Man Up

In 1971 John Kerry appeared before a Senate hearing on the Vietnam War and opened with the following paragraph; "I would like to talk on behalf of all those veterans and say that several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged, and many very highly decorated, veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. These were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command. It is impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit - the emotions in the room and the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do." His statement and testimony about war atrocities earned him the title of 'traitor' for the pro-war establishment, who were outraged by his calling US troops 'baby-killers' and the Silent Majority were shocked by his throwing his medals over the White House fence. They demanded an apology from the former Navy officer, since the massacre at My Lai was an isolated incident in the eyes of many Americans rather than a common occurrence in the Pentagon's Scorched Earth strategy against the Viet Cong, their supporters, and the Vietnamese civilians. John Kerry never apologized for his statements, but last week the US Secretary of State phoned fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden to ask him to 'man up' and face the music in the USA. "If Mr. Snowden wants to come back to the United States, we'll have him on a flight today. A patriot would not run away. Eric Snowden said during an NBC interview, "I don't think there's ever been any question that I'd like to go home. Now, whether amnesty or clemency ever becomes a possibility is not for me to say. That's a debate for the public and the government to decide. But, if I could go anywhere in the world, that place would be home." I counsel Mr. Snowden to stay away from this country. The court system is unjust. He will be subjected to abuses same was Peyton Manning, the US solider, who leaked tens of thousands of secret transcripts to the press. 24-hour suicide watch, 24 hour a day lights, stripped naked in a cold room. But these tactics are not torture in the New America. As for Kerry's hypocritical 'man-up' request? Better to be a man elsewhere, because in this country anyone 'manning-up' ends up on a water board or solitary confinement in prison. To read Kerry's full Detroit Statement, please go to this URL http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/VVAW_Kerry_Senate.html