Sunday, October 24, 2004

George Butler sues Sinclair over anti-kerry doc

for using footage of his Kerry documentary Upriver: The Long Road of John Kerry without permission; story can be found here.

The paired-down Sinclair documentary, is rumoured to have had little or no teeth to it anyway by the time they finally editted it for air last Friday; this is not in the least bit surprising since those poor misguided POWS and Swift Boat Vet/Kerry detractors are very bitter for one reason and one reason only, and that is because a war hero had the stones to speak out about the atrocities that happened during the war and to draw attention to the futility of the Vietnam war and to plead to have it ended as quickly as possible.

BTW Kerry was testifying about these accounts provided by and on behalf of hundreds of tormented veterans who desperately needed to bear witness to what they had seen and in many cases, participated in Vietnam, but (at least originally) that little minor detail was purposefully editted out of the original documentary Stolen Honor to make it look as though Kerry was presenting this as firsthand witnessed accounts.

I will give these men, who have come forward with these bitter complaints, the benefit of the doubt that they are sincere and not politically motivated... although that is really hard for me to believe at times when I watch the way this whole sordid episode has been handled. But I believe that they are ABSOLUTELY misguided and have wrongly smeared the name of a man, who ONLY intended to end the war more quickly to get them home. Kerry's point then as well as now, was that the ultimate responsibility for all that happened in Vietnam was the United States government and the entire approach that they took in handling it.

To deny that atrocities happened in Vietnam is simply unconscionable. My Lai happened and it was not an isolated incident. To hold ANYONE accountable for what may have gone on in the POW camps, simply because they followed their conscience by speaking out about those atrocities and to urge that that disastrous war come to end as quickly as possible, is simply wrongheaded.

It is, in my estimation, an incredible assertion to make that in order to support our troops, we cannot call for the end of an unjust war, and furthermore, if acts of atrocity are committed and we know of them it is absolutely unconscionable to keep silent. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that these men really and truly believe that John Kerry ever intended any harm to come to them. If in fact it is true that the POWs that have spoken out, were further tortured because John Kerry testified about the war, are they really and truly saying that he is to blame for this? Are they really and truly saying that he should never have spoken out about the atrocities and the need to end the Vietnam war immediately?

The answer appears to be that this is exactly what they believe. I pray for them; I feel for them; I regret any suffering they ever had to endure during that horrible war and any suffering they endured once they came home. I know well, that once many of our brave vets came home they were disdained and mistreated. That is an additional shame upon our country; many were outraged by the TRUE accounts of atrocities in Vietnam; many were angry over the futility and unjustness of that war.

But to take it out on our vets was absolutely wrong, and all Americans owe our vets an apology for that.

If we have learned nothing else from Vietnam, I do believe that we have at least learned this and that is why so many of us can say with complete honesty that we love our troops and we support them! But part of that support is in fact to speak out against unjust wars when they happen and to call for their return at the first possible moment.

But while America owes this to our Vietnam vets, John Kerry does NOT because he supported them from the beginning and the testimony he gave was IN SUPPORT OF THESE VETS and POWs. That this can be so (deliberately?) misunderstood is beyond me because it flies in the face of the facts of that complete testimony. To misunderstand this, is to deliberately turn a deaf ear to what John Kerry said and the reasons he had for leading a Vietnam Vet-backed Anti-War movement.

The unyielding truth is that it would be unconscionable for any of us to deny what happened in Vietnam. Atrocities on both sides happened. That is a simple, documented fact. And we must, each and every one of us, own up to that fact. No healing will ever begin until we can do that. It is clear, that for many, this healing has, even after 35 years, not yet begun. And I fear that this is one of the many reasons, that we find ourselves polarized over and in a state of deja vu regarding our situation in Iraq right now.

It is ironic, indeed and one of the great tragedies of our nation, that we still have not learned the lessons of Vietnam, nor have we truly been healed from the devastating wounds that each of us carry from that terrible time.

I don't believe that it is an accident that John Kerry is our democratic candidate for President at this moment in history. John Kerry is a man of real integrity and real courage. At this critical moment in time, I cannot think of a better qualified man to be our President and to navigate us through the treacherous waters we now find ourselves in.
Posted by etherealfire :: 3:57 AM :: 0 Comments:

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