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There's been talk lately about John Kerry's military service in Vietnam, and I have heard people (other vets, mostly) interviewed on NPR who say that they can't support him for president knowing that he came home from Vietnam and then protested the war. They're taking it as a personal affront to their military service. This bugs me for two reasons:

1. protesting a war is NOT THE SAME THING as vilifying the soldiers fighting in it. When are people going to get that? I have been against this war from the get-go, but that doesn't mean I don�t respect the people who have to fight it. This problem cuts both ways�I fully understand that a lot of Vietnam vets did feel that the anger of those protestors was directed at them. We need to make it perfectly clear that we support the efforts of our troops�we just didn't want them to be sent there in the first place.

2. if there's ANYONE that has the right to protest a war; if there's anyone we should listen to when they protest, it's a veteran. Who else has more right to say, "this is all wrong, we shouldn't be there," than someone who WAS there?

Ai.

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I'm so sick of this presidential campaign already. I have a bad case of Sinking Feeling and I'm not looking forward to it lasting for another 3 months.

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