Posted on 08/07/2004 1:23:14 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
There’s dissention in the ranks and the smell of mutiny on deck as a parade of Vietnam veterans who served with and/or knew John Kerry in Vietnam come forward to denounce him as a leader, officer and veteran. This situation has helped becalm Kerry’s already some say foundering campaign warship, which got little if any boost from the Democratic National Convention and which also got about the same result from Kerry’s selection of John Edwards as his vice-presidential running mate.
Kerry’s latest headache is followed by frustrating events like Shove-It-Gate, Sandy Berger’s light-fingers episode in the National Archives, and Kerry’s voting to send the United States to war and then voting to not authorize funds earmarked to buy those troops weapons and equipment for that war.
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, founded in May 2004, consists of hundreds of Vietnam veterans who served in Swift Boat units there. This group has released an anti-Kerry ad in which a host of vets, some saying they knew Kerry personally and others saying they served with him and saw him in action, call him a liar, a fraud and an all-around untrustworthy officer.
This annoys Kerry because far more of his fellow Swift Boats vets have lined up against him than have signed up for him. It doesn’t help matters when only two of the officers in Kerry’s division, out of twenty-some-odd men, endorse him for president. Nor does it help when the rear admiral who was Kerry’s boss vehemently says Kerry is unfit to be our commander in chief. And when a superior officer of Kerry’s steps up and says one of Kerry’s Purple Hearts was bogus, i.e., it was a miniscule (fixed with a Band-Aid) self-inflicted wound that Kerry got in a “firefight” that involved no enemy fire whatsoever, that isn’t good, either. (According to this officer, Kerry improperly fired a grenade at some Vietnamese he thought were the enemy. The grenade hit too close to Kerry and a tiny piece of shrapnel nicked him. No enemy were involved in the incident. Kerry asked this superior officer to put him in for a Purple Heart, but the officer refused. But Kerry somehow ended up with the medal anyway. Some vets have insinuated Kerry put himself in for the medal, but that is unproven.)
Sen. John McCain, also a Vietnam veteran but who never served with Kerry, is calling the ad “dishonest and dishonorable.” Many vets want to know why McCain thinks this way, as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did serve with Kerry. Why are these vets the bad guys if they served with Kerry and have a different opinion of him?
What do I think of Kerry’s medals? I have not and will not form an opinion, because I was not there. No veteran who did not serve with Kerry should say a damn word about Kerry’s medals. And the Bush campaign is right not to comment on Kerry’s medals. But these other vets who served with Kerry and who now oppose him have the right to voice their opinions, and McCain is wrong to attack and degrade them simply because their opinions differ from his.
###
Bob Newman, a decorated, retired US Marine, is co-host of "Redmond & Newman http://www.khow.com/hosts/redmond_newman.html on 630 KHOW in Denver. His “Global Positioning Statement,” a daily insider’s update on the war on terror, is carried by various Clear Channel radio stations from coast to coast. A ground-combat veteran, “Gunny Bob” is the director of international security & counterterrorism services for The GeoScope Group and is the military & terrorism columnist for The Denver Daily News.
bobnewman@clearchannel.com
Well, it's startin' to get wierd again, pal!
Good to see ya.............FRegards
Senator Ketchup has had more scandals and missteps than any Presidential candidate in recent memory. Maybe the next book about Ketchup should be called When Dorks Attack.
An innocent defendant may determine it best to not testify if they just don't "come off" too well for some reason; and a guilty guy might testify because, perhaps arrogantly, they think they can snow the jury (A clinton kindof guy comes to mind). If Kerry does answer the SBV's charges, I would suspect the latter case.
If he does, he'll propel more vets toward Bush.
It would be no small feather in their cap, if the RNC could pull one out-of-the-hat on anti-war statements Hanoi Kerry may well have made prior to his Vietnam 'service'. It would be a fitting final chapter to close a self-destruct narsarsistic stained history.
It would also be a fitting 'chickens coming home to ruse' synario for the rats to loose a presidential election, because they dared ask America to vote for someone who - according to military leaders of the North Vietnam Army - was a member of the 'useful idiot' war protestors, who brought about the removal of our military support for, and the eventual defeat of, South Vietnam by the communists.
The military leadership of North Vietnam readily admit that we broke the back of their military capability with our defeat of their 'Tet offensive'.
It was IMHO a deceitful socialist Walter Cronkite along with the pro-communist print media in America who wrongly declared America had failed to destroy the enemy.
Cronkite's un-American denunciation of the war fooled those at home. I will always believe that more than any other American, Walter Cronkite stripped our military from claiming a victory that was theirs for the taking.
