McCain/Kerry Support Imperial War on Libya - by Stephen Lendman
On November 6, 1971, a remorseful John Kerry told Washington, DC's WRC-TV that "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals," protesting against America's Vietnam War involvement.
On April 22, 1971, Kerry testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), saying in part:
He came to discuss an investigation involving "over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans," who admitted committing Southeast Asian war crimes, explaining:
"stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, bl(ew) up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages (like) Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravages of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country."
Calling it a "Winter Soldier Investigation," he said "there is nothing in South Vietnam, nothing which could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America." Linking America's involvement "to the preservation of freedom....is to us the height of criminal hypocrisy...."
"We saw firsthand how money from American taxes was used for a corrupt dictatorial regime....We rationalized destroying villages....to save them. We saw America lose her sense of morality as she accepted very cooly a My Lai," and many others like it. "We learned the meaning of free fire zones, shooting anything that moves, and we watched while America placed a cheapness on the lives of orientals."
"We have come here....because we believe this body can be responsive to the will of the people (saying) we should be out of Vietnam now...."
Adding much more, he condemned America's illegal, immoral war, wanting no further part in it. That was then. This is now. Since 1985, Kerry represented Massachusetts in America's Senate, chairing the Foreign Relations Committee he testified before in 1971.
In fact, one of many congressional millionaires, he's the Senate's richest approaching $300 million in net worth as heir, through his wife, to the HJ Heinz fortune.
Now hawkish, he and five other senators co-sponsored John McCain's May 23 "S. 194: A Resolution expressing the sense of the Senate of the United States military operations in Libya," saying:
It "(s)upports the aspirations of the Libyan people for political reform based on democratic and human rights. Commends the service of the men and women of the US Armed Forces and our coalition partners who are engaged in military operations to protect the Libyan people....to achieve the departure from power of (Gaddafi) and his family so that a peaceful transition can begin to a government that ensures freedom, opportunity, and justice for the people of Libya."
In fact, America abhors these rights and freedoms, pursuing imperial wars of conquest, plunder and exploitation for wealth, power, and unchallenged dominance.
In 2001 and 2003, Kerry supported wars against Afghanistan and Iraq for those purposes, not liberation, human rights or democratic values. He now backs terror bombing Libya for the same reasons, spurning Libyans who want no part of America's involvement.
In fact, Western media ignored a June 20 one million strong pro-Gaddafi Tripoli rally, raging against NATO terror bombings, killing civilians, targeting schools, hospitals, residential areas, and other non-military sites, what few in the West know about or understand.
On Press TV, independent journalist Lizzie Phelan said "from my sources, I have information that 90% of the tribes in Libya are supportive of the government, including the largest."
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