What about this do you lefties not understand?

The moronic 18 year olds protesting and burning the American flag in the 60's and 70's are now leaders of the Democrat party. look at Pelosi, Schumer, Hillary and Bill and all the other "Hate America First crowd. Look at who Bill Clinton had in his administration. Good God he had a communist sympathizer as Secretary of State in Madeline Albright. Who in their right mine would say things like the United States should not be allowed to be the only super-power in the world. One has to admit that the left hasn't been the same since the fall of the Soviet Union. That's why I think that they have adopted environmentalism to replace their beloved communism.

Sally - Were you even alive back then? I was. I was a returning vet. I saw it happen. And it wasn't just some 18 year old hippies. And do ya want to know what became of those who were spitting on our vets and calling them baby killers? They are now the people running the Dimocrat party. Like John Kerry, who threw his medals over the White House fence. Oh! They weren't his medals. Or were they? Then he testified about made up atrocities that never happened. Yep! They've grown up, but they still hate the troops and they want them to lose in Iraq. That's why they are proceeding to stab them in the back now.

Memories - like walking through LAX and watching people stare at the uniform - bold young punks, getting in your face and calling you all sorts of wonderful names. Being attacked in a bar in my own home town because I wore a uniform. Yea, I still have memories of a young John Kerry branding all of his brothers-in-arms as "Baby killers" and "Murdering Rapist". Yep love those memories - however I was floored a few months again when a petite young lady walked up and gave me a hug and said "Thanks Sir" -- she then pointed to a patch on my colors "American Veteran and Damn Proud of it". Nothing like new memories to carry me to the grave.

Chuck

Thats really cool Chuck. Wish someone had done that to my dad (2 tours in Nam, 1st cav, died 11 years ago). Perhaps Sally has a point in that not EVERY democrat felt that way, but the silence of those that did now was deafening. They abdicated the podium to the extreme left. The majority of the left may not have been doing the spittng, but they were complicit by their inertia.

The silence of the "other" democrats is no different then the silence "heard" from moderate Islamofascists (that really don't exist). If you are quiet and don't voice an opinion, then it's assumed that it is the same of the opinions around you. It's called human nature and those that are "offended" by that characterization (Sally) just need to suck it up because their plight is only going to get worse as their guilt by silence is exposed.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out with this young man. There are many Veterans where I work out... WWII, Korea and 'Nam. I don't know if it will be good for him or not... I suspect if he felt he wanted to be in the thick of things in the meat market gyms, he'd have gone there... but he didn't.

There are so many things I'd like to say to him... but I will say nothing. For now, I'll just work out next to him, until I've been there long enough and feel comfortable enough. He's been heavily on my mind since yesterday.

For now? i want to know who his parents are.

Sally, those 18 YO hippies as you call them were the product of academia, the same group that failed to give you an education.
Isn't it funny how you fit right in with the socialist/ communist talking heads?