Negativism at Home Could Produce Defeat Of U.S. Policy in Iraq

"who always seem to know our business better than we do."

That was a cheap shot. It really amazes me how much many Americans cannot take criticism of their country. Go ahead...criticise my country. You'll either be right or wrong...big deal. What...am I supposed to beat you up cuz you say a mean thing about my country?

Me thinks many, not all, but many Americans...are just a little oversensitive. Why the complex?

 

"As for foriegners who are planning on moving to this country,please feel free to stay where you are. I don't see America sending out recruiting teams to get foriegners to move here. We will find some way to survive without you."

Another cheap shot. I'm glad I'm a little more rational today to realize that you don't speak for all of America.

And if your comment was directed at me...well...fine. Maybe I will come down there just to make you ornery soldier.

Better back up your words...I don't want to hear any whining about nobody helping...wait...you did it earlier in your post. I could be angry but it's not worth it...

 

King James, Don't take anything said here personal. After all the years that Americans have had propaganda and sales pitches based on manipulating dreams and fears pounded into our heads it's hard to step out of the comfort zone. Some of us have though, it's scarey for sure to undergo the "paranoid shift" but it is also refreshing to be free of the matrix effect we've lived in for so long now.

 

King James I have been to Canada several times
take heart your country has a bright future it
seems to be united and has tackled diversity and
solved it..your critics will always take a soundbite here and bad news item there to put you
down to puff up their own vision of what the U.S.
should be here, they are afraid what is happening
up there will somehow happen here.

The big picture for Canada is that it has a
very bright future and will only rise in status
I just hope they do it with humility and a spirit
of brotherly love with those of us who admire
Canada.

The Bush culture I believe has hurt our country
and we are not where we should be but we are
behind and have messes to clean up...a hard
worker and a uniter I believe will again put
us in the black and road or era of good feeling.
Bush is lazy that is just the naked truth and
his whole life he has been enabled to cause messes
He has used deception but he fails to realize
God judges him first even before the unbeliever.

 

thanks you guys. I will try not to take things so personal. I already was easier on the guy than I originally planned to be.

Yes, I hope Canada will always have a spirit of humility. We have some arrogant people but probably not much of a reason to be arrogant.

 

This is funny.You jump om my case for me critisizeng you for you critisizeing my country and then you say I'm over sensitive. What it amounts to is you can dish it out but you can't take it.
When all of the Canadian guys get done marrying each other and all of the canadian girls get done marrying each other you won't reproduce.
As for the war on two things Ho Chi Minh asked us for 50 tanks to get France out of Vietnam and we turned him down that is when he went to china and got communist backing and so it seems they took up the philosiphy and the tanks. My rant is you don't leave a friend in a fight alone. I don't like to fight and I don't want to fight but I'm the guy you want on your side if you have to be in a fight.
As for me I know the whole rest of the world is smarter than the best American,if you don't believe me just ask anybody outside of the country.

 

Plain Old Bill I think United Airlines flys
to Vietnam ..Saigon(Ho Chi Minh City) I know
of and have read where veterans that go over there
come back in better shape ..have you thought about
going. Seattle is a major hub I think a lot
of flights could get you down to Indo-china.
I would love to go there someday and visit they
say the new generation over there is oblivious to
the war and its past.

I don't think anything is your fault you fought
for the guy next to you and that was honorable
and probably won some battles that will go down
in history...I don't think it is your fault that
the deck was stacked against you and you had
a united Vietnam against the occupations.
They are still not perfect over there but for one
thing I would rather have a Vietnamese fighting
along side me rather than an Iraqi.

 

Well as a matter of fact I have thought of going back. I also hear the present government is loosening up on it's persecution of christians.
I made many good Vietnamese friends when I was there so I don't hold animosity toward the people.
Vietnam has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
When I was over there sometimes you did'nt know who your friend or enemy was unless you were being shot at, so in that regard there may be some similarities.This is'nt big time wrestling you don't walk out on your partner in the middle of the fight.

 

"My rant is you don't leave a friend in a fight alone. I don't like to fight and I don't want to fight but I'm the guy you want on your side if you have to be in a fight."

I would agree. That describes me as well. However, you didn't know that. You just assumed the wrong thing about me and insulted me for actually caring and saying I would have loved to have been in your navy and then said you don't need me. That's your right. You have the right to be wrong.

The fact is, I can "take it". I "take it" everytime I log onto this board. But when you criticized me for wishing I could have been in your navy, I draw the line. What do you people want? Do you want our criticism or do you want us to say something positive???

"When all of the Canadian guys get done marrying each other and all of the canadian girls get done marrying each other...". Ignorance is bliss ain't it?

 

The New American

 

Wow Poncho that's something I would'nt know anything about. but since the news popped out about our mayor I would'nt doubt it.
King James that shot about gay marriage was aimed more at you house of commons than you.Now if you want to come join the fight in our military,then I can easily accept all the complaining you want to do. As it happens military guys complain all the time they just don't want to hear anything from anybody who has,nt been in the fight or is not in the fight.When they are done complaining then they get back in the fight.

 

I travel alot Plain Ole Bill and even though it's not uncommon for guys to go around holding hands in my little home town I still notice it where ever I go. Guess I'm just not desensitized to it enough yet not to notice?

 

Plain Old Bill...that's fine. Our house of commons is not me. However, if it is ok for you to make comments about our house of commons, then that means you are giving your blessing to me and other foreigners to comment on your government. God bless you.

 

I believe it is not the liberal medias choice that the flag draped coffins are not shown. That would be the most effective tool at their disposal to gin up public sentiment against the war on terror. That practice was stopped by the military.

