<< WHAT ARE THE ODDS? ~ MAIN ~ HELEN SHINES >>
JUST RESIGN, ALREADY
Research-averse Terry Lane delivers his latest triple-fact-checked opinion:
In 1962 John Howard was 23 years old. If he really believes the Vietnam adventure was a noble cause he should apologise for not volunteering.
Whether he’d volunteered or been drafted, Howard’s hearing problems—widely known, and mentioned in this interview—would have disqualified him from service. As Lane is presumably aware.
From his dribble
“By bringing combat into Cambodia, the invasion drove many people to join the underground opposition, the Khmer Rouge, irreparably weakening the Cambodian government.”
With absoluely no mention of the reason for Cambodian incursion. Nor the fact that the Cambodian government was Effectively held to ransom by the VC. No mention of the all important Chinese backing without which the neither the fall of the (corrupt and crap) Vietnamese or Cambodian government could have happened. His grasp of history past “marxism for dummies” is appalling.
By the way, here is one of the “deserts” terry is talking about.http://www.vietnamtourism.com/e_pages/Tourist/travel.asp?ml=02&chkloai=0201
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 08 20 at 12:38 AM • permalinkAnother lame-o attempt at the “chickenhawk” smear. The Vietnam vets I have known and been privileged to serve with by and large thought it was a noble cause. Wonder if that fits into Lane’s world view narrative?
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 08 20 at 12:44 AM • permalinkLane: We should be apologising for the deaths of the 500 or so Vietnamese defenders who were killed at Long Tan rather than boasting about the superiority of Australian soldiers.
Why stop there? Let’s apologise for killing Japanese in defending Australia. Or for not building the Burma railway fast enough. Or for fighting with Britain against the Nazis in the same war. Who else can we apologise to? There must be plenty.
Please, would somebody, anyone at The Age accept that man’s resignation already!
Sheesh.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 08 20 at 01:01 AM • permalinkThe “birthday ballot” conscription started in 1965. Under this system the birthdays of all 21yr. old men were drawn from a ballot box until the predetermined number were drawn.
By 1965 John Howard was, by Lane’s calculation, 26 years old and ineligible. Had he volunteered he would have been rejected as Tim B. says.“We should be apologising for the deaths of the 500 or so Vietnamese defenders who were killed at Long Tan rather than boasting about the superiority of Australian soldiers.”
What utter arse babble. We should be upset we didnt get the other 2000 more like it.
Slightly o/t, if Our Dear Leader has hearing problems, maybe that explains the differing versions of that conversation he had with Uncle Peter back in the 80’s…..
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2006 08 20 at 01:42 AM • permalinkAnother lame-o attempt at the “chickenhawk” smear.
Yes, that’s all it is.
Yet the ones making it never seem to answer the obvious question that use of their logic brings forward. Are they advocates of having a city police force (that sometimes uses violence to protect innocent lives)? And if so, how is it that they are not members of such a force? Surely, if they support the idea of policing, they must feel compelled to sign up to be members of that force. And if they do not, do they have any right to advocate for the existence of a police force? And should they rightly be eligible to call on said force to assist them in an emergency?
I am guessing this is Lane’s roundabout way of announcing that he is joining Hezbollah.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 08 20 at 03:01 AM • permalinkWhat a sillybilly. While we are at it, can we have apologies for Hattin and Thermopylae?
Posted by Simon Darkshade on 2006 08 20 at 04:12 AM • permalinkThe year you had to register for conscription reminds me of an article by leftist academic, Dale Spender who wrote that it was conscription that drove her from the grip of the conservatives.
In her article, she stated that the continuing experience of students in her classes coming to school in tears having been conscripted and the anguish of their classmates at the possibility of them being killed in Vietnam, convinced her that the then coalition government was evil incarnate. The experiences of her students were almost seared in her memory.
What is it about leftists that they have to invent “facts” to support their positions?
The truth was that dear Dale could not have had such recurring nightmares in her highschool classroom as males did not have to register for national service until their 20th birthday, a full two years after most of them had left highschool.
Stewart Littlemore did a number on her on Media Watch which showed her up for the lying leftist she is.
The truth was that dear Dale could not have had such recurring nightmares in her highschool classroom as males did not have to register for national service until their 20th birthday, a full two years after most of them had left highschool.
Maybe she was in remedial classes after having been left behind a few years?
Lane is so far beneath contemptible that there is no word to describe it. Anyone able to coin a new, suitable, adjective?
Posted by Susan Norton on 2006 08 20 at 05:44 AM • permalinkI just spent a day at the Vietnam Memorial, Kings Park, Perth, honouring the memory of the eighteen men killed in action (KIA) at Long Tan.
Among the crowd were the families of the six servicemen posted as missing in action (MIA) in Vietnam, and also those families and friends of men were KIA in the following years of the war. The families of the MIA are here in Perth to attend a ceremony where their family members have streets named after them in a new housing development in Perth’s southern suburbs.Also present were many members of WA’s Vietnamese community, proudly flying the flag of the fallen Republic of Vietnam in memory of their country, which is now in the Communist camp.
