Clipmarks | Vietnam Clips

God, how can the people responsible for this will ever face U?

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 05:26:08 GMT

clipped by: mugofcoffee
clipper's remarks: Suicide among US soldiers to hit new record

By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles

Suicides among serving US soldiers are on course to hit a new record this year and could exceed the rate among the general population for the first time since the Vietnam War, according to Army officials.

By the end of last month, as many as 93 active duty soldiers had killed themselves so far this year, although 31 of those deaths remained under investigation.

If the total is confirmed and the trend continues, the suicide rate among soldiers would exceed that of the general US population for the first time since the Vietnam War, officials said, and top last year's figure of 115, the highest annual toll on record.

"With four months left, we're probably going to surpass 115," Colonel Eddie Stephens, the army's deputy director of human resources policy, told a Pentagon news conference.

The figures were revealed as Army General David Petraeus, America's senior commander in Iraq, recommended delaying troop reductions in Iraq until next year.

Older Vietnamese Americans Suffer Higher Rate of Mental Health Problems

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:38:46 GMT

clipped by: Kelika
clipper's remarks: "Huynh said Vietnamese Americans are wary of seeking help for mental problems because it is seen as taboo and is rarely spoken about.

"It's a struggle," she said. "Seeking help is more of a last resort. They don't do it until they feel so helpless that they don't know where else to go.""

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Vietnamese Americans who came to the United States as political refugees are suffering from higher rates of mental health problems than non-Latino whites, an indication that many Vietnamese Americans are experiencing lingering effects from the Vietnam War, according to a UC Irvine Center for Health Care Policy study.

In the first analysis of its kind for Vietnamese Americans in California, researchers found that Vietnamese Americans over 55 were twice as likely as whites to report needing mental health care, but were less likely to discuss such issues with their doctors.

In general, Vietnamese Americans have assimilated quickly in the United States and have achieved success in business, education and politics. The study offers a contrasting view of the tough adjustments refugees have endured.

Many Vietnamese American refugees are suffering from problems related to traumatic experiences fleeing the Communist government after the 1975 fall of Saigon

Tags: mental health, vietnam

McCain's Mental Status and Palin's Education

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:59:02 GMT

clipped by: lifecyce1898
clipper's remarks: Is this true.
Is that why they were so protective of his medical records?

Clip Source: www.ireport.com

I can't imagine a person, who just two months ago did not know what a vice president of the United States of America did; as stated my Sarah Palin.

Video Link

Now, I know that when Mccain was under pressure,he attempted suicide twice and his campaign refused to release the 1500 pages of medical records. Is Mccain still taking psychiatric medication for his post-traumatic stress disorder? Can he relapse under pressure? Will he want to end his life again for the third time? This scares me a bit also! I have some comfort about Mccain's experience but his mental state/condition worries me. Is Senator McCain's mind still in Vietnam? He talks so much about war, I just wonder about him. I respect his fight for our country, but I just hope, if elected, he can leave his past behind, especially his post traumatic issues.

Republican Convention Disrespects Afghanistan Veterans

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 03:07:11 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud
clipper's remarks: Republicans just disrespect all troops.

Clip Source: www.vetvoice.com

by: Brandon Friedman

Thu Sep 04

On September 11, 2001, terrorists based out of Afghanistan attacked the United States. Our troops have been fighting there for nearly seven years, and the war is now escalating. In that time, 582 Americans have died there.

Yet, during the Republican National Convention, when it came time to honor the wartime sacrifices Americans have made overseas, the Party chose to focus on John McCain's Vietnam experience instead. In fact, the word "Afghanistan" was never mentioned by any of the speakers. But McCain's time in Vietnam was referenced a whopping 20 times. Progressive Accountability has the numbers.

Number of times McCain's time in Vietnam mentioned at the Republican National Convention: 20

Number of times Afghanistan mentioned at the Republican National Convention: 0

pretty disgusting. Vietnam was over 35 years ago. Americans are dying in Afghanistan right now. These people couldn't care less about the troops fighting the Real Global War on Terror.

