Forget your salad days, John Kerry.

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i don't think it's necessarily accurate/reasonable to compare veterans of world war II with veterans of viet nam. the times were dramatically different, the mood of the country was dramatically different, the nature of the conflict was dramatically different.

i believe the experience of conflict was likely much the same, but the world that veterans came back to from those conflicts were completely different. i think just as many veterans of world war II suffered post traumatic stress - my dad among them - but in those times, you simply did not talk about it, you bottle it up. as my father did for fifty years, before alzheimers slowly opened back up the memories, and he suffered terribly for several years from that. after viet nam, it was the middle of the seventies - get in touch with yourself, express yourself, share your pain - these were expected. the problem was, when they did, there was great disdain for them, because of the great disdain for the war.



i don't think viet nam vets 'whine' about their experiences. a great many *were* treated like crap after the war. john kerry's testimony to congress after the war could easily have been seen as a betrayal - treason if you will, though that's not really accurate.



i'm rambling again. i definitely think this current brouhaha needs to fall to page 16, and fast, otherwise, well, the voters may *stay home* in droves.

[anastrophe]

on that last, i am in complete agreement.