An opinion piece first published in The Washington Spectator then republished on Newsweek, calls for the removal of the POW/MIA flag that files from government buildings.
The post, written by Rick Perlstein, the national correspondent for the Spectator, says the flag should come down because it represent racism on the part of the United States for its involvement in the Vietnam War.
“Richard Nixon invented the cult of the “POW/MIA” in order to justify the carnage in Vietnam in a way that rendered the United States as its sole victim,” Perlstein wrote.
Perlstein writes that the emphasis on prisoners of war and those missing in action was a political maneuver to divert attention away from alleged American war crimes.
“During the Nixon years, the Pentagon moved them into a newly invented “Missing in Action” column. That proved convenient, for, after years of playing down the existence of American prisoners in Vietnam, in 1969, the new president suddenly decided to play them up.
He declared their treatment, and the enemy’s refusal to provide a list of their names, violations of the Geneva Conventions—the better to paint the North Vietnamese as uniquely cruel and inhumane. He also demanded the release of American prisoners as a precondition to ending the war.”
Perlstein references Mobile native and the late former U.S. Sen. Jeremiah Denton.
… as bad as their torture of prisoners was, rather than representing some species of Oriental despotism, the Vietnam Communists were only borrowing techniques practiced on them by their French colonists (and incidentally paid forward by us in places like Abu Ghraib): see this as-told-to memoir by POW and future senator Jeremiah Denton.
Many on social media are condemning Perlstein and the article.
@JessieJaneDuff @Newsweek @Al_Baldasaro Yes Rick Perlstein please explain how POW/MIA flag "racist". Then, explain how you lost your mind
— Daniel Tamburello (@GO_Tambo) August 12, 2015
Larry Etherington posted on Facebook: This “journalist” is the racist… It is a flag of solidarity for the many men/ women who were or are prisoners of war, or missing in action.
Bert Deus Ex Machina wrore: I’m a proud pinko leftist liberal and I will never support such an idiotic idea as dumping the POW/MIA flag.
However, Perlstein also had supporters:
https://twitter.com/Mike_hugs/status/631125076646227968
At one point in the piece, Perlstein compares the POW/MIA flag with the Confederate Battle flag that was taken down at several government facilities across the South after a shooting at a South Carolina church.
To read the opinion piece, click here.
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/08/opinion_piece_calls_powmia_fla.html
“… says the flag should come down because it represent racism on the part of the United States for its involvement in the Vietnam War.”
wow… THAT’S a stretch.
Stupidity abounds.
Never believe an anything STEIN.
As long as Israel and all flags resembling are taken down mr. perlSTEIN. Ducking jerk off.
Dick Perlstein, helping to stir the boiling pot of racial division, one bs piece at a time for those that are too simple minded to see that a joo might try to manipulate them through their emotions. Take the bait and bite the hook if you’re dumb enough to. More zio-joo commie crap to lead you away from the real task at hand. NBPP story/psyop manufactured or not, is the same thing. Someone’s trying to play you and you’d better put your head before your heart. Emotions are what these parasites feed on every time to get the naive/stupid to fall in line and there’s ALWAYS a joo bastard pulling the heart strings. It ain’t thinking of YOU and your best interest and it wants you poor and then dead. In that order.
GEEZ, commies have no pride….
Damned a$$wipes….