Posted on 05/01/2004 11:15:50 AM PDT by Wally_Kalbacken
How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?
-- John Kerry, veteran, 1971
John Kerry's campaign has suffered from a curious redefinition of patriotism and heroism -- a revisionism that glorifies armchair warriors while denigrating combat veterans. His combat medals haven't quieted the Bush campaign machine, which sends its minions out to denounce Kerry as unpatriotic and anti-military.
It is an odd thing, but it did not start here. Two years ago, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) defeated Max Cleland -- a Vietnam veteran whose service left him a triple amputee -- partly by challenging his patriotism. Chambliss doesn't want to own up to that now, but many remember his attack ads that featured photos of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden and questioned Cleland's "courage." (Chambliss, by the way, avoided service in Vietnam because of what he says was a bad knee.)
This was not a smear reserved for Democrats. In the 2000 GOP presidential primary, the Bush machine did not hesitate before turning John McCain's record as a prisoner of war against him. Recognizing in McCain a military résumé with which they could not compete, Bush strategists started a whisper campaign, insisting that McCain's years in the custody of the North Vietnamese had left him "mentally unstable" and unfit for the presidency.
So it comes as no great surprise that the latest Bush tactic is to denounce Kerry for his activism against the Vietnam War. In a display of gall that can only be described as astounding, campaign strategist Karen Hughes, interviewed recently on CNN, insisted that reporters ought to prod more deeply into Kerry's activities during the Vietnam War.
Indeed, they should (as they should further explore the activities of President Bush during that same war). What they will find in Kerry's past is a young man who had the courage to say what so many were thinking and some, such as former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, only belatedly admitted -- the war in Vietnam was folly, unwinnable, a quagmire.
Kerry was, as he now acknowledges, angry about the official lies, the ludicrous military strategies, the lives lost. His rhetoric, as he concedes, was over the top. But his crusade to end the war -- based on his observations as a naval officer who had come under fire after volunteering for hazardous duty -- was the very definition of patriotism.
That honorable definition may be returning to vogue as the war in Iraq grows increasingly unpopular. According to a New York Times/CBS poll, nearly half the country now questions the wisdom of the war. And nearly half -- 46 percent -- believe U.S. troops should come home as soon as possible.
Kerry doesn't agree. Like Bush, he believes the United States must stay the course. Both men have suggested more troops may be sent to Iraq to quell the insurrection and create the stability needed to allow the Iraqis to elect a government. They may be right in their refusal to leave.
But, in public at least, Bush seems almost obscenely serene about his decision to send young Americans to die by the hundreds in Iraq. Never mind that he avoided combat in the relative safety of a National Guard "champagne unit" that sheltered other sons of the wealthy and well-connected.
His vice-president, Dick Cheney, is similarly self-righteous, though he had "other priorities" during the Vietnam era. Perhaps it is mere coincidence that his wife, Lynne Cheney, gave birth to their first child exactly nine months and two days after the Selective Service lifted its ban against drafting childless married men.
Kerry, by contrast, has seen the waste of war up close. After the combat death of his close friend, Dick Pershing, in 1968, he wrote a letter to the girlfriend who would become his first wife, Judy: "If I do nothing else in my life I will never stop trying to bring to people the conviction of how wasteful and asinine is a human expenditure of this kind."
He knows what it means to send other people's children off to die.
How this miserable POS got to be the editorial page editor of a major newspaper - I'll never know. Thank god for the declining importance of the traditional media.
Tucker is banging this drum about attacks on the patriotism of Max Cleland. I follow politics intensely - and I recall that the first time I ever heard anyone mention the patriotism of Max Cleland it was Mark Shields on PBS in handicapping the 2002 elections early that season (perhaps as early as April of May of 2002) - suggesting that Republicans were going to attack his patriotism. It cannot be found anywhere in any Lexis/Nexis search - and no one has ever claimed to have heard Chambliss malign Cleland's patriotism. He attacked his voting record - which is perfectly fair game. My curiosity is this - who gave the marching orders to Mark Shields to announce this theme? It has now been regurgitated by Cleland, Kerry and Tucker many times - without an iota of truth behind it.
Amen, brother.
What does this mean? Is she trying to say that Kerry fought in a war? Which one?
Can you say Affirmative Action?
He and the Democrats apparently don't know what happens when you refuse to send other peoples children to die in response to constant attacks.
You get 9/11.
Thats why Kerry and the rats have no business anywhere near the White House.
Unlike their forefathers these modern day slaves have thrown themselves into bondage.
Ah yes, Liberals ya' gotta' love their rhetoric.
They bring up a political talking point, they fall flat on their faces in doing so, put words into their political foes mouths, and then blame the whole debacle on their foe.
Brilliant tactical maneuvering it isn't.
Even Algore was there longer.
Indeed, they should...What they will find in Kerry's past is a young man who had the courage to say what so many were thinking
So many were entertaining the idea of assassinating U.S. Sentators, Cynthia? I think not.
It just took him longer to use Vietnam to build on his scheming political future.
The latter is the best example of her greatness, for usually it takes an act of God to to get the last word in when debating a Liberal! : )
Great thread posting cyncooper!
Your insight along with Teresita's should NOT go unnoticed!
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