By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor
American veterans, and it has always been the case, are used by the military industrial complex to justify wars. You can still find someone serving in the Middle East, on battlefields where you could take your kids on vacation, no German “88s” here, who whine like they had just landed on the bloody sands of Tarawa.
This isn’t 2007.
Iraq was a hellhole, 2004, then again in 2007 and 2008, not Vietnam but let’s also remember, that was a huge long time ago. Let’s not be hearing from Special Operations guys who tourist around with the Kurds, whose real days are filled with safety and utter ease, play fake hero in service of the scamsters that are bleeding America dry.
The dance ended a long time ago…and we can never take care of those who needed it because the phony “after the dance” gang is sucking down, not just the funding but the credit as well.
The war has been over for more than a decade. The last low intensity (which can still kill you) combat for Americans was more than 11 years ago. Everything since has been police work, occupation, time wasting and clearly done for a paycheck.
Some still died.
When I entered the Marine Corps in 1968 it was clear to me that Vietnam wasn’t Guadalcanal or the Battle of the Bulge. When I got there, I found some days like the movies but most not. You see, all “reality” then and now came from movies.
Before long I also learned that World War II was hell for a very few and fat living for most. Vietnam was worse, hell for a very few, death for that few, and no risk at all for 90%.
Still, in Vietnam pay was low, nothing, but the war was fun to watch, providing you were one of the very very few who actually got close enough to see it.
Now lets talk War on Terror.
Afghanistan can kill you but as wars, it has always been “occupation,” and never prolonged combat. In fact, no War on Terror “battlefield” has been prolonged combat, the kind with no food, no water, surrounded, bayonets, fighting to the last man, the stuff of Vietnam.
But then, riding in a vehicle after leaving the dinner table, fattened on 5 courses with a huge paycheck, you can still get blown up and that happened to many, so very many.
For those who fought in Vietnam, which is 9% of those who served in Vietnam, pay was as low as $16 a week, which was paper route money then. Hot meals were zero, medical care primitive and KIA rates ran 44%, 400% of those serving in World War II.
But that war was 50 years ago and the sick need some have to hold on to fake glory in order to suck down phony honor, even for real combat vets…those few are alive anymore…is sad to see.
As for today’s military, let’s face it, we are not at war. Also, though pay isn’t bank president money, imagine working for $350 a month, which is the equivalent, adjusted for inflation, of what we got.
As a veteran, you have no job selling war. You do owe your friends, those you served with and your country, a debt you can pay by outing fakery, outing phony war, outing hypocrisy and by refusing to back political leaders who, even when rare ones serve in the military, did so as highly protected “ring klinkers” like Pompeo, Rumsfeld, Esper and so many others.
For those of you who found yourselves in major combat, maimed, in senseless minor wars started in order to scam taxpayers and steal oil, time to grow up and face the truth.
As a Vietnam vet, it was clear from day one, I was taking it in the ass.
You can also do this, for a variety of reasons…tell your stories. If you didn’t kill kids or torture the wounded, and Americans tend to be pretty good people despite what others say, then tell us about it.
Get it behind you, get it in focus. Also, be willing to accept you were lied to and exploited. In that, you have brothers and sisters, so many of us.
We are here to welcome you.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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Worked security for twenty or so years in the toughest clubs in New York Mr. Duff, guys that came out of Vietnam would have been calling these Special Forces guys posing for the cameras; ‘cupcake’ and would have done unspeakable things to them in the alleyways…
Watch some more TV America, keep letting the Hollywood deviants define dangerous men for you…
… And, obviously, remember what Butler correctly said is the only way to stop the War Racket!
… And before you watch the fictionalized “1917”, see the true story of the War Racket: “Dealers in Death” (1935) free on YouTube!
Remember that the Fascists tried to have Smedley Butler “Seize The White House*”, but he was a #whistleblower!
Otherwise, WWII may have been fought earlier, in USA.
* See McCormack-Dickstein Hearings.
Bravo, Mr. Duff!
💯!
Lost a few older brothers of friends that I grew up with. Then befriended some that served. One that stands out, a Randy, could not touch the cotton stuffing in a pill bottle. Too much like a wound dressing, perhaps.
Semper Fi Gordon–7 years USMC, 21 years US Army. I simply do not understand this “My country right or wrong” attitude when there is so much information available today–especially from veterans. It is obvious that the only thing our government does exceptionally well is to lie to us even when they don’t have to. I am glad you pointed out how remarkably safe our wars have become. I had some of my young guys ask me in Baghdad in 2004 whether I was scared or not and I told them with complete honesty, “No not here. I have been places in Chicago, LA, and Detroit where I was scared spitless, but this place ain’t nothing like that.” And it’s true, far too many American cities are far more dangerous than any place we are “fighting” our “wars”. Not so funny but true story–the worst firefight I was in was other Americans–from my own battalion–shooting at us, because in the US Army they do not teach fire discipline.
Thanks for an excellent compassionate article.
My younger brother Karl and I both registered at the same draft board at Pasadena. In 1966 his number was called, mine wasn’t. On my 2300 mile trip to Georgia I visited him at basic training at Ft. Bliss, Texas. He also majored in physics. He has never revealed the details of his service but he was sent right back home to California for his service. The most I know is he slept next to an armed nuclear missile. Obviously the system is totally unfair but I am glad he is still alive and well and engaged in a unique occupation of manufacturing fairings for bicycles in his own shop in Northern California called Zzip Designs at http://www.zzipper.com The original designs were based on wind tunnel testing by an aeronautical engineer from Cal Tech. They reduce drag by about 10%-15% which can make a large difference in a cross country run. Just imagine all the pollution and other problems we would avoid if everyone returned to human powered vehicles like the bicycle. We could all lose weight too.
My late Mother and Father were both born at Minnesota. Their parents were from Germany, Norway and Denmark. Many people from Sweden also populated this great State. My Father often told of how farmers there were very suspicious of politicians. They didn’t need to bring guns to meetings because the sight of a few pitchforks scared the daylights out of most politicians. Farmers then were not the smiling happy faces of millionaires today. These were hard working folks who struggled and worked all day every day of their lives 24/7. They did not like to be lied to by smiling politicians seeking their votes. And they had good, long memories and the politicians then knew it. People today have no concept of just how hard life was in those days. Citizens in Minnesota have been among the most intelligent of the country. They created the University of Minnesota one of the top public institutions of the world. The State abounds with numerous public and private colleges and universities. Both of my parents graduated from there he in mechanical engineering, she in English. Many kids had to return to the farm every quarter when the grades were posted. My Father said he worked his way through the “U” as it was called, because he didn’t want to pick potatoes in the hot Sun every day all his life, almost as bad as picking cotton. One of my great grandfathers, William Grummons, was an officer in the Minnesota Volunteers during the Civil War…
Their service was not very flattering as it was written up in a book commissioned by the Minnesota Legislature describing every battle. They got the H beat out of them by the rebels in Tennessee! No one fights as hard as one defending their own homeland from criminal invaders.
Didn’t your brother get in trouble with his (ex?) wife for keeping a bicycle in the bedroom? Seem to recall Karl telling me something like that (he liked to tell customers stories) when I ordered a front fairing for a RANS Tailwind a couple of decades ago.
With a strong cross-wind, I could stop pedaling and just sail along at the speeds the upright cyclists were pedaling to maintain. 😉
Great article.
Lots of heart in that message. Lots of heart! Thanks Gordon.
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