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CounterPunch
October
15, 2002
An Open Letter
to Sen. John Kerry on Iraq
by BRIAN WILLSON
Dear John,
It has been a long time since we have
had contact. As you might remember our very first meeting was
at VVAW's Dewey Canyon III, "A Limited Incursion Into the
Country of Congress," April 19-23, 1971, in Washington,
D.C. I'm sure you remember asking the Senate that week in an
impassioned speech, "How do you ask a man to die for a mistake?"
You also stressed the importance of being "totally nonviolent."
Our second and many subsequent meetings
occurred in Massachusetts after you were elected Lt. Governor,
1982-84, while I was active in veteran's issues in Western MA.
As director of a veterans outreach center in Greenfield, and
the Western Massachusetts Agent Orange Information Project, I
served on the Massachusetts Agent Orange Task Force under Governor
Dukakis' veterans commissioner and your office as Lt. Governor.
I subsequently also served on Dukakis' homeless veterans task
force.
When you decided to run for the Senate
in 1984 against Ray Shamie, a wealthy businessman, remember that
I loyally supported your campaign as one of the dozen or so Vietnam
veterans the press called Kerry's Commandos, you called "Doghunters."
We accompanied you throughout the state, and fended off right
wing criticism from folks such as General George Patton III,
who accused you of "giving aid and comfort to the enemy"
for your earlier VVAW activities. I'm sure you remember with
fondness that critical time that launched you into national office.
Your lawyer brother, Cameron, concluded that it was the veterans'
support that pulled your first campaign out of a nose dive and
created the necessary "galvanizing energy."
Your critics had suspected that your
activities, both in the war, and in years following, were prompted,
at least in part, to an intense political ambition, even as you
addressed your Yale law school graduating class with an anti-Vietnam
War speech shortly prior to enlisting in the U.S. Navy. Your
career in the Senate has revealed your all consuming ambition,
but that is quite typical of politicians.
The first hint of a bit of disconnect
in your style was when during your first Senate campaign you
denied returning your war medals, with a thousand other veterans,
in protest of the war during Dewey Canyon III. That was a bit
of a shock, since for most veterans who returned their medals
in that emotional ceremony on Friday, April 23, 1971, it was
a very proud and healing moment. Your 1984 campaign response:
You had returned the medals of a WWII acquaintance at his direction.
All those 13 years everyone thought you had had the courage and
leadership to return medals that to veterans who returned them
represented medals of dishonor drenched in the blood of innocent
Vietnamese who did not deserve to die for a lie, any more than
our fellow US Americans. I guess you knew then that you were
to be running for office.
The second hint occurred at the celebration
party you organized for us "doghunters" at your friend
John Martilla's Beacon Hill house in Boston in late June 1985,
6 months into your term as a junior Senator. In the wee hours
of the morning, you made two comments that troubled me: (1) you
stressed your initials as "JFK" that would help you
one day in your quest for the White House, and (2) that after
War Department briefings (and perhaps CIA as well) about the
need for funding and training contra terrorists in Afghanistan
and Nicaragua you had a new appreciation for their importance
in furthering U.S. policies. That did not mean that you necesaarily
voted for Contra aid but that once in power, information becomes
part of an elite circle preempting genuine democracy. I had driven
in from Greenfield for that celebration party, and after those
remarks I immediately left the party and drove the two hours
home. I never forgot it, obviously.
In late September 1986, you, along with
some other Senators and Representatives, reluctantly supported
the four veterans (myself being one of them) participating in
the open-ended Veterans Fast For Life (VFFL) on the east steps
of the Capitol building, protesting aid to the Contras. During
that fast one of your fellow Senators, Warren Rudman (R-NH),
stated in October 1986 that our "actions are hardly different
than those of the terrorists who are holding our hostages in
Beirut." Shortly thereafter, both our VFFL offices and separate
housing accommodations were broken into with many files of our
activities and addresses of supporters taken. The FBI initiated
a "domestic terrorist" investigation of the members
of the VFFL which was revealed later when an FBI agent refused
to comply and was fired after nearly 22 years service in the
agency.
In September 1987, as you remember, I
was severely assaulted by a US weapons train in Concord, CA,
during a peaceful protest of a Pentagon munitions train moving
lethal weapons to Central America, suffering permanent injuries.
Later it was revealed that they suspected me of planning to "hijack"
the train, and had accelerated the train 12 miles above the legal
speed limit of 5 mph rather than stopping and awaiting police
arrest.
Such is life. Contra "terrorists"
in Nicaragua called freedom fighters by US presidents, while
nonviolent protestors of terrorist policies are labelled the
"terrorists" to be investigated. Then look what happened
with our terrorists, the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Now the Congress
is giving the resident of the White House virtual carte blanche
authority to launch pre-emptive strikes against more evil lurking
beyond our borders. It is a no-brainer to many outside the beltway
that we are really experts at knowing how to create rage, then
revenge, with our policies of aggression and arrogance.
In the life of being a Senator, John,
I'm afraid that your career again proves that power corrupts
(and blinds), and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Of course
you have many friends in the same camp. With your vote for essentially
agreeing with the selected resident of the White House's request
for incredible authority in advance to wage wars against whomever
he wants, you have contributed to finalizing the last of the
world's empires, and the likely consequent doom of international
law, peaceful existence, and hope for the future possibilities
of Homo sapiens. Of course, it also means that searching for
the motivations of other people's rage and desperate acts of
revenge will be overlooked, dooming us to far more threats and
instability then if we had seriously pursued a single-standard
in the application of international law equally with all nations
in the first place. We are too much of a bully to do that, and
have stated over and over again that the American Way Of Life
is not negotiable. Can you understand that this means species
suicide?
I'm sorry and terribly fearful for this
state we are in. Your vote is terribly misguided, John. Now that
veterans have reorganized throughout the nation as once again
an important part of the growing movement, know that we shall
work hard for your defeat, whether as a Presidential candidate
or for another Senate term.
Sincerely,
S. Brian Willson
Arcata, California
Veterans For Peace
Email:bw@brianwillson.com
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2002
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