Vietnam Memorial Vandalized
13th September 2007
by gordo
Vietnam Reflections, by Lee Teter (click to inflate)
Park police have now determined that the spraying of light oil on the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC on Sept. 7 was not the result of an accident, but an act of vandalism. They are still searching for the perpetrators. A commenter at Michelle Malkin’s website explains that light oil, such as WD-40, is one of the few substances that will discolor the black granite of the memorial.
So who would have done such an act? Maybe someone who got into town early for the upcoming Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) rally. ANSWER (original name: Act Now to Stop War, End Racism, Save the Environment, End Cruelty to Animals, and Cure Cancer) is a Marxist organization that likes to claim credit for demonstrations that other groups organize. When they do organize their own rallies, they tend to be bait-and-switch affairs. Attendees at their antiwar rally in 2005 sat through endless harangues about the evils of capitalism while they wondered when the antiwar portion of the program would begin. Needless to say, a lot of the people who attend ANSWER’s rallies seem less interested in ending the war than they are in spreading silliness:
ANSWER has been so obnoxious that most antiwar groups, including United for Peace and Justice, refuse to have anything to do with their events.
Of course, the vandalism of the Vietnam War Memorial goes beyond mere silliness and obnoxiousness. It was an attempt to deface a memorial to to more than 58,000 Americans who were killed in battle, and an attack on a monument that has given some amount of comfort to their grieving families. And when the perpetrators are caught, I’ll be happy if they wind up serving some time in jail for what they did. And I won’t be at all surprised if they turn out to be from ANSWER.
September 13th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
As John Stewart would say to chuckleheads like those at ANSWER:
“You’re not helping!”
September 13th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
[…] From gordo, I see there’s been an incident at the Vietnam War Memorial that might have been vandalism, though the National Parks Service won’t commit to anything definitive. Naturally, the right wingers are going nuts, eager to use this incident to look tough without doing something so drastic as actually signing up to serve in Iraq. Michelle Malkin ends her angry (but not angry enough to serve, of course) post with this ominous quote: Vandalism. Desecration. Cowardice. Coddling. […]
September 13th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Man… enough with the fucking Che Guevara t-shirts.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
September 14th, 2007 at 2:57 am
Good to see your opinion of the subversive creeps at ANSWER gordo.
Tommy was much too kind in his description of them as “chuckleheads”. More aptly they symbolize the rotten carcasses of the anti-American albatrosses that have been slung around our necks since that wonderful ” age of enlightenment” of the sixties.
If ANSWER is ideed responsible, these are vermin of the same ilk that burn troop effigies in the square, now commemorating their “Hell No, We Won’t Go” success in wasting the lives of some 85,000 American servicemen and women by defacing this country’s memorial to them.
But course left wing idiots like Amanda of Pantagon believe that it’s only the “wingnuts” that are offended and that no one has a right to be outraged unless they sign up to serve in Iraq.
September 14th, 2007 at 5:44 am
Sirk, I see people wearing Che Guevara shirts in NYC all the time. It almost makes me want to read his biography just so I can find out why people wear t-shirts of him some 40 years or so after his death.
September 14th, 2007 at 5:47 am
Bedrock, unless there are witnesses or the perpetrator was caught on video camera, we don’t know who vandalized the memorial, so it is just speculation. Whoever did it is a fucktard though.
BTW Bedrock, I did a spate of posts lately about Osama bin Laden and criticizing the 9/11 was an inside job theory and not a peep from you.
September 14th, 2007 at 6:41 am
BRT–
The message I got from Amanda and the Pandagonians was pretty much the same one I laid out here: it was a bad thing to do. They did, however, also comment on the irony of people undergoing such angst about the defacement, after insisting on a defacement of their own.
And yes,there were some harsh words for the legion of war supporters who are of military age, and who muster all sorts of outrage on behalf of “the troops” whenever anyone criticizes the war, but who won’t sign up themselves.
