'The Girl I met on Christmas Day’ 1968 Dan Nang' (original 26 Dec. 2009)

'The Girl I met on Christmas Day’ 1968  Dan Nang

was the first story that I wrote when I opened a blog
'A Time For Revolution' (original 26 Dec. 2009)

I lost the password and could not get back in so I am 
updating it here. This is the most important story to me 
because what happened this day changed me forever...

I landed in Da Nang early on Christmas morning...2-3am.

Later I would fly north to Dong Ha, and then by truck to

Quang Tri to join the 3rd Marines at Fox 2/3 (Mai Loc),
then 2nd Platoon Golf 2/3 Second Battalion, Third Marine 
Regiment,  at Charlie 3 and Charlie 2.

We were taken into Da Nang city briefly after being warned

that begging children might be thieves. We came upon a group

of 20 or so such children.. I had some money to give and sweets.

At first it felt good to give to people in need, but I felt bad that

they had to beg. And, I asked myself why aren't we (the US
military) feeding them (my first realization that things weren't
right). Almost all were under 10, but some had amputations,
shrapnel damage and more. Many were okay, but this was what
this hard marine so eager for combat saw on his first day in
Viet Nam .

I felt someone's presence at the back of the group. I knew she

was looking at me, and when I looked up I saw a lovely girl of

between 11-13. She looked right into my eyes (softly) for a bit, 
then lowered (bowed) her head. But, by then, she had torn my 

heart out.

She did not hold her hand out like the others. I think she felt

different...not as young as the others)...and marred. I was frozen

in place as I looked at her.

She raised her head again, made eye contact...kept it for a bit and

lowered her head again. I waded through the crowd till I stood in 

front of her and she raised her head again and we looked at each 

other.

I nodded to her, and she at me. I felt a lump in my throat, and my

eyes were wet from tears. I took her hand and gave her all the money

I had, except for what was in my boots, and put candy atop it to make

it seem like I was just giving her sweets. Then I nodded, and made a

head gesture at the children behind us, at the money and looked at her

so she would be careful. She understood.

It was then, that I knew how cruel was is. She was a girl, and if others

suspected she had money, or more money they might try to take from

her. They were all trying to survive.

We both nodded to each other, and looked at each other for a long 
and tender moment. I know I was holding back tears, and she knew. 
We shared a special and poignant moment in space and time that I 

will never forget.

You see this beautiful Vietnamese girl had no right eye and, had 

minimal treatment because she didn't wear an American uniform! 

She was not even given an eye patch.

But she was a beautiful young girl. And, it is that young girl, and 
her soulful look, and her situation that has been with me ever since.

Da Nang did not have an eye hospital until 1998. Plenty of money 

for war, but not for people.

I know she appreciated whatever I gave her, but it felt inadequate to 

me. I could see the whole her, and my heart ached(s) for her. Ive'

always wondered what became of her? I would have food, water,

medical care, but she?

It is those things-what happens to children, old people, and especially

(young girls and women), their homes, families, villes, cultures, societies, 

and also, to other Marines blown to bits, maimed, traumatized for a medal

that hurts and causes pain most every day of my life.

Those of us who survived had to fight our own government for recognition

that their wounds/conditions merited treatment. But,the children of Vietnam

Afghanistan, Iraq or any country America wages war upon...have to fend

for theirselves.

But she is 'The Girl I Met on Christmas Day 1968’ ' or 'The Christmas Girl'

and she can make me cry easy...when I think of her. I will never forget

her, and always am thinking of her at this time of year whilst everyone

goes shopping and carries on.

War is a criminal enterprise! Or, as Major-General Smedley D. Butler said,

'War is a Racket'.

Vietnam is over there, but the war is still inside. All of the hurt you see or

feel and suppress at the time...you feel later when you are home...and forever.

Thoughts on the struggle in Palestine: Ethnic cleansing and Genocide in the so-called 'Holy Land.'

Thoughts on the struggle in Palestine: 
Ethnic cleansing and Genocide in the so-called 'Holy Land.'

In life one of the hardest things to do is to take an unpopular position,
even though it be the truth. That is the case with speaking out against
the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the brutal oppression that is
required to keep the status quo...a state of Apartheid in the so-called
'Holy Land.'

There is nothing 'Holy' about Apartheid! It is pure evil to keep a people
living in that state.

I have lost friends and people closer because I have spoken out in support
of the Palestinian people. But To me, after I volunteered twice for combat
in the Vietnam War, as a Marine Corps rifleman (a 'grunt' as we called
ourselves) and came back alive through the grace of God what matters is
that I stand on the side of the oppressed. In Vietnam I was a tool of the
oppressor; the imperialist.

Most people cannot bring themselves to criticize Israel's treatment of
the Palestinian people. The world also remained silent when the Jews
were being herded into concentration camps. The Palestinian people
have had more bombs dropped on them recently than the Germans
dropped on London during the Siege of London. As someone said
today in Cork, what is taking place now is the Siege of Gaza!!

