Medals Don't Make a President

Time Magazine On Line ^ | Febrary 16, 2004 | Charles Krauthammer

[John W]

Charles Krauthammer writes a syndicated column for the Washington Post that appears in more than 125 newspapers worldwide. He writes an essay each month for TIME.

Please note,this is this month's essay from Time magazine.

[Consort]

Kerry has the medal, Bush has the mettle, and Clinton likes to meddle.

[Consort]

And Kerry is stale, Bush is steel, and Clinton likes to steal.

[dts32041]

Post needs to be chopped I can spell excerpted, from the verboten list.

[John W]

Please note,this is this month's essay from Time magazine.

[Dick Vomer]

I'd look up and see how much of a "hero" Max Cleland is .... something about jumping out of a chopper to get some beers with buddies, dumping a grenade and as he picked it up it blew up.

He served, he got hurt, ..thank you, but if you come back and are a flaming tool for the lib Democratic scamming parasite machine... then screw yourself. Same goes for Kerry, both of them.... Bob Kerry and John Kerry.

I'd rather have a Republican flat foot, four eyed, pencil necked 4-F geek than a Democrat MOH winner. Doubt very seriously that MOH winner would be a democrat, but you never know.

of course that's only my opinion and I could be wrong..

[marron]

Biography is important as an indicator of future behavior. We already have enough to go on with both men. One man has sworn he will fight, and his past performance backs that up. The other man has assured us he will not, and his bio does nothing to cast doubt on what he says.

That is the choice. Its really very simple.

Please note,this is this month's essay from Time magazine.

Thats interesting in itself.

[Texagirl4W]

I just love Charles Krauthammer. Thanks for the post. I don't read Time.

[budwiesest]

The issue of our time is the war on terrorism.

Perhaps, but whatever you do, do NOT look behind the curtain.

[John W]

Are his essays written exclusively for TIME magazine included in the requirement to be excerpted?

[Callahan]

In a less polite world, Krauthammer would note that Kerry's military record, while impressive-at-a-glance next to Bush's, isn't legendary. When Lurch graduated Yale, the old rules for "service" were still in effect. Many of his classmates were enlisting so he goes along. In a war known for rampant medal inflation he gets himself wih a self-reported, self-described Bronze Star, later upgraded to Silver for shooting a wounded VC. He also gets three purple hearts for superficial injuries. As soon as possible, he puts in for the traditional transfer out of combat after four months. He comes back and, putting finger to the wind, becomes a Fonda-nista. Having risked his life once, he presumably vows never to put his ass on the line again and becomes the proto-typical safe, "show" politician, never failing to cash in on his war exploits, (meanwhile, he developes a rep as an arrogant, snobbish braggart and consumate male gold-digger). By the way, in '68 when Bush graduates Yale, we are in the thick of Vietnam and nobody at Yale is volunteering any more.

[ellen_rometsch]

Krauthammer does make one glaring error; he claims that FDR had no military experience.

While FDR did not serve in uniform he was an Assistant Secretary of Navy from 1913 to 1920 (during the Great War). I think one would have to recognize that as significant military experience -- Still a very good column.

[Callahan]

The Democrats are the party that NEEDS to run a "war hero" just to have an ounce of credibility on national security.

[irv]

Kerry has the medal, Bush has the mettle, and Clinton likes to meddle.

The best of the three was (of course) the one in the middle.

Oy! I think I need a Midol.

[Admin Moderator]

I'll double check and restore if appropriate

[Admin Moderator]

It appears that the articles written exclusively for Time are OK

[Lexington Green]

--
Walt Plaue
----- Original Message -----
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2004 6:17 PM
Subject: John Kerry...You decide


Sent to me by an old shipmate....

I was in the Delta shortly after he left. I know that area well. I
know the operations he was involved in well. I know the tactics and the
doctrine used. I know the equipment. Although I was attached to
CTF-116 (PBRs) I spent a fair amount of time with CTF-115 (swift
boats), Kerry's command.

