July 25, 2005
JANE FONDA TO OPPOSE IRAQ WAR ON A "VEGGIE-POWERED" BUS TOUR
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. — United States Constitution, Article 3, Section 3
Now that she has a book coming out, Hanoi Jane is everywhere trying to drum up sales. She, who once claimed, "If Americans understood communism they would get down on their knees and pray for it to come." says she intends to take a cross-country bus tour to call for an end to U.S. military operations in Iraq.
"I can't go into any detail except to say that it's going to be pretty exciting," she said.
Fonda said her anti-war tour in March will use a bus that runs on "vegetable oil." [I wonder how many poor soybeans had to give up their life to make enough oil for her bus.] She said she will be joined by families of Iraq war veterans and her daughter.
They plan to return to the Santa Fe area, where, [surprise, surprise] she was promoting her book on Saturday [July 23, 2005].
Prompted by a question from the audience, Fonda said war veterans that she has met on a nationwide book tour have encouraged her to break her silence on the Iraq war. [And if you believe that, I've got this bridge in Brooklyn, which is for sale, that I'd like to talk to you about.]
"I've decided I'm coming out," she said.
Fonda visited Hanoi during the Vietnam War, at which time she accused American soldiers of acting as "war criminals" who routinely tortured, raped and murdered innocent Vietnamese. [This is the same thing John Kerry told Congress. I don't know if he got it from her, or she got it from him. See bottom two paragraphs of this article for their association.]
In her book, Fonda said she did not regret making broadcasts on Radio Hanoi, directed at the US military, which included such statements [among others like them] as:
• "I heard horrifying stories about the treatment of women in the U.S. military. So many women said to me that one of the first things that happens to them when they enter the service is that they are taken to see the company psychiatrist and they are given a little lecture which is made very clear to them that they are there to service the men."
• "The Vietnamese fighters are our friends."
• "The United States seeks to turn Vietnam into a neo-colony."
• "I want to publicly accuse Nixon here of being a new-type Hitler whose crimes are being unveiled."
• "Nixon is continuing to risk your [American pilots] lives and the lives of the American prisoners of war . . . in a last desperate gamble to keep his office come November. How does it feel to be used as pawns? You may be shot down, you may perhaps even be killed, but for what, and for whom?" [shades of Tokyo Rose — convicted of treason and imprisoned]
• "American troops are fighting for ESSO, Shell and Coca-Cola."
• "Should we be fighting on the side of the people [South Vietnamese] who are murdering innocent people, should we be trying to defend a government in Saigon which is putting in jail tens of thousands of people into the tiger cages, beating them, torturing them . . . . And I dont think . . . that we should be risking our lives or fighting to defend that kind of government."
• "We . . . have a common enemy — U. S. imperialism."
• "We thank you [the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese] for your brave and heroic fight."
• "Nixon's aggression against Vietnam is a racist aggression [and] the American war in Vietnam is a racist war, a white man's war."
• "American soldiers in Vietnam discovered that their officers were incompetent, usually drunk . . . ."
• "Perhaps the soldiers . . . who have suffered the most . . . [are] the black soldiers, the brown soldiers, and the red and Asian soldiers."
• Recently I talked to "a great many of these guys and they all expressed their recognition of the fact that this is a white man's war, a white businessman's war, that they don't feel it's their place to kill other people of color when at home they themselves are oppressed and prevented from determining their own lives."
In 2004, Fonda, in a joint effort with Vagina Monologues playwright Eve Ensler, initiated "Vaginas Vote," a pro-John Kerry get-out-the-vote campaign that sponsored events in more than 30 states. A Fonda press release promoting a Vaginas Vote rally in New York stated, "On the evening of September 13th, actors, singers, dancers, thinkers and leaders will all come together at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem for a night of entertainment and political empowerment." The event was billed "Vaginas Vote, Chicks Rock."
The event was aimed at persuading young women to vote in favor of John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential election, the implication being that a Bush presidency meant higher levels of violence against women than a Kerry presidency. "With 65% of women making up the majority of undecided voters, this event is a rallying call to activists nationwide that we must do everything we can to ensure that all women make their voices heard in Election 2004 and beyond," said Marie Wilson, president of The White House Project. At the Harlem rally, Ms. Ensler said to the attendees, "Are there are any registered vaginas in the house? . . . Step into your vaginas and get the vagina vote out." Among those in attendance were Susan Sarandon, Gloria Steinem, Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, and Jesse Jackson.