One More Hole In The 'swifties' Boat

As we all know the ‘swifties’ { They don’t deserve a Capital at front } have serviced again, new name same faces, in their Slandering of their Fellow Veterans for Political purposes and reasons and Not for Reality and the Real Truth!

We all also know they are now going after Rep. Murtha with what they think they’ve got as to their patriotim{?} which we also know isn’t the case, it’s just plain BullShit!

Their first public action, which was written about by jimmydean201 Here, Here and Here, gave us a first hand account of what was happening and did happen, as well as this First Hand Account, by Garett Reppenhagen, who drove up to PA. from DC with another Vet to give support to Murtha.

Now we have, another of the extremely slow Investagative Reports, that should have surfaced years ago, coming to the front, while we have engaged this Nations Military, and Nation, in another Debacle of Major Proportions, this being Worse as to World Events than the Last.

We all know what the ‘swifties’ did to John Kerry in his run for the White House, the things they stated, the lack of proof to cover what was said, and the outright lies coming from nothing more than political hacks, Veterans Some, for Political Reasons. And the utter ignorance of many who actually believed them, as many did way back than.

Now we have this Report Vietnam: The War Crimes Files

Kill anything that moves.

The documents detail 320 alleged incidents that were substantiated by Army investigators — not including the most notorious U.S. atrocity, the 1968 My Lai massacre.
Though not a complete accounting of Vietnam war crimes, the archive is the largest such collection to surface to date. About 9,000 pages, it includes investigative files, sworn statements by witnesses and status reports for top military brass.
The records describe recurrent attacks on ordinary Vietnamese — families in their homes, farmers in rice paddies, teenagers out fishing. Hundreds of soldiers, in interviews with investigators and letters to commanders, described a violent minority who murdered, raped and tortured with impunity.

I don’t care when one was over In-Country or where, everyone heard the stories of Atrosities, many were in close proximity, some even knew exactly what was happening. While the Great Majority, as is the case in Iraq, were trying to actually win the hearts and minds of the citizens of their country, which we invaded, the few were going over the edge, some willingly some because they just completely snapped as to their beliefs and humanity.

Early-Warning System

Over the next few years, members of the Vietnam War Crimes Working Group reviewed Army investigations and wrote reports and summaries for military brass and the White House.
The records were declassified in 1994, after 20 years as required by law, and moved to the National Archives in College Park, Md., where they went largely unnoticed.
The Times examined most of the files and obtained copies of about 3,000 pages — about a third of the total — before government officials removed them from the public shelves, saying they contained personal information that was exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
In addition to the 320 substantiated incidents, the records contain material related to more than 500 alleged atrocities that Army investigators could not prove or that they discounted.
Johns says many war crimes did not make it into the archive. Some were prosecuted without being identified as war crimes, as required by military regulations. Others were never reported.

These are the lessons that should hav been taught, studied, and taken into the concious of this Nation instead of being swept under the rug to come out Way Too Late for another Generation of this country and the Worlds Peoples.

Pvt. Henry

In the fall of 1967, he was on his first patrol, marching along the edge of a rice paddy in Quang Nam province, when the soldiers encountered a teenage girl.
“The guy in the lead immediately stops her and puts his hand down her pants,” Henry said. “I just thought, ‘My God, what’s going on?’ ”
A day or two later, he saw soldiers senselessly stabbing a pig.
“I talked to them about it, and they told me if I wanted to live very long, I should shut my mouth,” he told Army investigators.

Tet Offensive

The next morning, the men packed up their gear and continued their sweep of the countryside. Soldiers discovered an unarmed man hiding in a hole and suspected that he had supported the enemy the previous day. A soldier pushed the man in front of an armored personnel carrier, Henry said in his statement.
“They drove over him forward which didn’t kill him because he was squirming around, so the APC backed over him again,” Henry’s statement said.

Instead of tis country crawling into denial and apathy about Vietnam these were what we should have been debating, teaching, and coming to terms with!

Homecoming

The officer advised him to keep quiet until he got out of the Army, “because of the million and one charges you can be brought up on for blinking your eye,” Henry says. Still, the legal officer sent him to see a Criminal Investigation Division agent.
The agent was not receptive, Henry recalls.
“He wanted to know what I was trying to pull, what I was trying to put over on people, and so I was just quiet. I told him I wouldn’t tell him anything and I wouldn’t say anything until I got out of the Army, and I left,” Henry says.

The Investigation

Unknown to Henry, Army investigators pursued his allegations, tracking down members of his old unit over the next 3 1/2 years.
Witnesses described the killing of the young boy, the old man tossed over the cliff, the man used for target practice, the five unarmed women, the man thrown beneath the armored personnel carrier and other atrocities.
Their statements also provided vivid corroboration of the Feb. 8, 1968, massacre from men who had observed the day’s events from various vantage points.

The Outcome

Evidence showed that the massacre did occur, the report said. The investigation also confirmed all but one of the other killings that Henry had described. The one exception was the elderly man thrown off a cliff. Coulson said it could not be determined whether the victim was alive when soldiers tossed him.

Years Later

He says he does not dispute that a massacre took place. “I don’t doubt it, but I don’t remember…. Sometimes people just snap.”

“I was a wreck for a couple days,” Henry, now 59, wrote later in an e-mail. “It was like a time warp that put me right back in the middle of that mess. Some things long forgotten came back to life. Some of them were good and some were not.
“Now that whole stinking war is back. After you left, I just sat in my chair and shook for a couple hours. A slight emotional stress fracture?? Don’t know, but it soon passed and I decided to just keep going with this business. If it was right then, then it still is.”

Kerry and the Winter Soldier Investigation were slammed than and continued to be, especially Kerry because of his public face than, as spokesperson for the Winter Soldiers at the Congressional Hearings and as a Senator, but especially as a candidate for President, being called lyers and worse.

This Winter Soldiers – The Film is a must see to better understand what was swept aside than and hidden since. You can view the Trailers in Windows Media Player or QuickTime Player.
There is alot of information that can be found on the internet as to Vietnam and alot of lessons that need to be learned, because as that Denial Continues the Lessons of the Present Day will Also Once Again Be Swept Aside but by the few!!!!!

For This Is what We’ve Become