Posted on 08/23/2004 11:25:16 AM PDT by steplock
The following I received directly from the Arkansas dnc Attack Dog himself just a few minutes ago. (we have an ongoing email battle)
< QUOTE >
These people have no decency. one of Doles Purple Hearts was in his own WORDS “patched up with Mercurochrome and a purple heart.”
Keep in mind that this entire swift boat strategy is to moblize the repug wing-nut constituency, and will have no effect on the undecideds. the wing nut base has been disgruntled with bush/cheney and polls indicate that at least 10% are thiniking of staying home on november 2. they are trying to energize them up with this trash. hold on a few more days, as bush’s discharge papers are going to be released showing it was “undesirable”
Today Bob Dole suggested that one or more of John Kerry's Purple Hearts may have been fraudulent in some way because they were for "superficial wounds."
Dole knows better.
In a 1988 campaign-trail autobiography, here's how Dole described the incident that earned him his first Purple Heart: "As we approached the enemy, there was a brief exchange of gunfire. I took a grenade in hand, pulled the pin, and tossed it in the direction of the farmhouse. It wasn't a very good pitch (remember, I was used to catching passes, not throwing them). In the darkness, the grenade must have struck a tree and bounced off. It exploded nearby, sending a sliver of metal into my leg--the sort of injury the Army patched up with Mercurochrome and a Purple Heart."
-- Josh Marshall (the author of the last paragraph)
My reply to the DNC attack dog:
Boy is the Progressive Socialist Party getting desperate now!
What Dole called a mercurochrome scratch to Kerry would have been a life-threatening gaping wound.
That was a total LIBEL! Just like the entire Kerry slime campaign. And that last "cartoon" that ridiculed all Vietnam combat veterans was the last straw of desperation of things that lack any and all knowledge of HONOR, INTEGRITY, COURAGE, and PATRIOTISM.
Just because Kerry claims to be for America, he is actually for the USSA - the united socialist states of america - and that is TREASON.
See.. The key difference is that Kerry asked for his Purple Hearts.
It sounds like the Army gave him a Purple Heart for his wound, and he didn't have to ask more than once for it.
A significant difference is that Dole wasn't using his Purple Hearts to avoid combat and get sent home; Kerry was.
Ok, well, how would you like to shake hands with Bob Dole? Oh, yeah just remember it will be his left hand in your right hand, because he can't friggin' move his right one.
Was that Purple Heart earned? Assume yes and reply that if John Kerry has three of those, wouldn't you expect him to be a bit more "chewed up"? If John Kerry's shrapnel in his leg or buttocks is so bad, how could he possibly be snow skiing...and kite surfing...and riding an $8,000 10-speed...and wind surfing...etc?
Yeah, he's real hurt.
To clarify... It was Kerry that asked more than once... I doubt Dole even asked once. The Army gave him his medal, probably because he was listed as wounded afterward. Probably by his CO.
As has already been pointed out today, Dole took the hits on this in 1996. See then it was OK to bad mouth a crippled war veteran. Today you can't even question a faux one.
"It wasn't a very good pitch (remember, I was used to catching passes, not throwing them). In the darkness, the grenade must have struck a tree and bounced off. It exploded nearby, sending a sliver of metal into my leg--the sort of injury the Army patched up with Mercurochrome and a Purple Heart."
Self inflicted, but during "heat of the battle." Kerry's rump wound was not in the heat of battle, that's why he phonied up the injury to have occured during the later "mine" incident - except his boat didn't hit a mine.
http://www.americal.org/awards/ph.htm
""...(5) Examples of injuries or wounds which clearly do not qualify for award of the Purple Heart are as follows:
....(h) Self-inflicted wounds, except when in the heat of battle, and not involving gross negligence. "
Whatever the severity Kerry's rice wound would not have qualified, or he feared it wouldn't. That's why, IMO, Kerry submitted a report that the wound related to a later incident.
Precisely. Kerry would howl about a mortal wound and put himself in for the MoH.
This sounds like DU level pap. They're rapidly losing any veteran support so they attack veterans. Just brilliant.
I think most intelligent people will discern the difference between Dole's humility and Kerry's boastfulness. Like a true hero with humility, Dole downplays his combat wounds; like an egotistical, swollen headed equivocator, Kerry tries to illuminate his wounds and embellish the circumstances of their origin. These RATS are have no morals.
Yes. And IMO it comes down not only to his March "wound", but how it occurred. In the spotrep it says "sharpnel" from a mine. But every subsequent story, even from his "friend" Rassman undermines the spotrep. The grenade in the rice incident might not qualify for the citation, self-inflicted and not in the heat of battle, so Kerry attributed the wound to a later battle.
Kerry bugged out. Lots did, but they're not running on their "reporting for duty" in Vietnam.
This is an excellent point. Nobody can toss a grenade very far, they are only used when facing the enemy in close combat situations.
Even worse, Kerry was probably a deserter. The rule, on PHs, was three and you're out of Vietnam early. "Unfit for Command" does a superb job of showing he fraudulently obtained two of them, and bugged out on the basis of those bogus medals. Thus, he deserted his command.
The difference between an honorable man and John Kerry is that an honorable man thinks nothing of himself and highly of others.
Yea, they love to trot out ole Maxie Cleland who lost three limbs in NON-COMBAT related self inflicted accident for which he recieved NO PURPLE HEART. They just want everyone to assume he was injured in combat, scumbags.
It's a subtle point made by the Swifties in their book. When they say "self-inflicted" it's not merely to cast aspersions on competence (stuff happens) but that being self-inflicted triggers a set of different rules. Mostly they focus on the minorness of the injuries - so far.
Plus, as I gather, the Swifties tread tenuously in the book because, at the time of the writing, they knew that Kerry reported the shrapnel from a mine in the spotrep, yet they had one statement from Rassman talking about the earlier in the day rice hutch incident. But since Rassman has given more statements confirming the incident.
Kerry reported the injury came from a mine - but his boat was undamaged. The possible reason for this probable lie is that Kerry feared the earlier incident didn't qualify for a PH due to circumstances, and he wanted a ticket home.
FYI, IIRC, Cleland's awful injuries were not in battle, but accidental. Awful, but do not meet the criteria of the PH.
As Rassman discusses it, the rice hutch incident was kind of a clean-up incident, seemingly not made in the "heat of battle." Rassman portrays it even as comical. Supporting proof would be Kerry's misattribution of the would to enemy action and enemy weapon - the mysterious 'mine".
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