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Originally Posted by loquitur
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Lembke addresses these stories in his book, I wish people would read the damn thing. It's so short, hardly take more time than slogging through any number of posts based on supposition on this board...
in any case, I'm not sure if he tackles this specific incident, but I wouldn't be surprised, and he points out a few things...one being the date of this incident...coupled with the dates of returning vets...who some of you may remember were the original agitators of anti-war protests and no love was shown to them by supporters of the war, including various administrations.
but the point is, and that news story itself gives no refutation to this claim so you'll actually have to watch the damn footage for yourself, but that the incidents as Jerry saw the raw footage turned out to be people for the war spitting on war vets! hmm, support for the troops indeed. this gets twisted in our collective conscious into peace activists spitting on vets. which is pretty much horseshit for anyone who can put two and two together and would realize that while vets and peacniks who were lying down in front of buses
coming to drop recruits off, and that in reality war supporters were the ones who unkindly greeted soldiers
returning because they were failures.
now, it's true that college students took it upon themselves to chant at LBJ, hey how many babies did you kill today, and the irony is marked in Lembke's book as a matter of fact for reasons a number of you SHOULD be aware of...but that in no way transposed to the soldiers who were by and large IN COMMUNICATION AND ALLEGIANCE with the anti-war movements.
fuck man, ignorance may be bliss, but why does it take a rocket scientist to remember that the earliest and for a time the only protestors were VETS THEMSELVES....oh primarily because no one even knew were at "war" for a the first few years of the conflict? but oh yes, our soldiers were on a rotation system that was bringing them stateside after a year so obviously large numbers were "in circulation" before the nation even had the realities plastered up on their tellies. that came much later...and THEN moved the populace slowly and kicking and screaming to the realization that our nation had fucked up and that our government had pulled some dasterdly shit...that there really wasn't any good way out. then on to the scapegoating...who to blame...well, not the poor poor mentally scarred vets...who have little rationality left after their sights and sounds (later to blossom into PTSD in the DSM) to be listened to about what they thought of the situation...and surely not the peaceniks who couldn't even have the respect to have love for the brave vets (although, like now, they were the ones making sure the damaged bodies and psyches of their relatives and friends were met with love, support, and flowers at the VA...when even vets from previous wars couldn't find it in themselves to do so)...
I never met Jerry personally, but he is a personal friend of my friend and advisor and chair of the soc dept. from my undergrad education. he's a vet, for what it's worth, and I think I recall he may have been decorated.
he deserves your time of the read, if nothing else. and especially if you are concerned with hearing an actual researched account of this wound on our nation's collective conscious. not that you have to agree with it, but you ought to at least contend with the points he raises.