[Marxism] Kerry, Skull and Bones and War records

["Craven, Jim" <JCraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

        Kerry Skull & Bones War Criminal...
        by Skull & Bones Kerry Sunday, Jan. 18, 2004 at 10:47 AM
         
        What Skull & Bones Member Sen John Kerry don't want you to
Know/Remember...
        Portion of John Kerry remarks on NBC's "Meet the Press" May 6,
2001: 
        
        
        MR. RUSSERT: You mentioned you're a military guy. There's been a
lot of 
        discussion about Bob Kerrey, your former Democratic colleague in
the 
        Senate, 
                     Here is some more info about Kerry from former
VIETNAM POW Michael Benge... 
        
                      John Kerry's war record 
        
        
        When Mr. Kerry pontificated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on
Veterans 
        Day, a group of veterans turned their backs on him and walked
away. They 
        remembered Mr. Kerry as the anti-war activist who testified
before Congress 
        during the war, accusing veterans of being war criminals. The
dust jacket 
        of Mr. Kerry's pro-Hanoi book, "The New Soldier," features a
photograph of 
        his ragged band of radicals mocking the U.S. Marine Corps
Memorial, which 
        depicts the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, with an upside-down
American flag. 
        Retired Gen.  
        Response Jim C:  I believe that it is important to visit and
even reproduce some of these sources if for no other reason than to
provoke  diverse responses. But I have to say, not only for the Kerry
types but for other vets as well, you can't have it both ways: 1) I
participated in a genocidal war and a cornocopia of outright war crimes
while serving as a willing tool of U.S. imperialism; versus 2) I am
still somehow "proud" of my "service" and medals and continue to trade
on my "service"  and medals and  even celebrate all of it.
        There is no aspect of my own military service I am interested in
celebrating, bragging about, or whatever; it is a shame I will carry
with me for the rest of my life. When I came home in 1966, and later
joined and worked with VVAW, I saw, among some of the "anti-War" Vietnam
and non-Vietnam vets, some of the same shit you find at the typical VFW
and American Legion meetings: wearing bush/fatigue jackets and medals,
pecking orders based on bush versus REMF time, in-country versus
out-of-country, officers versus enlisted,  CIB versus non-CIB, airborne
versus non-airborne, etc etc etc. I saw some of the vets still doing
"vet-speak" ("Charlie" versus NLF, "the Nam" versus Vietnam) and some
still had a glint in the eye when thinking about the "primo dope" and
"cheap pussy" available; they didn't get the point.
        Up until the Tet Offensive in 1968, almost all troops in Vietnam
were volunteers; only after Tet were draftees sent without putting in a
1049 for transfer. There is nothing like a good war to turn a "nobody"
into a "somebody"--the Audie Murphy syndrome.  Some of those I "served"
with were outright sociopaths, losers, fuck-ups, predators, psychopaths
etc looking for a war environment with few rules and restraints. They
didn't get fucked up FROM Vietnam, they went to Vietnam because they
were already fucked up and looking for a little "glory" to nurture some
of the ol self-esteem problems. Even VVAW, by its own name, still
celebrates the veteran status (ostensibly to note that combat veterans
can be the best source to warn others about what war is really about.)
and had, in my day, some forms of celebration of exactly what they were
designed not to celebrate but to expose--participation in genocidal wars
as tools of U.S. imperialism.
        In Kerry's case, as a member of Skull and Bones (68) before he
left, he was driven by the "three ordeals" of the Bones: prep school;
business; war. Bonesmen are expected to "make their bones" through
participation in all three of the "ordeals." So Kerry's own celebrations
of his "war record" and "bravery" are indeed hypocritical, disingenuous
etc regardless of who is making the point and regardless of for what
agenda. That is why they are making some noise about Bush's own
"military record" which can be seen and documented fully on
www.awolbush.com (The dems of course had nothing to say about it in the
last selection 2000).
        Jim C
         
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