This pretty well tells the story of our possible future President,
God forbid. 

 Subject: FW: Open Letter to John Kerry

 My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year, and the
recovery  is terribly painful. Then, she developed a staph-epi infection, and 
they had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just 
thinking about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a  second
 time in the same wound, makes me cringe. That experience, 
 however pales in comparison to what I am going through right now, in
 my heart.  The old hurts are surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow 
citizens, and their leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart 
again. I am being cut in the same scar. How did we who served in 
Vietnam suddenly become cold-blooded killers, torturers, and 
rapists, of the ilk of the Nazi SS or the Taliban? Most of us were 
American soldiers who grew up idolizing John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and 
all the other heroes. That was why I volunteered. But for political 
expediency, you have rewritten history, again. After spending only 
four months in the country of Vietnam, you testified before Congress
 in 1971 with these exact words about incidents you supposedly 
witnessed or heard about from other vets: "They personally raped, 
cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to
human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up 
bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and 
dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the 
countryside of South Vietnam."

I was a green beret officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and 
fought in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces 
A-team on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the 
elite. We saw the most action. Everybody in the world knows that. 
But we did not just kill people, we built a church, a school, 
treated illnesses, passed out soap, food, and clothing, and had fun 
and loving interaction with the indigenous people of Vietnam, just 
like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon, and everywhere 
American soldiers ever served. We all gave away our candy bars and 
rations to kids. Our hearts to oppressed people all over the globe.

My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those
horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced, 
unprincipled liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and 
all my fellow Vietnam veterans. Sure, there were a couple 
bad-apples, but I saw none, and I saw it all, and if I did, as an 
army officer, it was my obligation to stop it, or at the very least 
report it. Why is there not a single record anywhere of you ever 
reporting any incidents like this or having the perpetrators 
arrested? The answer is simple. You are a liar. Your medals and mine
are not a free pass for lifetime, Senator Kerry, to bypass 
character, integrity, and morality. I earn my green beret over and 
over daily in all aspects of my life.

Eight National Guard green berets, and other National Guard 
soldiers, have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you totally 
dishonored their widows and families by lumping National Guard 
service in with being a draft-dodger, conscientious objector, and 
deserter, just so you can try to sabotage the patriotism of our 
President who proudly served as an Air National Guard jet pilot. I 
have a son earning his green beret at Fort Bragg right now, and his 
wife serves honorably in the Air National Guard, just like President
Bush did, and I am as proud of her as I am my son. I volunteered for
Vietnam and have no problem whatsoever with President Bush being our
Commander-In-Chief. In fact, I am proud of him as our leader.>

John Kerry, you personally derailed the Vietnam Human rights Bill, 
HR2883, in 2001, after it had passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote, 
and thousands of pro-American Montagnard tribespeople in Vietnam 
died since then who could have been saved, by you. Earlier, as Chair
of the Senate Select Committee on MIA/POW Affairs, you personally 
quashed the efforts of any and all veterans to report sightings of 
living POW's, when you held those reins in Congress. You have fought
tooth and nail to push for the US to normalize relations with 
Vietnam for years. 
Why, Mr. Kerry? Simple, your first cousin,  C. Stewart Forbes,
CEO, of Colliers International, recently signed a 
contract with Hanoi, worth BILLIONS of dollars for Collier's 
International to become the exclusive real estate representative for
the country of Vietnam.

"Hanoi John," now that it works for you, you beat your chest about 
your Vietnam service, but to me, you are a phony, opportunistic, 
hypocrite. You are one of those politicians that is like a 
fertilizer machine: all that comes out of you is horse manure, and you are
spreading it everywhere.

Medals do not make a man. Morals do.
 

 Don Bendell
 Canon City, Colorado

 Don Bendell served as an officer in four Special Forces Groups, is a
best-selling author with over 1,500,000 books in print, a 1995 
inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame, and owns karate
schools in southern Colorado.

http://www.donbendell.com/