Thread: Yes...I'm a hippie and proud of it.

Yes...I'm a hippie and proud of it.

Remember bra and draft card burning? Remember "make love not war..."? Remember "PEACE OUT...?" Remember stand up againt..."The Man...?"

We may not have understood what was going on but we knew it was going the wrong way and tried to stand up against. Our rebellion tactic...long hair, flowers and smoking pot in peaceful groups.

Yes there were a few idiots that improperly acted...like disrespecting the military and there was some hair pulling over that. It was not the military that was at fault...but many did not understand back then so they lashed out at the military (glad I was not a part of that movment). We have the exact same war going on now and no one knows what to do about it but at least they are not disrespecting the boys like America did to the Vietnam kids.

It may not seem much now...but we tried to stop what was going on by pointing it out. I held out hope that when "my" generation came into power that things would change.

Well...they have.

I am sorry for what my generation is doing. This kind of sell out is beyond my imagination.

hardline, I am 42, and my husband 59, he was one of those Vietnam veterans. Returned home to Chicago and went to the restrooms to change out of uniform as fast as he could, but was yet noticed and had verbal assaults lobbed at him, he was just a crypotgrapher in the Air Force.

His nightmares have dogged our life together, coupled with the fact that he felt so ashamed and unwanted, he never sought help for the damge inflicted on his mind, from the things he went through and witnessed (almost daily attacks on their communication base, and seeing a friend blown up).

However, it was not just your generation that protested the troops in Vietnam, it was people like his own father too. Why, I do not know.

In that hippy generation, I had some great young teachers in school. Very good, tuned in, caring, kid oriented teachers who were living their ideals. So not all from that generation was bad, just the way things were dealt with at the time. We're all human and have to learn the hard way, what is the right path to be on, you did, and hopefully many more did, and if not yet, will (they say it is never too late).

I have so much respect for our troops, for their dedication to our country and their willingness to fight in wars that many do not believe in, but do so for the belief they have in our country.

My dad was in Vietnam, and from the time we were kids, my mom told us we were never allowed to ask my dad about the war. As a matter of fact, she told us to never say the word "Vietnam" in front of him. As kids, we just never really understood, but being "good" kids, we just did as we were told and never talked about it in front of him. Now I am an adult, and that rule still applies. I asked my mom before what happened to my dad, or what he went thru, and she said she didn't want to talk about it and not to ask him about it either. To me, its incredibly sad to imagine what he may have seen or did in Vietnam. I want to know so badly, but respect the fact that he chooses not to discuss it.

I am still brought to tears when I hear the National Anthem, I smile with pride when I see the American flag, and I thank service members when I see them in public.

And to think of how many troops are overseas fighting right now. Right now. And then to think of what is going on here right now, how the very core of America is slipping away....well it's just very very sad.

Originally Posted by AmericanElizabeth

hardline, I am 42, and my husband 59, he was one of those Vietnam veterans. Returned home to Chicago and went to the restrooms to change out of uniform as fast as he could, but was yet noticed and had verbal assaults lobbed at him, he was just a crypotgrapher in the Air Force.

His nightmares have dogged our life together, coupled with the fact that he felt so ashamed and unwanted, he never sought help for the damge inflicted on his mind, from the things he went through and witnessed (almost daily attacks on their communication base, and seeing a friend blown up).

I was in the 1st Recon Bn, Charlie company, US Marine Corp. and served in Hau Doc, Vietnam as well. I can distinctly remember how the country I put my life on the line turned on us all. None of us wanted to be there and none of us agreed with the war but we did our job to serve our country, a country that we thought we could depend on that turned on us when we got home. I know I will never forget but have moved on. That experience did change my life for ever.

However, it is really tough to see the same country doing the same thing to its own people again right here on our own soil. Thank goodness he nightmares of Vietnam have long sense gone, but the nightmare of this country falling into the hand of socialists are causing new nightmares. When will the people of this country learn who the real enemy are?

bigtex, it is odd to me, that with some, they were able to put the nightmares behind them, but for others, like my husband, they could not. Although, with years they have lessened, at last the waking nightmare issues, the hunkering down in the closet thinking we were in an air raid, has finally abated (this was brought on by having to deal with my oldest daughters kitten having been hit in the road, and he took care of it, that set it off).

I think the way people treated returning vets was appalling. It is no wonder so many struggled with drug and alcohol abuse and homelessness. I would have to hope that many who did protest, have changed their ways and now see what is right.

Anytime someone serves this nation in honor, and does what they are told, and follows through, they should be respected and thanked.