I have witnessed nearly unbridled reporting supporting the leftists and condemning POTUS. There is little a sitting President can do in light of the first amendment.

 

Amen brother! Right on target! I'll share a few thoughts on this publically just to reinforce some things you wrote and to add some points for consideration.

A trip back to Viet Nam can be interesting and fun. Things have changed a whole lot - some for the better and some for the worse - and you won't find much left from the war itself. You can now generally expect a hassle free trip much improved over those made about ten to fifteen years ago.

There are still serious problems and concerns - including alleged persecution of Montagard minorities that happen to be Christians - but much has improved since the very harsh years following the end of the war. There is limited freedom of religion for the majority of Vietnamese. It is a nation governed by a single party Communist regime but it is rapidly embracing Capitalism in the interest of survival. There's a lot yet to be corrected in many areas. The Viet Kieu (Vietnamese natives living abroad) have a big influence on the country because of the money they bring into it. They are pushing for continued reforms as are other interested parties both external and internal. Time will bring about more changes for my second home land.

There are many things I, and a whole lot of others, wish had turned out differently in the Viet Nam war but none of those things are going to change now. We didn't loose that war in the raw sense of military defeat but we sure did drop our support and watched our former ally loose it a few years after we departed following a peace treaty blatantly broken by our enemy. I suppose our friends had to go it on their own sooner or later but it never did set right to me the way it went down because it did go back on our word. All that is over and done now. All we can do now is influence the present for our brothers and sisters in arms now fighting a war for which the support - at least that in the popular media - waivers from day to day. I want to see the history of their war turn out better than ours did.

Veterans like us should never let the liberals convince us that we need a trip there to "reconcile" - give and receive forgiveness - with our former enemy and the country in which that war occurred. In the liberal mindset this is to acknowledge the alleged gross and common evil deeds done while they were there. This is all part of that "victimization" theme so common among liberals. Veterans of the Viet Nam war, and any others in recent times, don't need to have that feeling any more than veterans of World War II returning to visit Germany felt they need to do that with the German people!

Our country sent us to fight a war there and we did it to the best of our ability as it came to us. It was a just cause at that time and we served honorably. There were other possibilities - choices - that could have been made earlier on in the political arena that might have resulted in a different course of action. Those things can be argued in historical perspective but at the time our reasons were well founded and our cause was just as well as our prosecution of the war on a daily basis. Never let anyone convince you otherwise! There is nothing to reconcile for having done that! Viet Nam veterans need not let the liberals put the guilt trip on them by making them feel the road to acceptance is to seek forgiveness for their actions in war! They should let their conscience be clean on those matters as should be every solider who does what must be done in war within the law. They need not be dragged down into a life of shame or misery over tales of an endless stream of atrocities that never happened presented by who have made such events a badge of dishonorable attention.

Likewise, the same is true of any soldier who was once our enemy according to his laws. We need not feel hatred towards them. We bear one another no ill will and owe one another no apology. We can, and more often than not, respect one another for our fighting abilities. We also are happy that we do not meet now in battle. They aren't our enemies now and besides as many people living there now were on our side as not, a whole lot on neither side, and a whole lot more not ever born yet!

Viet Nam war veterans, and veterans of more recent wars should hold their heads up high! They should never apologize to anyone for doing what their country sent them to do.

Patrick

 

"Viet Nam war veterans, and veterans of more recent wars should hold their heads up high! They should never apologize to anyone for doing what their country sent them to do."

Agreed. I've said ad nauseum that most people that I know of have no problem with soldiers. It is the bungling idiot politicians that are the problem....conservative AND liberal.

As for flag draped coffins, I believe they SHOULD be shown on the news. What better way for people to see the reality of war and feel the sadness those fallen soldiers' families feel. And what better way is there to spark enough anger in many young men; enough to join the cause themselves. If I saw flag draped coffins on the news of my soldiers and I wasn't involved...it would do something to get me involved.

 

You bet it's not the veterans fault!

In the heat of battle, as in any war, we did fight for ourselves and those around us in the interest of survival. But our reason for being there was far greater than just self preservation! We fought for our country's just cause because that's what they sent us there to do and we felt a sense of duty to do so. There was nothing second rate about that. It was absolutely honorable to do so!

We won every major battle in the entire course of the war including the infamous Tet 1968 battles. We left Viet Nam with our heads up in an orderly manner and were not defeated by any military force. We left following the conclusion of a peace treaty with our enemy which they subsequently blatantly ignored. We, as a nation for political reasons, decided not to provide any further support to our friends in Viet Nam when their enemy, and ours, accelerated their invasion of the South.

Viet Nam was not at all united against us! We were not at all occupying Viet Nam. We were in Viet Nam fighting a war against the spread of Communism in full support of an independent democratic nation of Viet Nam free of colonial rule. We had a great deal of support among people in the South. Many of them fought very hard against the invasion from the North even in the last years, months, and days of the war after we left.

Patrick

 

I like how someone supports you and they get shouded at: "You bet it's not the veterans fault!"

Will your military please come and free us up here in Canada from the spread of socialism and tyranny?

 

I support our President's leadership in the war on terrorism as well as our Congressional approval and funding for it. I'm not going to cheat our troops out of the knowledge that they're fighting a just war for a just cause.

Patrick

 

Believe me, the post to which I responded wasn't made in support of my views!

Never the less, "shouting" about it would have necessitated the use of all capital letters which wasn't the case at all.

Canada needs to take care of its own affairs. Is socialism and tyranny a big problem there now?