1. Oliver North is a liar and a psychopath and far from a hero. The short version: You cannot give terrorists weapons for hostages. It creates a cycle you don't want:
Ahmed: "Achmed, we are out of explosives."
Achmed: "Time to take some more hostages, and release them for arms."
Real deal intelligence operatives had known this forever at the time of 'Iran-Contra'. Oilver North basically brokered a deal with terrorists to swap hostages for weapons, so he could go to his bosses and say "See? I'm your James Bond!".
When I was younger I thought he was a hero. Then I learned some things about him later after I was in the military - he's far from it. The whole 'refusing to answer as it might jeapordize operatives in the field' while wearing his uniform - it still makes me sick to think about.
However, having said all this, the media basically gave the communists a 'pass' on this whole conflict - the communist backed rebels manipulated the U.S. media brilliantly during the whole contra affair. Get operatives to form a 'peace group' on 10 or 20 campuses in the U.S., then have the members of this 'peace group' travel down south to view the scene of 'U.S. backed attrocities' that never happened, and take the evidence to members of the U.S. congress who were in favor of anything that would hurt the current administration - brilliant work actually. But it was work commited vs. my Nation so I'm a little annoyed.
That's a time and a place that is a big unknown for most - you guys should do some internet research on the entire conflict. You'd be amazed. There are guys who fought in that conflict that should have been given the Medal of Honor...but it wasn't a 'popular war' so they of course got no official recognition.
Jane Fonda is evil. If it was only being a dumb chick going to North Vietnam to piss off Daddy, I could understand.
She never apologized.
You guys fail to recall where she went U.S.-wide on the media after returning home and blatantly lied - stating that all stories of torture and mistreatment of our POWs were lies fabricated by the U.S. Government. This did real and serious damage to the campaign to get our guys recognized by the IRC as valid POWs. This statement directly cost the lives of POWs who died from harsh treatment before better conditions were demanded of North Vietnam via the international community. I believe one of her lines was "They're a bunch of football jocks who are whining because they got beat by the little people. They're not being tortured at all".
http://www.henrymarkholzer.com/hanoijane.net/She's a U.S. hater. She named her Son after a decorated Viet Cong sapper. I'm not kidding.
I agree with Rip1 that it's humor. Besides, even if it wasn't...kick someone's butt at a hockey game for talking during the National Anthem? Before 9/11, in my experience if the talker saw you doing the right thing they'd usually remember what the right thing was and start doing it. Besides, a fight could spill my beer.
Mike/wulfie
