[Peace-discuss] re: Kerry support premature

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

John Pilger is correct as he usually is.  He has cultivated exceptional 
resources throughout the world and in all governments and thus can write based on 
interviews and access to those with primary knowlewdge and experience. But John 
is not the only one with primary knowledge and experience who is concerned. 
S. Brian Wilson just wrote and published this regarding Kerry too. Brian asked 
me to distribute it.  Brian was and still is one of the nations leading 
anti-war activists. Brian is the Vietnam Veteran whose legs were cut off during an 
ammuniton train demonstration when the train accelerated and ran him over 
during a demonstration.     

doug

An Open Letter 
to Senator John Kerry
on Iraqby S. Brian Willson
October 10, 2002
FROM: S. Brian Willson (bw at brianwillson.com)
TO: John Kerry (john_kerry at kerry.senate.org) 
Dear John, 
It has been a long time since we have had contact. As you might remember, our 
very first meeting was at VVAW's Dewey Canyon III, "A Limited Incursion Into 
the Country of Congress," April 19-23, 1971, in Washington, D.C. I'm sure you 
remember asking the Senate that week in an impassioned speech, "How do you ask 
a man to die for a mistake?" You also stressed the importance of being 
"totally nonviolent." 
Our second and many subsequent meetings occurred in Massachusetts after you 
were elected Lt. Governor, 1982-84, while I was active in veteran's issues in 
Western MA. As director of a veterans outreach center in Greenfield, and the 
Western Massachusetts Agent Orange Information Project, I served on the 
Massachusetts Agent Orange Task Force under Governor Dukakis' veterans commissioner 
and your office as Lt. Governor. I subsequently also served on Dukakis' homeless 
veterans task force. 
When you decided to run for the Senate in 1984 against Ray Shamie, a wealthy 
businessman, remember that I loyally supported your campaign as one of the 
dozen or so Vietnam veterans the press called Kerry's Commandos, you called 
"Doghunters." We accompanied you throughout the state, and fended off right wing 
criticism from folks such as General George Patton III, who accused you of 
"giving aid and comfort to the enemy" for your earlier VVAW activities. I'm sure 
you remember with fondness that critical time that launched you into national 
office. Your lawyer brother, Cameron, concluded that it was the veterans' 
support that pulled your first campaign out of a nose-dive and created the necessary 
"galvanizing energy." 
Your critics had suspected that your activities, both in the war, and in 
years following, were prompted, at least in part, to an intense political 
ambition, even as you addressed your Yale graduating class with an anti-Vietnam War 
speech shortly prior to enlisting in the U.S. Navy. Your career in the Senate 
has revealed your all-consuming ambition, but that is quite typical of 
politicians. 
The first hint of a bit of disconnect in your style was when during your 
first Senate campaign you denied returning your war medals, with a thousand other 
veterans, in protest of the war during Dewey Canyon III. That was a bit of a 
shock, since for most veterans who returned their medals in that emotional 
ceremony on Friday, April 23, 1971, it was a very proud and healing moment. Your 
1984 campaign response: You had returned the medals of a WWII acquaintance at 
his direction. All those 13 years everyone thought you had had the courage and 
leadership to return medals that to veterans who returned them represented 
medals of dishonor drenched in the blood of innocent Vietnamese who did not 
deserve to die for a lie, any more than our fellow US Americans. I guess you knew 
then that you were to be running for office. 
The second hint occurred at the celebration party you organized for us 
"doghunters" at your friend John Martilla's Beacon Hill house in Boston in late June 
1985, 6 months into your term as a junior Senator. In the wee hours of the 
morning, you made two comments that troubled me: (1) you stressed your initials 
as "JFK" that would help you one day in your quest for the White House, and 
(2) that after War Department briefings (and perhaps CIA as well) about the need 
for funding and training contra terrorists in Afghanistan and Nicaragua you 
had a new appreciation for their importance in furthering U.S. policies. That 
did not mean that you necessarily voted for Contra aid but that once in power, 
information becomes part of an elite circle preempting genuine democracy. 
I had driven in from Greenfield for that celebration party, and after those 
remarks I immediately left the party and drove the two hours home. I never 
forgot it, obviously. 
In late September 1986, you, along with some other Senators and 
Representatives, reluctantly supported the four veterans (myself being one of them) 
participating in the open-ended Veterans Fast For Life (VFFL) on the east steps of 
the Capitol building, protesting aid to the Contras. During that fast one of 
your fellow Senators, Warren Rudman (R-NH), stated in October 1986 that our 
"actions are hardly different than those of the terrorists who are holding our 
hostages in Beirut." Shortly thereafter, both our VFFL offices and separate 
housing accommodations were broken into with many files of our activities and 
addresses of supporters taken. The FBI initiated a "domestic terrorist" 
investigation of the members of the VFFL which was revealed later when an FBI agent 
refused to comply and was fired after nearly 22 years service in the agency. 
In September 1987, as you remember, I was severely assaulted by a US weapons 
train in Concord, CA, during a peaceful protest of a Pentagon munitions train 
moving lethal weapons to Central America, suffering permanent injuries. Later 
it was revealed that they suspected me of planning to "hijack" the train, and 
had accelerated the train 12 miles above the legal speed limit of 5 mph rather 
than stopping and awaiting police arrest. 
Such is life. Contra "terrorists" in Nicaragua called freedom fighters by US 
presidents, while nonviolent protestors of terrorist policies are labeled the 
"terrorists" to be investigated. Then look what happened with our terrorists, 
the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Now the Congress is giving the resident of the 
White House virtual carte blanche authority to launch pre-emptive strikes 
against more evil lurking beyond our borders. It is a no-brainer to many outside 
the beltway that we are really experts at knowing how to create rage, then 
revenge, with our policies of aggression and arrogance. 
In the life of being a Senator, John, I'm afraid that your career again 
proves that power corrupts (and blinds), and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Of 
course you have many friends in the same camp. 
With your vote for essentially agreeing with the selected resident of the 
White House's request for incredible authority in advance to wage wars against 
whomever he wants, you have contributed to finalizing the last of the world's 
empires, and the likely consequent doom of international law, peaceful 
existence, and hope for the future possibilities of Homo sapiens. Of course, it also 
means that searching for the motivations of other people's rage and desperate 
acts of revenge will be overlooked, dooming us to far more threats and 
instability then if we had seriously pursued a single-standard in the application of 
international law equally with all nations in the first place. We are too much 
of a bully to do that, and have stated over and over again that the American 
Way Of Life is not negotiable. Can you understand that this means species 
suicide? 
I'm sorry and terribly fearful for this state we are in. Your vote is 
terribly misguided, John. Now that veterans have reorganized throughout the nation as 
once again an important part of the growing movement, know that we shall work 
hard for your defeat, whether as a Presidential candidate or for another 
Senate term. 
Sincerely, 
S. Brian Willson, Arcata, CA 
Veterans For Peace 
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