Originally Posted by bigtex

Originally Posted by AmericanElizabeth

hardline, I am 42, and my husband 59, he was one of those Vietnam veterans. Returned home to Chicago and went to the restrooms to change out of uniform as fast as he could, but was yet noticed and had verbal assaults lobbed at him, he was just a crypotgrapher in the Air Force.

His nightmares have dogged our life together, coupled with the fact that he felt so ashamed and unwanted, he never sought help for the damge inflicted on his mind, from the things he went through and witnessed (almost daily attacks on their communication base, and seeing a friend blown up).

I was in the 1st Recon Bn, Charlie company, US Marine Corp. and served in Hau Doc, Vietnam as well. I can distinctly remember how the country I put my life on the line turned on us all. None of us wanted to be there and none of us agreed with the war but we did our job to serve our country, a country that we thought we could depend on that turned on us when we got home. I know I will never forget but have moved on. That experience did change my life for ever.

However, it is really tough to see the same country doing the same thing to its own people again right here on our own soil. Thank goodness he nightmares of Vietnam have long sense gone, but the nightmare of this country falling into the hand of socialists are causing new nightmares. When will the people of this country learn who the real enemy are?

First Bigtex, thankyou for your service to this nation. My Uncles were there too. Except one who was lucky enough to draw stateside duty.

There are a lot of us who have been and are aware of what has been happenning for years. I too have been like a Paul Revere trying to warn the people of impending doom, only to see them roll over and go back to sleep. I have noticed as of late, that the people are finally waking up and wiping the sleep out of their eyes. And I always go back to it even with the coordinator of our local Tea Party. And she even agreed that if I would have said anything like this 10 years to her and her husband, they would have labelled me a kook.

What the people have done is to wait until they have been herded into the chute to slaughterhouse and noooooooowwwwwwwwww they want to stop it. At least they are doing something now though.

What I worry about, is if we finally get this sorted out, how long before people will put the blinders on and go back to sleep.

Originally Posted by AmericanElizabeth

bigtex, it is odd to me, that with some, they were able to put the nightmares behind them, but for others, like my husband, they could not. Although, with years they have lessened, at last the waking nightmare issues, the hunkering down in the closet thinking we were in an air raid, has finally abated (this was brought on by having to deal with my oldest daughters kitten having been hit in the road, and he took care of it, that set it off).

I think the way people treated returning vets was appalling. It is no wonder so many struggled with drug and alcohol abuse and homelessness. I would have to hope that many who did protest, have changed their ways and now see what is right.

Anytime someone serves this nation in honor, and does what they are told, and follows through, they should be respected and thanked.

AmericanElizabeth, I guess I am blessed to have been able to move on. I was lucky to be able to immediately absorbed my life with sports career when I got back. I was able to use sports to keep me going. I competed for 27 years and late in the career I started coaching sports. I guess it took me that long to heal. The same sports career that helped me heal helped me to find my wife. While that experience so many years ago has never left my mind, I have been able to make peace with it. However, I still get pretty angry about the whole thing from time to time. From the way this country used young lives for political purposes and the way Americans treated those of us who had no choice but to serve our country. Those of us who returned are blessed. We all need to remember that we served our country bravely and didn't turn tail and run like cowards to Canada like too many of our critics.

Originally Posted by Hylander_1314

First Bigtex, thankyou for your service to this nation. My Uncles were there too. Except one who was lucky enough to draw stateside duty.

Welcome! I just hope all the lives that have been given to insure that this is a free country have not been for nothing. Watching the Obama administration quickly turning this country into a communist nation is certainly not comforting.

Wow...interesting posts. Heartfelt sentiments.

I was a draft lotto kid. The two years they drew numbers. My friends told me..."dude if you don't get called..don't go..." It was so hard watching friends and family go to Nam while I sat and wondered.

The anger was the worst. The flag burning protest and disrespect of the military. I knew that was wrong and did not take part in it. In fact it cost me a few fights...I WON...but I was younger then. They were right to appose the war...but they tired to take it out on the wrong people. It was not the Flag, America or the soldiers...it was the government. The same bunch of crooks we have in power today.

One man that did not win was my best friend...one of the guys who's advise I heeded when my number was not drawn. He came home on leave...from a second tour...a gunner on a helicopter...

We went out to dinner together and we're talking and he suddenly told me he was upping again... I was in shock. I though he was done and made it out alive. I was one of his best friends and he looked me in the eye and said "Steve...I could walk around this table and slit your throat and walk away like it was nothing..." I laughed for a minute thinking he was joking...he never cracked a smile. We talked a bit more but bottom line was he could never come back again and he wanted to die over there. He went back and did not survive his third tour of duty...still on the gun ship...just about the most dangerous of all places to be.

