Can we apologise to the Vietnamese as well?
Turia asks for apology to extend beyond vets
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia has cautioned that today's apology to veterans of the Vietnam War must not glorify war and she says that the people of Vietnam are owed an apology as well. "Do we have the moral fibre to apologise to them too?" Mrs Turia said there were good grounds for a heartfelt apology to New Zealand's Vietnam veterans and that the Maori Party supported an official apology. But she said there should be a distinction between acknowledging the sacrifices made by the veterans and their families "and the Government insisting there was honour and glory involved in the Vietnam War". New Zealand got involved through the Government's belief that New Zealand was helpless without American protection. "The tragedy is that New Zealanders' lives, health and sanity were sacrificed to our Government's subservience to US interests." She said the casualties among the ordinary people of Vietnam should be remembered, too, and they were owed an apology.
Amen sister, it is refreshing to hear a Politician with a conscience speak out, amongst all the war cheering shouldn’t we step back and ask “What were we doing in this war” because sucking up to the Americans was the reason on the day, and I don’t think asking NZers to put their lives on the line to suck up to the Americans is justifiable – America used appallingly barbaric methods to decimate Vietnam, not to mention the abhorrent secret bombing campaign in Cambodia that led to the rise of the Khmere Rouge and their genocidal rampage, if it’s time to apologise to the troops we sent to a manufactured war (remember the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a lie) that we should never have been involved in, isn’t it also time to apologise to the people of Vietnam?
posted by Bomber @ 6:45 am
9 comments
9 Comments:
I'm sure the Vietnamese are a bit busy enjoying their booming free market economy to care about any 'apology' from lil ol NZ.
I reckon the Saxons should apologise for invading the Angles and the Maori should apologise to the Moriori while we are doing apologies.
And Bomber should apologise to us all for his man boobs.
When will NZ be free of this guilt complex that make us apologise so profusely? Bygones are bygones, after all.
The left will exploit this weakness to the limit, while apologists like bomber will milk every opportunity to advance their left-wing ideas.
I've been to Vietnam twice and from what I've seen we really do owe these people an apology but I do think it should be us (New Zealand), rather America for starting this pointless war. It's not uncommon to walk down a road in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and come across beggars straddling their way down the road, with both legs missing pulling on your jeans asking for money. It's not uncommon to see the same from badly deformed children - chances are many of those kids I encountered inherited their deformities when their parent's chromosomes got munged when the US started it's campaign of deforestation. Then there are the museums where you can see tanks of preserved, deformed fetuses. Pictures of women raped and left for dead by American troops who invaded their villages, killing their husbands.
I'm sorry if I'm sounding quite emotional here but I've traveled that country extensively and have seen a lot. In all honesty I think the Americans are barbarians for what they did to those people and I think an apology is more than warranted. Sadly we are seeing the very same repeated in Iraq right now!
I don't agree with a lot of what Tariana Turia has to say, but in this instance I think she's got it exactly right.
As does illuminatedtiger
NS
Millions of Vietnamese died in that war. The USA fired Napalm onto children and poisened them for generations to come, that says it all.
Is Turia going to apologise to the mori ori for maori atrocities against their race?
Oh thats right since they were wiped out there is no one to apologise to.
Anon that "theory" was dismissed long ago. Only racists and members of the Jewish Task Force still pedal that myth.
Riiiight
We should listen to you because your perspective is objective and without a political agenda.
I agree we need to say sorry. Having been to those parts of the world and seeing the damage done changed the way I looked at the world. I grew up on a diet of Vietnam and today my kids are growing up on Iraq and Iran. The interference by western intelligence in those countries is well documented. Take a look at "Operation Ajax"
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