Recently some Vietnam Veterans produced and aired a TV advertisement against John Kerry and for Bush. It is creating some controversy because apparently they did this without Bush’s' approval and, as a non-profit group, are not supposed to campaign for political officers. (See here for the article that made me think of this today).
The reason I'm posting this is this, from the article:
"Cordier appeared in a commercial launched Friday by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which has accused Kerry of lying about his Vietnam service. In it, he and other Vietnam veterans accuse Kerry, a decorated Navy officer, of selling out his old comrades by joining the antiwar movement upon his return home.
'He betrayed us in the past. How could we be loyal to him now?' Cordier asks in the ad."
Now I haven't read everything on this issue yet, so I could be missing something. But does joining the antiwar movement after being in the military represent "selling out" those who were still in? I don't even think it qualifies as a "lie" about one's service, really. If he was in, he was in. When he got out, he fought to end the war. Personally, if I were stuck over in Vietnam, I'd hope there were a lot of people protesting the war back home. I realize a lot of protestors directly attacked military personnel and not just the war or the politicians. But I haven't seen anything yet saying that Kerry did so. There's a wide gap between protesting war and betraying one's military comrades. (In fact, who better to protest than someone who had been there and knew what was going on? Someone who knew that the soldiers weren't to blame, but rather those who sent the orders.)
This issue jumped particularly to my attention because I've been in similar situations. While in seminary it was not unusual to see me walking around with one of two buttons on my person. One said, "NO WAR ON IRAQ" and the other had the name and age of a young Iraqi boy. The latter is still pinned to the back of my Air Force Reserve ball cap. I contemplated–and still am contemplating–joining the Episcopal Peace Fellowship. These are small things, perhaps, but they still express some of my beliefs. And all the time I was expressing them, there was a set of Air Force uniforms hanging in my closet.
The policy as I understand it is that when I'm out of uniform and off duty/off base, if I chose to act against war I am not doing anything wrong. I don't wear those buttons on bases, and if ordered to go to Iraq I go. I will not, as a 2nd Lt., attack Bush or support Kerry publicly. But as just plain old Mark, I have the right to express protest or to campaign for anyone I wish. And when doing so I never feel like I am "betraying" my sisters and brothers in uniform, nor lying about my service.
What do you all think? This is just one issue among many in the campaign wars, but it's one that struck me as odd.