Here are my problems and suspicions:

(1) Kerry was in-country less than four months and collected, a Bronze
Star, a Silver Star and three purple hearts. I never heard of anybody
with any outfit I worked with (including SEAL One, the Sea Wolves,
Riverines and the River Patrol Force) collecting that much hardware so
fast, and for such pedestrian actions. The Swifts did a commendable job.
But that duty wasn't the worst you could draw. They operated only
along the coast and in the major rivers (Bassac and Mekong). The rough
stuff in the hot areas was mainly handled by the smaller, faster PBRs.

(2) Three Purple Hearts but no limp. All injuries so minor that no
time lost from duty. Amazing luck. Or he was putting himself in for
medals every time he bumped his head on the wheel house hatch? Combat
on the boats was almost always at close range. You didn't have minor
wounds. At least not often. Not three times in a row. Then he used
the three purple hearts to request a trip home eight months before the
end of his tour. Fishy.

(3) The details of the event for which he was given the Silver Star
make no sense at all. Supposedly, a B-40 was fired at the boat and
missed. Charlie jumps up with the launcher in his hand, the bow gunner
knocks him down with the twin .50, Kerry beaches the boat, jumps off,
shoots Charlie, and retreives the launcher. If true, he did everything
wrong.
(a) Standard procedure when you took rocket fire was to put your
stern to the action and go balls to the wall. A B-40 has the ballistic
integrity of a frisbie after about 25 yards, so you put 50 yards or so
between you and the beach and begin raking it with your .50's.
(b) Did you ever see anybody get knocked down with a .50 caliber
round and get up? The guy was dead or dying. The rocket launcher was
empty. There was no reason to go after him (except if you knew he was
no danger to you just flopping around in the dust during his last few
seconds on earth, and you wanted some derring do in your after-action
report). And we didn't shoot wounded people. We had rules against that,
too.
(c) Kerry got off the boat. This was a major breach of standing
procedures. Nobody on a boat crew ever got off a boat in a hot area.
EVER! The reason was simple. If you had somebody on the beach your
boat was defenseless. It coudn't run and it couldn' t return fire. It
was stupid and it put his crew in danger. He should have been relieved
and reprimanded. I never heard of any boat crewman ever leaving a boat
during or after a firefight.

Something is fishy.

Here we have a JFK wannabe (the guy Halsey wanted to court martial for
carelessly losing his boat and getting a couple people killed by running
across the bow of a Jap destroyer) who is hardly in Vietnam long enough
to get good tan, collects medals faster than Audie Murphy in a job where
lots of medals weren't common, gets sent home eight months early,
requests separation from active duty a few months after that so he can
run for Congress, finds out war heros don't sell well in Massachsetts in
1970 so reinvents himself as Jane Fonda, throws his ribbons in the dirt
with the cameras running to jump start his political career, gets
Stillborn Pell to invite him to address Congress and Bobby Kennedy's
speechwriter to do the heavy lifting, winds up in the Senate himself a
few years later, votes against every major defense bill, says the CIA is
irrelevant after the Wall came down, votes against the Gulf War, a big
mistake since that turned out well, decides not to make the same mistake
twice so votes for invading Iraq, but oops, that didn't turn out so well
so he now says he really didn't mean for Bush to go to war when he voted
to allow him to go to war.

I'm real glad you or I never had this guy covering out flanks in
Vietnam. I sure don't want him as Commander in Chief. I hope that
somebody from CTF-115 shows up with some facts challenging Kerry's
Vietnam record. I know in my gut it's wildy inflated. And fishy.

Keep smiling,

Mike

[NilesJo]

"Krauthammer does make one glaring error; he claims that FDR had no military experience. While FDR did not serve in uniform he was an Assistant Secretary of Navy from 1913 to 1920 (during the Great War). I think one would have to recognize that as significant military experience -- Still a very good column."

Actually I don't think he did make a glaring error. What he refers to is "national service" not military experience in the broader sense. So I think his analysis is accurate. On a scale of broad military experience, Bush (as a wartime president) would beat Kerry hands down and, hence, there would be no issue and no debate.

[joesnuffy]

The rough stuff in the hot areas was mainly handled by the smaller, faster PBRs.

The really rough stuff in the Delta to Cambodia was handled by the guys the PBRs dropped off to patrol and picked upped a few days and nights later.... :)

[joesnuffy]

Especially those guys that didnt go back to air conditioned quarters, hot showers, hot chow, and clean sheets.....