Dear o sung wu,

The US Constitution in Article 1 Section 8 specifies that the decision to go to war is one of the powers of Congress not the president. This was put in the Constitution to prevent the president from putting the country at war like the English king could. The presidents of the United States take an oath of office to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States. In putting the US in an illegal war and carrying it on Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon violated their oath of office and were the rotten traitors - not Jane Fonda. She was merely opposing an illegal war which was her duty as a US citizen. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution which authorised the continuation of the war was based on lies orchestrated by Johnson.

My cousin Richard was a major in the US air force in the early phases of the Vietnamese war. He flew many raids over North Vietnam. When he became aware that most people in Vietnam did not support the war he turned against it. He told me how the laundry woman was caught coming on the base with grenades under her dress. He could not resign his commission, but he could refuse promotion to lt. colonel. After more than a specified time in grade a US officer is discharged from the army. That is how he got out.

A loyal citizen supports the government when it acts according to law and opposes the government when it violates the law. Jane Fonda was a loyal US citizen, and the US Constitution is still the law of the land. It is hard to prosecute a war with one arm tied behind your back, but the US had no business carrying on that war at all.

On John Howard, he was well known to 'The Left' in the 60' and 70's before entering Federal politics as a "shining light" for The Liberal Party, could even be described as a young Turk of the party and was seen as a future leader. What is not so well known about Howard was his strong support for both South African apartheid and the Vietnam War, like his hero and mentor, the coward who dodged military service in WWI and founded The Liberal Party 'Pig Iron' Bob Menzies, Howard never volunteered for military service himself! No doubt the conservative who like to revise history will call me a liar, and paint a different picture of Howard! What is Abbott's record on military service?
p/s Some bright spark awarded Howard an OA, if Howard is a worthy recipient of such a high honor, then I could name a few who would be just a worthy, but they are behind bars.

Come now, Paul, Menzies was in the position of many other young men at the time.
His two brothers were serving and no one then (or now) should expect a family to risk all their sons, especially when the mother is beyond child bearing age.

Is Mise, Why not? For king and country, no excuses, Menzies was a royalist, he should have been first in line, he could have made the ultimate sacrifice, for the empire, over the top at the Somme! Definitely a white feather job was good old Bob. What about Howie, what was his excuse? We needed him in Vietnam, stopping those reds. What's Tone's track record, being a member of the CWA don't count. We need Tone in Iraq right now! Do I detect a trend with the conservative establishment and war service? I think I do.

I don't think there has ever been a Liberal PM (government) that has not put Australia into a war somewhere in the World. Abbott is following that well established tradition. However none can compare to the number one warmonger himself, George W Bush and the way he dodged national service in the US.

We should read "The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy"

There's a chapter on their gusto for WWI - to show that they were still the knights of old and could offer leadership in such a war.

The British aristocrats and upper-middles lost one fifth of their able bodied men and heirs in that disgusting war...an incredible toll!

It is interesting to read how those here analyze war criminals and propose death as their answer to PEACE.