I talked to his parents about it before he died. I asked why they did not do something...file a complaint...have him committed or brought home. They said there was nothing they could do. I think he told them the same thing he told me.

I can't tell you about the horror of war or what it was like to be there but I have more of these stories from my friends that were there...or are planted there and here. Some times I wish I could tell the stories but I took the advise of my friends and stayed home. But I can tell you what it was like here. And I can tell you that what is happening today is just the same for the men and women "fighting" this same political bull crap war over seas now. It is just as wrong now as it was then. Political war profiteering. My friends died so that this administration can usurp our constitution and give America away to the Unilaterals and UN.

This is so wrong today. Millions have died and for what. To let Obama give it all away?

Soon the illegals will be here...in even stronger numbers.

This is chapter 1, and the link will lead to the rest of the chapters from the short book

WAR IS A RACKET
by Two-Time Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
Major General Smedley D. Butler - USMC Retired

About the Author

One of Butler's most widely quoted statements:

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."




CHAPTER ONE
WAR IS A RACKET
Published in 1935

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

And what is this bill?

This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations. For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.

Again they are choosing sides. France and Russia met and agreed to stand side by side. Italy and Austria hurried to make a similar agreement. Poland and Germany cast sheep's eyes at each other, forgetting for the nonce [one unique occasion], their dispute over the Polish Corridor. The assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia [Yugoslavia] complicated matters. Jugoslavia and Hungary, long bitter enemies, were almost at each other's throats. Italy was ready to jump in. But France was waiting. So was Czechoslovakia. All of them are looking ahead to war. Not the people – not those who fight and pay and die – only those who foment wars and remain safely at home to profit.

There are 40,000,000 men under arms in the world today, and our statesmen and diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the making. Hell's bells! Are these 40,000,000 men being trained to be dancers?

Not in Italy, to be sure. Premier Mussolini knows what they are being trained for. He, at least, is frank enough to speak out. Only the other day, Il Duce in "International Conciliation," the publication of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said:

"And above all, Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace... War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the people who have the courage to meet it."

Undoubtedly Mussolini means exactly what he says. His well-trained army, his great fleet of planes, and even his navy are ready for war – anxious for it, apparently. His recent stand at the side of Hungary in the latter's dispute with Jugoslavia showed that. And the hurried mobilization of his troops on the Austrian border after the assassination of Dollfuss showed it too. There are others in Europe too whose sabre rattling presages war, sooner or later.

Herr Hitler, with his rearming Germany and his constant demands for more and more arms, is an equal if not greater menace to peace. France only recently increased the term of military service for its youth from a year to eighteen months.

Yes, all over, nations are camping in their arms. The mad dogs of Europe are on the loose. In the Orient the maneuvering is more adroit. Back in 1904, when Russia and Japan fought, we kicked out our old friends the Russians and backed Japan. Then our very generous international bankers were financing Japan. Now the trend is to poison us against the Japanese. What does the "open door" policy to China mean to us? Our trade with China is about $90,000,000 a year. Or the Philippine Islands? We have spent about $600,000,000 in the Philippines in thirty-five years and we (our bankers and industrialists and speculators) have private investments there of less than $200,000,000.

Then, to save that China trade of about $90,000,000, or to protect these private investments of less than $200,000,000 in the Philippines, we would be all stirred up to hate Japan and go to war – a war that might well cost us tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and mentally unbalanced men.

Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit – fortunes would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few. Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers. Meat packers. Speculators. They would fare well. Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends. But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their children?

What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits?

Yes, and what does it profit the nation?

Take our own case. Until 1898 we didn't own a bit of territory outside the mainland of North America. At that time our national debt was a little more than $1,000,000,000. Then we became "internationally minded." We forgot, or shunted aside, the advice of the Father of our country. We forgot George Washington's warning about "entangling alliances." We went to war. We acquired outside territory. At the end of the World War period, as a direct result of our fiddling in international affairs, our national debt had jumped to over $25,000,000,000. Our total favorable trade balance during the twenty-five-year period was about $24,000,000,000. Therefore, on a purely bookkeeping basis, we ran a little behind year for year, and that foreign trade might well have been ours without the wars.

It would have been far cheaper (not to say safer) for the average American who pays the bills to stay out of foreign entanglements. For a very few this racket, like bootlegging and other underworld rackets, brings fancy profits, but the cost of operations is always transferred to the people – who do not profit.

http://www.barefootsworld.net/warisaracket.html

Looking forward to reading more of this Hylander...