I am often asked what Vietnam was like.?

The war ended 37 years ago, brother. You got to let it go. I was a medic, and yes, it was one massive circle jerk from beginning to end. Hard to let go - but we must.

I talked to a Marine Vietnam vet in the grocery store today. As he said we were all wounded ... in the head. These photos bring back old memories, some good, some bad. As the guy at the grocery store said, "We kicked *** (tail)."

There aren't many of us who think war is good. Our war taught us that you could win the war and still lose.

It's better that sh!t like Romney and Bush didn't serve with us.

Sometimes, I see the news where a town has given a parade for vets returning from Iraq or A'stan and I wonder why there were no parades for our sorry butts. If they offered me a parade now, I think I would just spit on them.

War sucks.

Thank you for your service...

I believe (Well, I wasn`t alive then, so I cannot imagine what it was like with all the anti-war protests, etc) that Vietnam definitely had a bad situation, but I really don`t think that we should`ve just barged into their troubles.

And our men served....and got nothing in return. Just hate. Which just isn`t right. They deserve(ed) recognition.

Why would a soldier or veteran vote for a draft-dodging, chicken hawk like Romney?

While Vietnam veterans were risking their lives, Romney was in France, converting Catholics into Mormons. As a freshman at Stanford University, he picketed anti-war activists but used college and ministerial deferments to avoid the draft.

To be clear, I DID NOT WANT ROMNEY TO SERVE. If I had been drafted, I would have gone to Canada rather than kill patriots opposing a puppet regime imposed by the French Foreign Legion.

George F. Kennan, dean of US diplomats and architect of “containment”, opposed the war.

In his 1995 memoire, “In Retrospect”, former Secretary of DOD Robert MacNamara, who managed the war for seven years and knew the historical background, admitted that the war had always been “…wrong, terribly wrong…”

In Eisenhower’s memoire, “Mandate for Change”, he admitted that the CIA told him that, if the UN elections had been allowed, Ho Chi Minh would get 80% of the votes.

Those elections had to be stopped and Eisenhower stopped them. US high school graduates were drafted to keep them stopped. At first, Romney thought that “somebody else, not me” should do the stopping. When the war became unpopular, Romney’s father, Michigan Governor George Romney, turned against it and Mitt followed suit. He is a wet thumb held up to the wind. “Maximize profit, by hook or crook” is his only core belief.

Everybody who opposed the war was right, including Clinton. Everybody who supported it was wrong, including Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and both Bushes. Carter’s opinion at that time is not clear but he pardoned all draft-evaders.

MY BEEF WITH ROMNEY is that he supported the war as long as others did the fighting while he took deferments to avoid service. If he had kept his mouth shut, I would do the same.

Also, Romney LIED about his deferments to enhance his political profile. From Steve Peoples in “Huff Post”:

As a presidential candidate in 2007, Romney told The Boston Globe he was frustrated, as a Mormon missionary, not to be fighting alongside his countrymen… "I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam."

But the frustration he recalled in 2007 does not match a sentiment he shared as a Massachusetts Senate candidate in 1994, when he told The Boston Herald, "I was not planning on signing up for the military…It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft," Romney told the newspaper.

But that's exactly what Romney did, according Selective Service records. He received his first deferment for "activity in study" in October 1965 while at Stanford.

And now this neocon chicken hawk wants to send our troops back into Iraq and stay in Afghanistan forever. Romney is a “defense Keynesian”. Deficit spending on defense contracts is great for his portfolio but deficit spending on roads and bridges will raise his taxes and might restore the economy before the election and make Obama look too good.

Post-script: To those who question my military service, my YA profile is open for viewing. I don’t hide behind an avatar like you cowards. My troop (140 men, full strength) lost 36 dead in 11 months of combat from Utah Beach to VE-day. My ASN is 16 145 161. Look it up.

I honor all who served, including those who were conned or drafted into an unjust war and are really victims of chicken hawks in both parties. I have had my fill of chicken hawks encouraging high school graduates to fight an unjust war while they concentrate on their college education and careers, scum like Dick Cheney, who had “higher priorities”.