 What is Israel, but a nation of Europeans in the Middle East. The
only one, and like all other places where Europeans have colonized
from North and South America to New Zealand and Australia to South
Africa to Palestine they have relied on ethnic cleansing and genocide,
and that is what the Zionist of Israel are doing.

The Zionist leader of Israel David Ben-Gurior made it clear in advance
when he described the methods to be used by the European colonizers
of Palestine:

"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and
the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."

And General Moshe Dayan had this to say when the Palestinian people
were driven from their homes, villages, towns and cities:

" We don't have a solution, and you will continue living like dogs, and
whoever wants will go, and will see how this procedure will work out.
For now, it works out."

If people cannot see for real what is happening and feel compassion
and demand a just solution then where are their hearts?

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

To Yad Vashem: the Holocaust museum: What would Anne Frank say about Israel's genocide in Gaza?

To Yad Vashem: the Holocaust museum: What would 
Anne Frank say about Israel's genocide in Gaza?

I write this with upmost sincerity.

I am a Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran. My war

experiences fueled me with a passion for truth, justice

and against all oppression.

In the 1970s I protested against the Apartheid regime 

in South Africa, and many more causes. I was a part 

of the June 6, 1976 takeover of the Statue of Liberty by 

Vietnam Veterans Against The War.

For many years I had accepted the Israeli government's

assertions Israel was under attack by Palestinian terrorists, 

and that Israel wanted peace. I know that to be a false narrative; 

a lie just as were the lies of my government about Vietnam.

After the Vietnam War I studied the history of Vietnam. I have 

also studied how Palestine was colonized, and some history of   

the Jewish people in Poland, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands. 

I am studying the history of the Arab people.

The very qualities that the Jewish people have always stood for in 

America and worldwide, standing up against oppression, injustice, and 

for civil and human rights, has been obliterated in Israel due to the 

philosophy known as Zionism.

Zionism is not Judaism. Like Nazism, Zionism is a warped right wing 

political movement and philosophy that is racist, supremacist, and 

xenophobic. Both philosophies destroyed the best qualities of their 

respective societies and cultures. Nazism and Zionism relied on war, 

terrorism, murder, and ethnic cleansing to steal land from the native 

inhabitants, as did the Boers in South Africa, and the Europeans in 

the Americas.

The American settlers and military in what is now the United States 

engaged in genocide of the Native Americans. The Nazi regime in 

World War II used genocide as a policy, and now the Jewish people 

of Israel, their political, and military leaders are in the process of 

exterminating the Palestinian people.

In 1948 David Ben-Gurion said "We must use terror, assassination, 

intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services 

to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."

Is this just? Is this not ethnic cleansing?

"All of the killed, with very few exceptions, were old men,

women or children. The dead we found were all unjust victims,

and none of them had died with a weapon in their hands."

--Eliyahu Arieli, Haganah member who arrived at Deir Yassin

shortly after the massacre, O Jerusalem, Collins and Lapierre, 1972.

Is this just? Is this not genocide?

The state now known as Israel came into existence by massacre 

upon massacre, atrocity after atrocity. The country was built on 

Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide.

Yah Vashem is dedicated to the remembrance of the Holocaust.

Yah Vashem is described as a ‘World Center for Holocaust

Research, Documentation, Education and Commemoration.’

Yet, the museum exists in an a land that has been largely ethnically

cleansed of the Palestinian people who had lived there in peace with

Jews and Christians for centuries, until the Zionist came.

Despite your best intentions, your museum exists in a city and country

in which the Zionist, Apartheid regime is waging a war of genocide 

upon the the Palestinian people. Collective punishment, nightly raids 

into houses, torture, and destruction of the Gaza population is public 

policy. This is the environment in which your museum exists.

I ask you, is it not entirely hypocritical to have a Holocaust museum 

open in a city and country that has been ethnically cleansed?

Is it not odd and shameful to have a Holocaust museum open while 

your leaders are in the business of exterminating the indigenous 

Palestinian people?

What the Zionist regime did and is doing to the Palestinian people, 

especially in Gaza is what the German Army once did to the Jews of

the Warsaw Ghetto. And, there were tunnels in the Warsaw Ghetto too.

As the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto resisted their oppression so do the 

Palestinians in Gaza. Both sides had and have the right to self-

determination just as native South Africans did under Apartheid.

It is my firm belief that the Holocaust Museum should be shut down

out of shame, and covered in black drapes right to the ground until

the Zionist government dismantles the Apartheid wall, demilitarizes

the country, concludes a just settlement with the Palestinian people,

including reparations, and acknowledges the Right of return as

guaranteed under international law.

Then, there will be peace as both sides had lived in peace for centuries,

and much good will come of it.

Finally, I ask What would Anne Frank say if she saw what was being

done to the Palestinian people?