Tags: john mccain, afghanistan, rnc

Records show McCain was NO Hero

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:46:29 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Here's some readin for all you hero worshippers to chew on. See the truth about this war criminal for once. Even as he was bein shot down he made sure he delivered his bombs on the people of Vietnam ...and got a medal for it. urrrrg.

Clip Source: www.pensitoreview.com

Do internet news sites and blogs go over the top in questioning John McCain’s
military record? It seems that more and more groups are questioning whether or
not his record is worthy of the praise he’s receiving:

McCain’s military record is fair game The War Secrets Sen. John McCain Hides

FACT SHEET: Military record of John Sidney McCain III

McCain’s Military Record Shows He Is Unfit To Be President

McCain’s Secret, Questionable Record

Flummoxed By Vietnam Vet, McCain Falsely Claims He ‘Received Every Awars…

McCain’s military record

Is McCain’s War Record Fair Game?

Does John McCain’s Military Record Really Qualify Him to Be President?

McCain’s Spotty Military Record Is Declared Off the Table - And Obama Appears to Accede

Clip Source: enewsreference.wordpress.com

Analysis: Privilege and Arrogance, McCain's Annapolis Years

John McCain's Military Record

McCain's Military Record Shows He Is Unfit To Be President

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:35:06 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Listen to the audio--very telling

Clip Source: www.forandagainst.com

[Video]

McCain claims that he was tortured while in custody. There were no other American witnesses to this torture and some former POWs doubt that it happened at all. In fact, McCain himself admitted in a 1973 interview with the magazine US News and World Report that he volunteered to give military information in return for medical treatment, even before being subjected to any torture.

Bear in mind that McCain’s medals were awarded for resisting torture. Yet where was the resistance? Perhaps it is this gulf between the perception and the reality of John McCain that explains why so many Vietnam veterans’ groups openly despise him.

However much pity we might feel for a prisoner of war subjected to such intense pressures, the record is clear : McCain was no war hero. He was, rather, a coward, an incompetent, a collaborator and a traitor.

McCain acceptance speech: I WAS A POW

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:57:38 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "And I have the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not." How would he help poor people? "I will keep taxes low...My opponent will raise them." And then bemoans "partisan rancor." And the crowd breaks into a chant of "Drill, baby, drill!"
This is a snow job if ever one has been foisted upon America. Give 'em answers that do nothing and make 'em feel patriotic about entropy.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

McCain Uses His Big Speech to Give Us a Tour of His Vietnamese Prison Cell

Number of sentences in John McCain's acceptance speech about his experience as a POW in Vietnam: 43.

Number of sentences about his 25 years in the House and Senate: 8.

The convention ended as it began: a commemoration of McCain's hellish years in a Hanoi prison cell four decades ago. The political equation was a simple one: POW equals patriotic hero equals a fighting president. Before McCain walked down the long runway at St. Paul's Xcel Center, a baritone voice declared over the P.A., "When you've lived in a box .... you put your people first." Case closed.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

And for McCain, it was on to the final battle, the old soldier, faith-tested and faith-proved, accompanied by a stylish hockey mom representing small-town goodness -- against those whose mettle have not been tested, whose love of country has not been tested, whose America is rather different from the America of the Republican convention.

Tags: mccain

McCain: Infallible POW

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:02:39 GMT

clipped by: lap322

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

John McCain was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He is therefore infallible, untouchable, bulletproof, and a genius in all matters of foreign policy.

It is well known that anyone who was a prisoner of war instantly has special knowledge of all matters dealing with foreign countries. Everyone knows that.

Even in the face of absurdly untrue and factually incorrect statements, no one can question the foreign policy credentials of a man tortured as a prisoner of war.

There is a magic transformation that occurs when someone is tortured in a foreign country by a foreigner who speaks a foreign language.

All that exposure to foreign-ness makes a person instantly brilliant when it comes to all things foreign. Like foreign policy. Like foreign movies. Like foreign restaurants.

“Muerte de un Miliciano” cumple hoy 72 años

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:17:35 GMT

clipped by: osserco

Clip Source: blog.florez.eu

Robert Capa (Budapest, Hungría, 22 de octubre de 1913 - Thai Binh, Vietnam, 25 de mayo de 1954. ), padre del fotoperiodismo, hizo su foto más famosa, “Muerte de un Miliciano”, el 5 de septiembre de 1936, en Cerro Muriano, en el frente de Córdoba.