Tommy–
I think we can all agree that until someone’s caught, we can’t say for sure that it was a person associated with ANSWER. But it is the sort of thing that ANSWER’s irrational anti-Americanism inspires.
As for Che, I think he just makes a great T-shirt. He’s got the handsome face of a fiery idealist. He also has a bio that a lot of 60s leftists identified with: born into privilege, he became a leftist when he saw the reality of the way people were treated in most of Latin America. You might want to see a wonderful film about the journey that changed his life, called “The Motorcycle Diaries.”
It was possible, back in the 60s, to invest more in Che as an icon. It was still possible, back then, to believe that Cuba might evolve into a true “people’s republic.” But these days, you’d think that people wouldn’t be decorating their chests with pictures of Castro’s henchmen.
And thanks for letting me know about the posts over at your site. I’ve been very busy lately, and didn’t have a change to see them.
September 14th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
During my trip to Cuba a few years ago I picked up a couple of Che T shirts for my daughter and my best friend, both liberal pinkos who have difficulty dealing with reality along with several bills with Che’s picture on them which were hot items with my associates.
Che’s image in Cuba and among liberals everywhere is much better than Castro’s since Che’s followers can savor a dream of what might have been while most Cubans feel stuck with what is.
Kinda like the supporters of Dennis Kucinich and the other wannabes in this country-the illusion is more appealing than the reality.
September 14th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
“BTW Bedrock, I did a spate of posts lately about Osama bin Laden and criticizing the 9/11 was an inside job theory and not a peep from you.”
Actually I did try to post a positive response Tommy, For some reason
Google isn’t accepting my password for your site anymore so I have
to figure out why.
September 14th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
BRT–
Believe it or not, I agree completely. I’m not one of these people who runs around saying that Kucinich is unpopular because he’s short, or because the media doesn’t like him. I recognize that it’s because many of his views are far outside the American mainstream.
Take free trade. He doesn’t want to renegotiate our trade agreements, he wants to rip them up. Forget the fact that the isolationists’ predictions of widespread unemployment were proved unfounded. And screw the investors who depended on the notion that American foreign policy would be somewhat consistent over time (good luck getting anyone to invest in Africa, Asia, or Latin America after you pull that trick). Also, screw all the workers whose jobs now depend on trade.
And I think you’re right about those who cling to fond memories of Che. It’s sort of like the old Trotskyites, who ran around claiming that everything would have been different if their man had been in charge of the Soviet Union. The fact that he signed onto all of Lenin’s excesses is deemed irrelevant.
September 14th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
When you get to the extreme fringes, people do start to look sort of alike.
I can just see the Rev. Fred Phelps abusing the Memorial.
The fact that someone is so alienated from American values as to attack the Vietnam Memorial bothers me a lot, but not as much as seeing how alienated from American values are people like Michelle Malkin and Alberto Gonzales.
September 14th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
I can’t see either of the people you chose ever vandalizing the Vietnam Memorial. I don’t want either of them going out for drinks with me or, for that matter, even in the same city as me but your comment makes no sense. Was it a right wing wild man that vandalized the Memorial? No? Oh, it was a left wing loser? Yes? Ah, it is okay that folks on your side of the fringe (or folks in the middle even) do something you don’t agree with or even think foul. It makes no sense to then try to say well the other extreme would do it too! No, in this case, they wouldn’t. The right wing extremists own guns and like to…well, never mind.
September 14th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Well, just to be clear: police have not identified any suspects. I think it’s most likely that it’s someone who’s in town for the ANSWER rally, but that’s just an assumption. And the fact is, Fred Phelps and his gang are the ones who picket soldiers’ funerals with signs that read, “Thank God for IEDs” and “Fags Die God Laughs.”
Of everyone mentioned so far, the one who really bothers me is Gonzales. There’s a limit to how much damage people like Malkin, Phelps, and the ANSWER people can do, but Gonzales was the top federal law enforcement officer. So when he said that Americans could be imprisoned without trial, it really meant something.
