Kerry's Embroidery

John Kerry and about a dozen of his guys say that young Lt. Kerry earned all of his medals in Vietnam, performed heroically, and is a battle-tested leader who deserves to be the next president.

John O'Neill and about 250 of his guys say Kerry is a liar and a fraud, who received a Purple Heart for a self-inflicted wound, spent much of his time in Vietnam filming himself in scenarios carefully designed to look dangerous, and is thoroughly unfit to be the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.

Those of us who weren't there couldn't know with 100-percent certainty which side is lying unless we had access to some sort of documentary evidence clearly revealing that one side is wrong.

Michael Kranish, the Boston Globe reporter who co-wrote the paper's comprehensive biography of Kerry, described this story as a moment that changed Kerry's life:

KRANISH: Sean, I don't know if it's — that's a question that obviously some of the critics will raise. And I think what's fair to look at is how he was affected by Vietnam. He himself would say that you really have to look at a lot of his thought process as what was happening during Vietnam. And in one short anecdote I'll tell you, that in Christmas of 1968, he was on a small boat with his men, basically in Cambodia at a time when Richard Nixon was telling the American public that we're not in Cambodia. And he basically became skeptical. Well, the government is saying this, but he knew himself that wasn't true. And it's also why he says he came back to protest the war that he had served in.
HANNITY: Well, Michael...
KRANISH: So, from his perspective, and he's trying to — I think what he would say a little bit — I can't speak for him obviously — is that, you know, you look at a situation, very traumatic and sometimes you change your mind.
And clearly in Vietnam, when he volunteered, he served, came back to lead the protest.

This is not just some random anecdote. When Kerry has told this tale in the past, he has portrayed it as a decisive moment in his life. Were this a Hollywood movie, the music would swell over the explosions from the South Vietnamese and Kerry would look down, clench his jaw, ball his hands into fists, and then gaze up at the horizon, having learned a painful lesson and resolved to change the mixed-up world he has found himself in. On the Senate floor, he even repeated the word "seared" to demonstrate how clear and important that memory is.

But, it now appears, he wasn't in Cambodia. Which is, pretty much, the point of the story — not just that the South Vietnamese were a bunch of drunks and dangerous to be around on Christmas. The U.S. government wasn't being duplicitous. The president wasn't lying about him (partially because President Nixon wasn't going to be sworn into office for another month). In fact, one could conclude that it was Kerry in the intervening years who was duplicitous.

Put yourself in the shoes of the men who were under Kerry's command.

According to THIS:

Whitlow recalled the scene: "This is a free fire zone, I will fire, I will put rounds in, I'm doing my thing, I'm feeling Mr. Macho. But then when you get close, you see the expressions of the village people, people waving their arms, saying, `No, no, no! Wait a minute, hold this off.' I ended up putting a few down, and then I found out it was friendlies."To make matters worse, a mortar round ricocheted back at the boat and wounded three crewmen.

The details of the episode are murky, however, because none of Kerry's crewmates remembers it the way Kerry does

Kerry is a self promoter and liar. If he hadn't come home and peppered the millions of guys who were in Vietnam it would be different, but he did. He is TOTALLY RESPONSIBLE for the actions of the protests against the war in the 60's. Maybe we shouldn't have been there, and maybe history will write a different story about Vietnam, but that doesn't change the bravery of those men and women who were there. That includes Kerry, regardless of his motives. His actions when he came home were those of a TRAITOR. THe stories he told then and now are full of lies, and these swift boat vets are simply trying to set the story right. They will be hung out to dry by the DNC, and the spin bomb throwers are out there on just about every show blasting away.

The DNC is now saying both stories are RIGHT!! It is simply outrageous the lengths they will go to in covering up lies. Both stories ARE NOT RIGHT. Someone is lying. Kerry lied about Cambodia. His people said he was NEAR the border. Look at the map, there is nothing complicated about the area as the Kerry bomb throwers have said. Could it be Kerry is a self promoting liar who will do anything or say anything on any side of the question to win the White House??

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