Our Second Civil War

washingtonpost.com;"Americans under 40 can be excused if they think that the presidential campaign went a bit nuts recently. After all, why has campaign coverage been dominated by a war that ended 29 years ago, even as a dozen Americans were dying and more than 130,000 fighting in Iraq? Well, kids, welcome to an encore presentation of our Second Civil War. The anger and viciousness of the Swift boat debate provide just a brief reminder of how Vietnam divided our nation for a decade. Anyone who was in Vietnam knows that "the fog of war" was more than a cliché.I did not know John Kerry in Vietnam, but I knew the area he was in, having served in the same area as a civilian. I've talked to him often about Vietnam in recent years, and there is no question in my mind that it was the defining experience of his adult years, just as it was for me and hundreds of thousands of other Americans, including those now attacking him. His personal saga embodies the American experience in Vietnam. First he was a good hero in a bad war when most of his college-educated contemporaries (including George W. Bush and Dick Cheney), found easy ways to avoid Vietnam John Kerry introduced his Vietnam record into his campaign because it is a central part of who he is. But stirring up the embers of our Second Civil War was not his intention. All those who served in Vietnam put their lives at risk, and at this distance from the war they all deserve respect. Those of us who survived should show younger Americans that we learned something from the war; John Kerry clearly did, while Americans are again in a war that seems to have no exit -- is particularly grotesque. Watching this debate over Vietnam while a new generation of Americans are risking their lives in Iraq. How long before the lessons from Vietnam can be absorbed into our national life without resurrecting a civil war that cleaves us still? The writer-former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, served as a civilian in Vietnam for three years in the 1960s."

Finally someone who was in the Vietnam War that speaks up, if you want to read all of his story click on the link. I myself thing this never-ending talk about he said-he did needs to stop, what do you think?