September 14th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Gordo,
Gonzales won’t be missed, that much is certain. At least, not by me. That being said, I don’t see him as a guy that would go and deface a monument, even one for equality or civil liberty. He might think it, or do his job as if he were trashing a monument to civil liberty, but you get the idea.
September 15th, 2007 at 11:44 am
That’s certainly true. My point was that he was doing actual harm to our civil rights, not the symbolic harm that comes from defacing a monument.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Just reading this infuriates me to no end…..these men gave their lives for this country and yet when they return home they are treated horribly by antiwar protesters, AND NOW THIS!!!! Why the hell would anyone ever do this to our heroic soldiers memorial. Our men died for us, they died for our country….I’m shocked that they think that this is acceptable to have happen…i hope these so called “people” (doing this is brings them down to the level of animals if not lower.) are caught and are made to pay a fine, jail time, and community time and more. Our Veterans should be retreated with respect, both ones alive and ones that have fallen in battle. We should honor the people that died for us and try to learn as much as we can from the ones still alive to learn from these true citizens to their country. I hope to soon join our men in the armed forces (Marines for me!! HOORAH)
February 20th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
quick question for those who defaced the memorial of our heroic soldiers that gave their lives for you…..would you deface a memorial to our heroic firefighters and police officers that died in 9/11/01? HMMM???? u little basturds
February 20th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Andrew–
I share your anger at the defacing of the memorial, but I’m curious about the veterans that you say are being treated horribly by antiwar protesters. I haven’t seen any reports of that, and I had assumed that there hasn’t been a problem with that.
The trouble here, as Mr. Nice Guy points out, is that there is a fringe element that delights in being outrageous and in making people feel angry or offended. But it is worse when the targets are people who are serving their fellow Americans, whether that’s the soldiers, the firefighters, or the police.
February 21st, 2008 at 6:31 am
Andrew, I doubt that many of their type can actually read your question - or read anything at all in fact.
Sad to say, all nations’ anti-war movements have always had their fair share of mindless, ignorant morons. Gung-ho, needless-war hawks don’t (nor ever did), hold the monopoly in lamebrained little bastards.
April 6th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Let me be the voice of logic here! You people need to stop with all this anti government and subversive behavior. Instead of sitting around bored, go be a productive member of society. Stop with all the marches for these old, worn out causes. Stick with the causes that pertain to the advancement of cures for disease or people who are legitimately unable to work. I mean look at the pictures of some of these photos of these groups, they are all in college now!!! What war do they know of? Ok, so we are over in the desert trying to eliminate a very dangerous threat. You pinkos dont know what would happen if we pulled out and dropped our defense. I know that when the left wingers back in the 60’s and 70’s first started this “Trend” to protest it had a reason. We did have a threat of nazis and japanese invading our country. However, I dont think Ho-Chi-Minh would have made it here in a boat. Now, we have the enemy right here inside of our own borders and you want to stop fighting??? How else do you think you gain peace from a one track minded radical terrorist organization? You dont dummy!!!!! They will shake your hand and stab your back!!!! When I watched them jumping around on TV back in the 90’s you seen kids 5 to 10 years old burning the American flag and now they have graduated to chemical and biological weapons. We must keep up our defense in order to secure our countries future and the freedom for you treason’ers to stage your little pinko marches instead of going out and getting a damn job! You go over to the desert and offer them peace! I bet you end up a hostage.
Get a life, get a haircut, get a job and be normal for once!!!
I have spoken!
April 8th, 2009 at 12:50 am
Big Slim–
A lot of Brits expressed similar sentiments during the wave of IRA bombings back in the 1980s. But in the 1990s, the UK took a more conciliatory approach and began to address some of the legitimate grievances of the Irish nationalists. That proved to be the most effective way to fight terrorism.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:02 am
I was going to respond to this Slim character’s rant, but then decided the troglodyte wasn’t worth it.