Reproducida en la mayoría de los libros sobre la Guerra civil, su autenticidad ha sido puesta en cuestión por diversos expertos. A pesar de que un historiador local de Alcoi puso nombre al miliciano, Federico Borrell García, miliciano anarquista, el documental “La sombra del iceberg” (2007) desmonta dicha atribución de identidad con testigos, médicos forenses y documentos del archivo local de Alcoi, asimismo, muestra lo inconsistente de dicha tesis y aporta nuevas fotos de la secuencia del miliciano que avalan la tesis de la puesta en escena, así como la posibilidad de que la instantánea no la tomara Capa sino su mujer.

McCain's hero aura inoculates him against critics

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:02:33 GMT

clipped by: lifecyce1898

Clip Source: m.apnews.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — How dare you say that about John McCain, war hero?

That, in so many words, is the line of counterattack coming from Republicans who only four years ago dismissed the war service of another decorated Vietnam veteran with his own story of bravery.

Think McCain owns too many houses to relate to the common American? Not fair — he lived in a North Vietnam cell for 5½ years. How dare you?

Question his temperament or his temper? Look what he's lived through.

Yet McCain stands accused of lapses of judgment, moral failings and selfishness. He's been called "dishonest" and a "coward" for putting political expedience ahead of principle in the 2000 campaign, during the debate over the Confederate flag. And it's been said that Hanoi really didn't change the kind of person he was.

US Military Deaths, Just a Number

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:54:48 GMT

clipped by: Imnclady
clipper's remarks: Only, declined, the casualties first suffered, since, the latest, at least 4,153, since....2003

These words used in the article seem to detach themselves from the fact that "our " brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, husbands, and friends are being killed in a war with Iraq.

It makes me think that people may be viewing this as just " war " and maybe compared to " the Vietnam War " and not as " the war on terrorism " or " the fight for freedom."

Maybe " that " is why people protest this war, not against the soldiers that are led there, but " the Politics behind it ".

I may be wrong and you may not care what I think, but I hope " I still have the freedom ", to say it.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

2 US soldiers killed in Baghdad roadside bomb

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed two American soldiers patrolling eastern Baghdad on Thursday, the U.S. military said, announcing the first combat deaths in the capital in a week.

With security vastly improved in Baghdad since the U.S. troop buildup last year, the number of American soldiers killed on the streets of the Iraqi capital has declined sharply.

The casualties were the first suffered by the American military in the capital since Aug. 28 when a soldier was killed in a roadside bombing. Another soldier died Tuesday in Baghdad of non-hostile causes, the military said.

The latest deaths brought to at least 4,153 the number of U.S. military members who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Tags: iraq, deaths, military, usa, american, war on terror, news, reference

GOP Campaign Themes

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:20:45 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud
clipper's remarks: They also find it Very Easy to Condemn those that give Service to Their Lives and Freedoms!

Last election cycle they Laughed at and Mocked the Military Service of one of the Presidential Candidates who Served This Country In Vietnam, just as I Did, and being in the same service branch, the U.S. Navy, they Spit on my Service, All my brother and sister Naval personal who served In-Country, and All the other Service Personal, but most of All, All Those Who Have Served This Country and Received It's Highest Honor For That Service, The Purple Heart!!!

I was waiting to see how they would Slam their Fellow Americans this year. Well they started early, peppering their talking points with the words needed, leading up to their Convention, and Let Both Barrels Go, Loud and Clear!!

Clip Source: www.vetvoice.com

by: jimstaro

Thu Sep 04, 2008

These people have No Self Worth, I'm talking about those that just hang to this imaginary, once proud, Republican Tag. Even still calling themselves Conservative!

They allow themselves to be led around like the robots they've become, and frankly some on the Democratic side are just as willing, but the fall into line and march in lockstep Falls Souly on the GOP!

They've been Silent and Accepting of the Lies that led our Troops into Occupations and All that has come about because of that, the torturing, the no-bid contracts, the corruption, the deaths and maiming' s................................................, and oh so much more!

