SV Millard: Iraq veteran in Vietnam
Geof “Stolen Valor” Millard has a story up on the IVAW website which chronicles his latest adventure to Vietnam, entitled “My part in a veterans deligation [sic] to Vietnam“. Millard is famous for his trips to places like Hugo Chavez’ Venezuela to denigrate America. Now he goes to Vietnam with VVAW and VFP members to trot out his biases and blow his own horn;
Virtnam may seem an odd place for an Iraq vet whose parents had not even met when the last US forces retreated in defeat hanging from helicopters, but somehow I was the perfect peice to complete a very complicated puzle. You see there are many conections to be made between the two wars but I was there because both were toxic battlefields that left veteran and civillian alike scared for many generations.
I guess he doesn’t have spell check on his computer;
I was amazed to see vterans of both sides share war storries as easily as stories of thier children, most of whom are many years my elder. These vets also share disseases that are just as much the legacy of Vietnam as is that black mirrored wall on the north west side of our national mall, just to the left of lincolns feet.
My thoughts offten wandered forward in time to the day when I would go to Iraq. When I would meet with my former foe. When I would help press my government to take resposability and provide relief for the toxic battlefield we have been creating seince the first gulf war.
Millard had an enemy in Iraq other than boredom? He was a general’s gopher. He spent his whole time in Iraq trying to get back to the States because he had an owie in his back (that he admits he had since high school).
Depleted uranium is killing our soldiers in Iraq & Afghanistan.
We must fight for compensation and treatment before thousands die from DU as they did from AO. We must link our struggle for justice with that of those left alive in the toxic battlefieds that we are now slowly pulling out of.
There it is – the IVAW is going to try to copy the Vietnam War veterans by pushing this absolutely ridiculous depleted uranium canard. That’s all they have and if you don’t believe them they’ll wave the Agent Orange bloody shirt.
I’m proud of my trip and I am proud of the work done by VVAW, VFP, and IVAW. I am proud that while some spend thier time protesting antiwar veterans, we the antiwar vterans are hard at work for peace and justice for all.
“Hard at work” only if it involves completely ridiculous trips to communist countries to push an agenda that doesn’t help American veterans. Then swat at ghosts of completely manufactured maladies.
I guess he’s saying that the American Legion and VFW are “protesting antiwar veterans” but if he’s trying to say that IVAW has done more more for veterans than the traditional VSOs because they took this one useless trip, he’s fooling himself.
In fact, maybe IVAW can stop pushing their “Veterans as sociopathic nuts” meme to help fix this problem;
“Part of the issue is there’s a real disconnect between the military and the rest of America,” said Mark Walker, deputy director of the American Legion’s economic division.
“People outside the military don’t know about PTSD or TBI. It’s all new to them. So they worry, ‘Am I going to see some sort of outburst? What might he do?’”
How about fixing that, Geoff, instead of flying to Vietnam to take shots at us!
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Phony soldiers, Usual Suspects
Can’t say I agree with your apparent dismissal of Agent Orange and DU issues as ‘manufactured maladies’, but there is NO doubt that the IVAW, et al, have helped perpetuate a mythos that is as damaging to current veterans as it was to an earlier generation.
I can understand their position though… it simply boils down to an attempt to justify themselves. It’s schoolyard stuff.
For the record, I don’t think I “dismissed” Agent Orange. I do however dispute that DU is causing the damage IVAW has claimed, based purely on the availability of armored targets.
In an early post, I wrote about an IVAW member who charged that the US was disposing of it’s spent nuclear fuel by firing it off around Iraq – absolutely ridiculous. As proof, this particular member told us we should do our own research – probably because he didn’t have any proof and he knew none of us woudl do our own – just take his stupid word for it.
DU rounds are killing people. The ones in our crosshairs.
Eh, I said apparent dismissal.
There is a broader truth here worth some amplification, I think.
Some folks were certainly impacted by Agent Orange, in particular, there’s little doubt about that. Then it it fell under the purview of well meaning bureaucrats and was expanded.
Something similar appears to have happened with DU/bug bites, etc.
The tricky bit is that next step… When agenda driven folks get hold of the idea everybody gets painted with the same brush.
The IVAW, et al, fall into that category because it fits their infantile perception of themselves.