Reply #20: wow, very powerful, I hope everyone on this board will read your post.

[olddad56]

You paint a very real and poignant portrait of what it is like to have your life shattered by the senseless devastation that our government committed against your family and your country.

I was one of probably a million young kids, fresh out of high school that joined the service to avoid being drafted. Like most of us, we were young and naive. We bought the whole 'fight communism, serve you country, military obligation' bullshit, lock, stock and barrel.

I bought the whole charade until I got to Vietnam, started smoking pot and thinking about the Vietnamese as people like me, not some inferior species. My job wasn't dangerous and I didn't have to kill anyone, but it still had a profound impact on my life. I knew that what we were doing as wrong and even then, I thought that someday, this type of government behavior will come home to rest. Then and only then, will Americans understand why you don't just casually invade other countries. You defend your country, but you don't invade other people's homeland.

On behalf of the American's who know our government was evil then and is now, I want to tell you that I'm sorry for what my government did to your people and your homeland.