They've been Silent and Accepting as our Freedoms have been slowly stripped away, and Accepting of Rule by Executive Branch Alone ignoring the fact they have hired others to Represent Them!

GOP Campaign Themes

All Those Who Have Served This Country and Received It's Highest Honor For That Service, The Purple Heart!!!

Tags: troops, speak, out

Republicans Suddenly Agree with Wes Clark on John McCain

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:13:55 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud

Clip Source: www.vetvoice.com

by: Brandon Friedman

Wed Sep 03, 2008

When General Wesley Clark (Ret.) appeared on Face the Nation and stated that John McCain's time as a POW in Vietnam was not a qualification to serve as President, yappers on both sides of the aisle flipped out. As we all remember, it became a media hyperventorama. And it was all unwarranted.

It's nice to see then, that for some reason, the Republican Party has suddenly decided that it agrees with General Clark's assessment:

[Video]

Yes, that's former Senator and failed presidential candidate Fred Thompson. And yes, during his speech on Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention, he said essentially what Clark said two months earlier.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann also happened to catch Thompson's remark, and he quizzed a confused David Gregory about it:

[Video]

The point is this: People noticed. So, will Fred Thompson be apologizing on Wednesday? Or was Clark right?

Tags: republicans, wes clark, fred thompson

John McCain: A Veteran against Veterans

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:19:13 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks: He takes on the mantle of veteran for political reasons. He's got some nerve accusing Barack Obama of playing politics. That's McCain's M.O. as betrayer MA/POWs and their families so that his father-in-law could sell more beer. I wonder how many houses McCain's back-stabbing bought.

Clip Source: www.capitolhillblue.com

Older veterans remember well how John McCain and John Kerry shut down all further investigation into remaining MIA/POW in order to open up trade with Vietnam over the protests of family members. They remember full well how these families were treated and talked to by McCain. They also remember how John McCain's father-in-law immediately opened up a beer industry in Vietnam as soon as trade resumed

Union Veterans, has this to say about John McCain

Not only has McCain voted the wrong way on veterans' issues - such as opposing increased funding for veterans' health care the last four years in a row - but he also doesn't support middle class people's issues

He wants to tax people's health care benefits, and supports unfair trade deals, including NAFTA." www.unionveterans.org

John McCain runs on a platform of being a vet yet he obviously does not support the needs of veterans. Why support a politician who does not support our troops? Surely, our veterans deserve more than just buffalo chips.

John McCain Record of Vet Support Just Another Buffalo Chip

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:54:17 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks:

McCain voted against increasing VA funding by $1.8 billion by ending abusive tax loopholes [3/10/04]

The man even voted against giving combat duty troops more time at home between extended tours.

John McCain had the gall to not only be rude, but to lie to a vet about his record of endorsements from veteran groups and then had the nerve to refuse further questioning on the issue:

"I’ve been endorsed in every election by every veterans organization that do that, I’ve been supported by them, and I’ve received their highest awards from all of those organizations. So I guess they don’t know something you know."

Later, during his town hall meeting, McCain admitted he does “not have a perfect voting record,” and then announced questions about veterans issues were off limits: “I will be glad to debate a lot of things, but not that one,”

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/08/mccain-veteran...

Clip Source: www.capitolhillblue.com

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America has given John McCain a grade of D for his support of veterans: www.iava.org/full-ratings-list

Disabled Veterans of America gave him a 20% rating on support for veterans while giving Obama an 80% rating: www.capwiz.com/dav/scorecard.xc

Per Vietnam Veterans of America John McCain has “voted against us” in 15 key votes: www.vva.capwiz.com/election/home/

John McCain is one of the few veterans running for office that VoteVets has refused to endorse: www.votevets.org

Another veteran group keeps track and offers links to McCain's history of votes against veteran care: www.veteransforcommonsense.org

To name just a few votes by John McCain against veterans:

McCain voted against an amendment providing $20 billion for VA medical facilities [5/4/06]

McCain voted against providing $430 million to the VA for outpatient care and treatment for veterans [4/26/06]

McCain voted against increasing VA funding by $1.5 billion by closing corporate loopholes [3/14/06]