In the shadow of Lincoln's massive temple the street was divided by a line of mounted police, keeping at bay the angry vets. I was bothered by their presence but, being from a family of decorated militairy veterans, I think I might know why they were pissed about our protest.

Nam vets were treated with disrespect when they returned to the states. They didn't deserve it. Any man who suffers through war in the service of his country deserves honor. From what I know of Nam, I think our military was trying to doing a good thing. We were there to stop an aggressive expansion of Communist imperialism. But herein lies the irony.

In Nam we were the defenders AGAINST imperialism. In Iraq, WE ARE the agressive imperialists. America might have stood on the moral high ground in previous wars. Even in Afghanistan, perhaps. But not in Iraq.

War in Iraq was started with a lie and, thanks to poor intel from Cheney's intelligence Cabal, didn't even let us establish a healthy Democracy (Oligarchy, whatever). I don't think it's working, unless the idea is to start a civil war between Muslim factions. But that's no good. Getting people to kill each other? Better than trying to kill us but it still sucks.

What doesn't suck is showing the rest of the world, including Arabs, that Americans are good people who want peace, hate imperialism, and think dead civilians in Iraq matter. That's why I was there. To help America by showing the rest of the world that we give a shit. Not to disrespect vets.