Posted on 07/28/2004 5:49:12 AM PDT by OESY
...
Even Bill Clinton — Bill Clinton! — took a shot at the incumbents in his speech, noting that "during the Vietnam War, many young men, including the current president, the vice president and me, could have gone to Vietnam but didn't."
Of course, when Republicans criticized Clinton for working overtime to avoid the draft (unlike Bush, he didn't even enlist in the National Guard), Democrats responded by labeling it a smear.
When Republicans cited the first George Bush's heroism — he even lied about his age to enlist — Democrats dismissed it as irrelevant. When Bob Dole's ads mentioned his courageous sacrifice, including the permanent disability he suffered from his wounds, Democrats accused him of "shamelessly exploiting" his military record.
During the 1992 campaign, and the debate over Clinton's lack of service, one Democrat took to the floor of the Senate and delivered an impassioned speech in which he warned against "reopening the wounds" of Vietnam and pleaded: "We do not need to divide America over who served and how."
The senator's name was John Kerry.
But that was then and this is now. Now Kerry is running on a 35-year-old memory. And the best way to do that, apparently, is to divide America over who served and how.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I'm sure all the National Guardsmen fighting in Iraq are real happy to hear the Democrats badmouthing National Guard service as cowardly and irrelevant.
If Kerry is a hero, then I am a mid-wife!
The link is going to a blank page. Perhaps you posted the printer friendly version instead of the other one? It doesn't show up.
-Kerry testified under oath that he participated in war crimes.
-If he did so under orders, he knows that every soldier has a duty to refuse to follow unlawful orders. If he participated, it demonstrates that he considered the orders lawful and brings into question his sense of judgement.
-If he thinks the orders were unlawful, then he is unfit because it brings into question his honesty.
-If he fails to name the (living) officer who ordered him to engage in brutalities, he is unfit because he continues to perpetuate a coverup.
-If he claims that he misled the committee years ago, he is unfit because he lied to Congress, under oath and stained the reputation of a generation of honorable US servicemen.
Why won't Kerry clear the record about his war crimes?
Milking self inflicted wounds and minor injuries into enough purple hearts to get an early dicharge is not heroism. Neither is backstabbing your comrades in arms, giving aid to the enemy and undermining your country's war efforts. Unless you are in the Jackazz party.
I thought it was Kerry and his camera crew who went to Vietnam.
War criminal BUMP
John Kerry spent four months fighting for this country, then spent the next four years fighting for this country's enemy. His words were used to demoralize our POW's there, he's a hero allright, to the North Vietnamese.
People don't realize that the jet Bush flew during National Guard service had the nickname of 'Widow Maker'. If I am not mistaken, it was the F-111. It did not remain in service for very long from my understanding. In it's list of capabilities was also the possibilty of delivering thermonuclear devices. Not a powder-puff mission, if you ask me. In addition, we were at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and a commonly understood fact that the Soviets spent plenty of dinero south of the border. Mexico had a lot of Communist sympathies. Cuba just so happens to be 90 miles south of Miami. The missle crisis was only in '63. Bush flew plenty of missons performing critical patrolling and guarding our southern reaches in an age where satellites and other space assets were not yet what they are today. Intel had to be gathered the ol' fashioned way, with a pilot on board. How many times have you heard of pilots dying in training and or patrols 'stateside'. It happens more than anyone wants. But it happens and flying a jet is 'hazardous work'. Dean Martin's son died in just that manner.
Subsequently, for a man to spend 4 months in Vietnam when the military standard for tours of duty of no less than 1 year is questionable IMHO. Why does kerry not have a limp, busted arm, lost kidney. He seems in perfect health to me. He can go parasail-surfboarding and snowboarding. Any of the Purple Heart winners I've ever seen on tv or had the distinct pleasure of meeting, you can tell pretty much right away what that person gave in the service of his country. Not so with VVAW kerry. If there is a permanent injury, let me know and I will shut up. However, kerry WILL NOT release his medical records during that time. Why? I want to know.
1st rule in Dem Club -- Do ANYTHING to get elected
2nd rule in Dem Club -- Don't get caught doin' rule 1
tru peace...D
He didn't voluntarily wish to serve in combat. He spent years by volunteering to avoid combat. He was in military training, for years. He signed up for the PCF boats because before the major operation, they were supposed to be safe duty. And nothing happened on his first patrol - no medals, no nothing. It was only when operations commenced, and he was ordered/volunteered to participate, that he got into the dangerous rivers, and his infamous four-month stint.
During that time, another man insists Kerry had to be lying about receiving a Purple Heart under fire. He suggests that it was awarded for a mishap, and an unintentionally self-inflicted wound. You're not supposed to get the Purple Heart for that.
And Clinton 'loathed the military'. President Bush, in that era, did not. Had the war gone on about a year longer, Bush would have been qualified as a combat pilot, and he would have served in Vietnam, no question. And Kerry might now be saying - let's not divide the country over issues of who served what and whom.
Yes, think about those pictures of him SNOWBOARDING, and SKIING, and BIKING. Purple hearts were awarded for injuries sustained by engagement with the enemy, this means largely bullets, bombs, and shrapnel, BONE-SHEARING PROJECTILES ALL.
What are the odds that a guy could get three of those things and not only still be walking around, but HAVE NOT ONE SCAR TO SHOW US?
bump
I just heard that even the hugs will be scripted. Hollywood!
Kerry is a phony. Always has been always will be.
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