Hi Zoomy,

I'm a Navy vet, and so feel I have earned the right to respond. This has nothing to do with vets having a unique right to voice an opinion. Most vets don't feel particularly privileged because they served. Feeling priviliged would go against the constitution we swore to defend on the day we signed up.

I know of only one or two veterans who feel that his service uniquely qualifies him for anything more than a free visit to the local VA hospital. This vet, and few of his buddies are trying to stifle dissent by claiming a unique privilege, and have thus tarred the rest of us.

The rest of the vets who are now saying that they have "earned the right" are merely responding (with a nuanced sarcasm) to this one vet who feels particularly privileged because of his 4 months in a war zone. The vets don't mean to imply that you don't have the same rights. Every one of them (the guys at least) would rather give up a left testicle than see what is happening now. The crux of the Constitution is in the words from the Declaration of Independence -- "All men are created equal." This country is founded on the notion that in a free society no man has special privilege due to his birth or office. If veterans were to derive a special privilege then we have fought in vain.

What you are seeing on the Internet and airwaves, are veterans fighting a new battle, with words not guns. One of our "brothers" has forgotten that being a veteran does not give him any special privilege or unique qualifications for anything. It is up to us to remind him of that.

What the Dems don't understand about this whole veteran thing, is that Kerry, by claiming special privilege, is making us all look bad. When the Dems call pro-war non-vets "chicken hawks" they are denigrating the service of every man and woman who has put his or her life on the line for the last 200-plus years protecting this country and its citizens. Every time a Dem claims that someone has special privilege because of their service that Dem is showing disrespect for the Constitution and all those who have given up their lives defending it.

Unfortunately, vets who are pro-war must make claim to our veteran status so that we can overcome the cries of "chicken hawk." Hopefully, in November we will be able to go back into hiding.

The only thing us vets ask from you is that every once in awhile you listen to one of our war stories. And that you listen to it intently, even if you've heard it before.

Incredibly well stated.

Perfect.

There are two conversations going on, ZB. There is the one, political discussion, all Americans are, heck everybody in the world is taking part in.
In that conversation you and all Americans have a God-given right to participate.
There is another conversation going on, though, at the same time. This conversation is a little bit different. It is more or more or less the same as the conversation at the, say, national convention of brain surgeons. I would still have the God-given right to speak, I simply wouldn't have a whole lot to say. There are simply millions of examples of the latter conversations.
It is, perhaps, the wrong way to put it, except that we have some very well-known and powerful political figures, coughMcCaincough, telling us that not only should veterans not speak but that THEY WILL SPEAK FOR US.
In my imaginary brain surgeon convention there will be speakers, the program will list the degrees earned, the articles and books written, awards granted, stuff like that, not to proove the speaker's first Amendment right but to proove the that the speaker knows what (s)he is talking about.
The second conversation is not political, it's about the nature of one guy's wartime performance, not just shooting skills but the nature of honor, the relationship between the leaders and the led, the bond of trust that must exist, the love between brothers in arms, the questions of loyalty, the very nature of duty, the debt we owe to the fallen and the families of those fallen and a host of other issues.
There is a whole lot of that stuff being discussed. When we say we've 'earned' the right to speak what we are really doing is to list our qualifications just like the brain surgeons do.
In this particular conversation there are a lot of people talking who should be using another God-given right, the right to shut up. CoughLannyDaviscoughJamesCarvillecoughTomHarkincoughGeorgeWBushcough.
Ever say something during a bitter argument between two people you know and they both turn and say 'this is between us'? That's what's going on here. John Kerry slimed my good name for political gain. Worse he slimed the names of every single man who died in that war. He did so with lies, knowing that he was lying. He, more than any other single human being, is responsible for the cloud that hangs over every single name carved in that black granite in Washington, DC.
Some of those names belong to men I served with and bled with and, yes, cried with. Some of those names belong to men that have, off and on, visited my dreams for almost forty years. Two of those names belonged to men whose families I was privileged to do one of the hardest things I've ever done, visited and gone to their graves to pray with their families. I should have visited more, I'm not that strong, to my shame. Ever sat in a living room and have children staring the unspoken question of 'why are you here and not my Daddy?' Ever have a mother thank you for lying to her, telling her that her boy died instantly? He didn't. A piece of shrapnel hit a white phosphorus grenade on his webgear and he died screaming after Doc put every morphine ampule in the whole platoon in him. It didn't stop the pain until it stopped his heart. On his twelfth day incountry. He'd never fired his rifle except to zero it in on the base camp's range. He was eighteen.
That was one of John Kerry's murdering rapists.
You have the right to speak but this one is between us. I've got a little score to settle. I've made a little list, not very long, only 58,000, families on it. When The Hee-row has been to each of those families to beg their forgiveness for the lies that he told about their son, or father or brother, then it will be your turn.