Wikileaks does not endanger the troops: the blood is on tha hands of the Generals, Admirals, the CIA and the Secret government

In war there are two facts, and I learned them in Vietnam.

Fact one: The rich (usually older white men) make the wars.

Fact two: the young and the poor fight and die in them.
Or, as Jimmy Pettiford, an African-American Marine friend from VVAW, whom I
met after Vietnam, said: ‘Rich Man’s War; Poor Man’s Fight’.

A little known fact is that the Vietnam War ended because the
resistance to the war within the military was such that the Pentagon
was facing the total breakdown of the armed forces. See:

'The Collapse of the Armed Forces'
By Col. Robert D. Heinl, Jr., Armed Forces Journal, 7 June 1971.

This was a secret study commissioned by the Pentagon to assess
true situation among the troops in and out of Vietnam. This is the opening:

“The morale, discipline and battleworthiness of the U.S. Armed Forces are,
with a few salient exceptions, lower and worse than at any time in this century
and possibly in the history of the United States.

By every conceivable indicator, our army that now remains in Vietnam is in a state approaching collapse, with individual units avoiding or having refused combat, murdering their officers and non-commissioned officers, drug-ridden, and dispirited where not near mutinous”.

I went from a ‘Gung Ho’ Marine to a boy who knew that the only thing that
mattered was to survive.

What Wikileaks did was to ‘out’ war crimes, and the cover-up of those crimes.
It is a service to the USA, humanity (because war, or national security can never
serve as an excuse for such criminal conduct.

But, also because it will be another brick to come tumbling on a wall of lies.
And, remember soldiers, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Vietnam die for lies!
And, the civilians bear the heaviest cost.

Wikileaks exposed a bit of the truth. And I wish we had that in Vietnam.

To me it is those who plan and execute (the brass) illegal wars that
endanger the troops. When I was with Golf Co. (‘Goofy Golf’) they
sent four of us out on night ambushes. That’s suicide.

Another time two squads were left in an abandoned fire base and told
to watch out for a battalion (800+) of North Vietnamese Army troops.
Oh sure! 24-30 men against 800+ really meant that we were nothing more than
The bait! We kept quiet.

Those who conduct war and get troops killed for an oil Co., always raise
the spectre of not undermining the troops. Be patriotic…blah, blah. Blah.

When we were going to the A Shau valley-the ‘Valley of Death’ to Marines,
(I was at FSB Cunningham) they didn’t say, nor prepare us for what was coming.
I was a radio operator-a snipers favourite target- we were told to ‘saddle up’ we
were going to Da Nang for two days…relaxing.

The truth was that our commanders afraid to tell us where they intended to
drop us out of fear that there would be resistance from those short-timers
we were put into a hell on earth…and replacing a company whose
moral was breaking down…and they were panicking…nightly sapper
attacks.

To me, not telling us the truth put our lives in greater danger than if
we were prepared.

When I calculated what I was paid in Vietnam it was $0.50 per hour.
Not quite a millionaire:-)

These wars must be stopped, and the criminals brought to court.

Major-General Smedley D. Butler (a two-time recipient of
the highest medal- The Congressional Medal of Honor. He returned the
first one saying that he didn’t deserve it. The brass ordered him to keep
it and wear it) said:

“War is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense
of the very many.

I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested."

The costs of the war, just like the fighting is borne by the masses of people, or
As General butler put it:

“This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations….

Does that sound familiar?