There were hundreds of men wearing their medals,unit insignia and head dress from the era, along with wives, families, children, friends and supporters.
It is a privilege to have attended and paid tribute to these men who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.
It is a privilege to have met and spoken with their families, and heard the pride in their voices when they spoke of their lost son, brother or mate.
It is a privilege to live in a country like Australia, where our fallen soldiers are honoured and always remembered, except apparently by a disgraced and biased journalist who pines for the activist years of the 60’s when he was like, relevant, man.I doubt that Terry Lane or his statements would have been very welcome in this gathering.
Personally, I would like to punch his fucking lights out for that column, but I am an unrepentant RWDB.
Your mileage may differ.Thank you to all the Vietnam Veterans for your service. I know there are a few who comment here.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2006 08 20 at 06:09 AM • permalinkSorry, Chrisgo, but in a democracy there is a price to be paid for our comforts and freedom. Sometimes you have to go and fight for it.
In 1965, when National Service was introduced, nobody knew whether Vietnam and the “domino theory” was a credible threat from the Commos or just blowhard rhetoric.
Far from “scarring” a whole generation. I think that national service “steeled” a slice of that generation. Suddenly, the “me, me me” ethic was unacceptable, and the ethos of shared hardships for a greater cause became something other than a distant idea from ANZAC and became up close and personal.
Very few “nashos” of my acquaintance ever speak badly of their time in uniform. I count them as my brothers and comrades in arms, and I respect and honour their service and contribution to Australia and our freedom.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2006 08 20 at 06:48 AM • permalink@14 Simon Darkshade?
Is that THE Simon Darkshade? Perhaps you’ll bring some Civilization to these discussions (he he).
Posted by Just passing by on 2006 08 20 at 06:49 AM • permalinkIsn’t it funny how journalists who attack our involvement in Vietnam avoid interviewing South Vietnamese former soldiers or refugees. Most likely they are desparately trying to avoid confronting the truth about Communist Vietnam.
As the left continues to promote; don’t let the truth get in the way of “The Cause”.
Apparently Terry Lane’s like a snake handler who gradually builds up an immunity to venom by injecting the stuff in increasing increments of toxic strength. Having been burned rather spectacularly for fact-free commentary, with no permanent consequences, he’s now becoming increasingly bold in exhibiting his slapdashery, secure in the knowledge that he will continue to survive. I eagerly await his next whopper.
A woman at work told me that her entire family was sent to a camp in Cambodia. They ate roots and dirt. The mother was pregnant; when she delivered, a camp soldier stepped on the infant’s head, crushing its skull. She told me that even if the soldier had not done that, the infant would have starved, as her mother was so starved she could not produce milk.
Most of them finally escaped, and made their way to the US; they felt, and still feel, as though they made it to the land of angels, as she calls it.
Gee, now what could possibly have happened in Cambodia for this to have happened to this lady’s family?
I now officially scorn and hate Terry MacBeth Lane.
Gotta love his “short history of the war in Viet Nam”. Ah yes, Ho Chi Minh, libertarian and statesman in the tradition of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. I guess Terry wants that to be true, so, in TerryWorld, it is.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 08 20 at 04:16 PM • permalink23.
Yes, there is only one of me.
Doom on you, Lane.
Posted by Simon Darkshade on 2006 08 20 at 06:41 PM • permalink#26 I wonder if all those 1960s anti-war protestors ever wondered whether their actions aided the communists rise to power. How I wish I could deport all of those hippies to North Korea. That’s the sort of regime they were fighting for. God, I wonder how they could have been so deluded. Then i realize that the same fuckers were tripping on acid and smoking plenty of pot.
Posted by Wylie Wilde on 2006 08 20 at 07:40 PM • permalinkSorry but can’t bring myself to read the propaganda of the enemy.
Go fuck off and die Tez.
Better still lob up to your local RSL and try spruiking that shite and I guarantee you a quick trip to the floor.
Had a bonzer day/night on Friday with all the ex-servicemen and sheilas.
As former chocko mortarman I was proud to have 6RAR #1 Mortarman pin my Defence Medal on me.
He fired in support of Delta Coy that fateful day in August ‘66.
God bless all our Digs.In 1945 Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent nation with a constitution based on that of the US.
Fact checking par excellence. The preamble of the (current) 1992 Constitution of Vietnam states that in 1945 Ho Chi Minh “read the Declaration of Independence and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam came into existence [and i]n successive periods of resistance war and national construction, our country adopted the 1946, 1959, and 1980 Constitutions.”
I.e., Uncle Ho declared independence in 1945 (Terry MacBeth Lane got that right, at least) but the Constitution wasn’t adopted until 9 November 1946 (over twelve months later). But don’t take my word. See the full text of the Constitution (in English) here, and here for more background on Vietnam’s four constitutions. Apart from anything else, the 1946 Constitution wasn’t even fully implemented (see here).
Terry Macbeth Lane is stupid. He proves it each week. It is also painfully evident that the Age has no fact checking mechanism.
Page 1 of 1 pages
Members:
Login | Register
| Member List
Facts? Humbug! Who needs facts?