Must Credit: DaTechGuy
According to a national officer of Vietnam Vets against the war, the group will decline a request from Cindy Sheehan for an enforcement of her protest of President Barak Obama
A couple of days ago I posted on the whole Afghanistan Quagmire business. I followed up with an e-mail to Vietnam Veterans against the War to see if there was any change to their positions with a different administration in office.
I sent the e-mail to all 15 contact names available on the site. Only one person responded.
John Zutz is a national officer of Vietnam Veterans against the war. He very graciously answered the questions of a total stranger and only asked that his e-mail response in full be reprinted:
His reply to my e-mail follows His answers to my questions are in blue:
Whoever you are,
I’ll try to answer your questions below.
John Zutz
Milwaukee
Hello:
I was writing a blog post concerning attitudes about Iraq and Afghanistan since the election. To this end I checked out your web site and noted that it had been over a year (June 2008) since you had a press release.
Considering the attention or lack thereof by the media over Cindy Sheehan’s activates on Martha’s Vineyard I was curious what you guys thought so I have the following questions:
Do you still oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? If not why not?
We oppose the war, and now the occupation of Iraq. We found that Afghanistan is an operation on which reasonable people can differ. Since we couldn’t come to a consensus, we didn’t take a position.
Presuming you still oppose one or both wars what public events have you had over the last 6 months to publicize this opposition?
Guess you haven’t been reading The Veteran – our national newspaper. The last issue came out for Memorial Day, and the next issue will be out for Veterans Day. They are available on our web site. We’re even getting a bunch of the old (and some of the really old) issues on line.
If the number of activities is significantly smaller then during previous years why is that?
I don’t know. Have you counted? Perhaps we’re forgoing quantity and emphasizing quality.
Why have you had no press releases over the last year?
Guess we didn’t feel we had anything new to say.
Does VVAW have a position concerning Ms. Sheehan’s current activities?
The National Office is discussing her request for endorsement right now. I voted in favor of endorsement but it looks like I’ll be in the minority and we’re not going to endorse her actions.
Does VVAW agree with Charlie Gibson who when asked about Ms. Sheehan’s current activates said “Enough Already”
VVAW doesn’t have a position, as I pointed out above. And just why would anyone give a flying f— what Charlie Gibson says? Where did he serve?
I personally remember how she was a leader in rallying people to end the war. She had her 15 minutes and it would be real easy for her to fade away, but she’s coming back for more. Sure, some of her ideas are pretty flakey, but then again she’s doing something – when nobody else is doing much of anything. I say it’ll be enough when the troops come home. Go Girl!!!
Any information on these questions would be most appreciated.
Thanks
Datechguy
Datechguy.wordpress.com
P.S. a FYI when I clicked on Robert Gronko on the e-mail list my anti-virus went nuts so he might want to check his yahoo account and run a good anti-virus.
I was surprised that the vets didn’t have an official opinion on Afghanistan although if you look at the latest issue of their magazine there is certainly a lot of unofficial feeling against it. It appears there have been some activities including at least one march in Washington since the election but they seem (like Cindy Sheehan) to have fallen under the national radar, certainly there were no press releases to promote them. Their newspaper appears very happy with the election of President Obama, but that might be more a function to their dislike of President Bush
As for Cindy Sheehan, I wasn’t aware a formal request was made for support. Mr. Zutz certainly supports her (and has choice words for Charlie Gibson’s statement) but it appears he is going to be outvoted. One can only speculate as to why.
So here is what we DO know:
VVAW still opposes Iraq and has no position on Afghanistan
They are still active but have not put out any press releases, nor has the media seemed interested in covering their events.
Cindy Sheehan has officially requested enforcement of her protest against President Obama but apparently the majority of the board will decline to endorse it.
One final note: A search for “Vietnam Vets against the war” in Google News produces one result. If you look at the search results from 2005-2009 the graphic is very interesting.
The news stops at January 2009. Nothing beyond.
In closing I want to thank Mr. Zutz for answering my questions so promptly and forthrightly.
Oh we also know it is possible to actually break news from the couch at your home.
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