Note to the DNC:
It's payback time for you commie, atheist, un-American, race-baiting, socialist demagogues!!! This is one crash 'n burn I didn't think would come in my lifetime.
Feel the heat. Feel the frustration. Feel the erosion of support. Feel the shame you brought on our returning Vietnam warriors. No arms. No legs. No thanks.
You supported our enemy then......and you want to surrender to our enemy now.
Nothing will be finer than to watch you burn. You and I deserve this moment....for different reasons.
(if the facts are how I believe they are)
Kerry does not deserve the medal; for performing what would be the expected duty of an infantryman.
The bigger picture shows Kerry doing something quite
ordinary, but the average voter, (who only get the story from Kerry), thinks Kerry in the upsteam-'lead' boat,
led the initial 'charge'....what really happened, the
Army guys from the middle boat did most of the work,
one VC later shoots a rocket, is wounded by return boat fire,
Kerry and another guy go after the wounded VC, Kerry
finishes off the VC.
With so many witnesses still around, there is a limit
to how much Kerry can lie. We've got to force Kerry to
personally answer to the allegations of the SBVs.
"Elliott probably admitted that it was wrong to be used in that fashion. " The writer supposes that this is what happened and he believes that he is is reporting. Is he not just making something up from whole cloth?
He could have said that, "What Elliot meant was that Kerry killed 500 people with his pockey knife." And it would be just as true. The reporter (barf) made up an exucse for the Kerry.
He is nothing more than ACF (a covering flack) for Kerry and the Taxocrats!
Unless he has a "news conference" or interview where he can be "pinned down" enough to ask him questions,IMHO....
it's gonna take REPEATED and CONSTANT "Freeps" at his EVERY public appearance, with someone yelling at him loud enough to make him HAVE to FINALLY have to reply to it....kinda like a "4 More Years" chant that finally cannot be ignored ANYMORE,.....
... and from whatever crowd and press he is in front of when he "snaps", creates a theh-re-zza "4 more years of HELL" reply or something similar to get a NATIONAL recognition of our "questions".
Kerry then said: ''That's all right. Let 'em chant, ladies and gentlemen, because they've only got three more months to chant. They don't want to hear the truth! . . . But John Edwards and I are going to tell America the truth."
We've got to make it clear to everyone that Kerry put
himself up for a medal that: would be the expected duty
of the average rifleman, that being, if you have tactical advantage, you are expected to try to prevent a lone enemy
soldier from returning to his unit.
I agree, ( and thanks for your reply).
I have heard one of the Swift Vets,( the one in the "crows nest type thing ) 14ft above the "action" that day, with a 360 degree view, state that FOUR PEOPLE ended up in the water after the mine explosion. kerry HAULDED ASS (and that's why rassman fell off kerry's boat and ended up in the water), but the other boats stayed after determining that the mine was the ONLY enemy "attack"
on the group of boats.
The other boats STAYED and then tried to help the dammaged boat, ALONG WITH PICKING UP 3 of THE 4 men "overboard" when kerry showed back up to find rassman still in the water( all thanks to kerry gunning the boat so hard to bug-out, that rassman fell off) and brought his boat around so rassman could grab the "net" that the boats used to climb bach on the boat for situations like that, and because of all the GEAR that SF Grenn Beret rassman (HE WAS ONLY THERE FOR THE DAY !!!! and not a PPERMANENT SV crew member of kerry's boat BTW) he had trouble "climbing back on the boat.
So kerry EXTENDED HIS HAND OUT TO HIM, and PULLED HIM enough to assist rassman's re-entry into the boat.kerry DID NOT LEAVE HIS BOAT TO GET rassman BACK ON BOARD.!!
As the Swift Vet stated from his perch, there was NO ENEMY FIRE as kerry gave rassman a helping hand back onto his boat. There were NO BULLET HOLES IN ANY OF THE BOATS, OR WOUNDED PERSONELL besides the "mined boat", and 3 other sailors were also "Saved" from the water also, but NONE of those folks got a "medal" for saving the other 3.
hmmmm......
I'm not a vet, but I also wonder...why does McCain feel that way?
Is McCain afraid his own recollections will be scrutinized, in the same way that Kerry's are being scrutinized?
The liberal press went after Bush and put the stamp of approval on scrutinizing.
You are describing the 'Bronze Star' incedent?
I think that incident had a star (I think it was the Bronze Star, the Silver Star being for chasing a Viet Cong and dispatching him). Kerry was also awarded a Purple Heart as a result of the mining incident.
I got my comment in :)
Bruce
There's no retraction, the Globe stands by its story.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://12thman.us/media/jihad.rm (Requires RealPlayer)
I checked the basics of Kerry's medals. They line up as:
The Globe is "standing by its story?" I don't think so. They are saying they quoted Elliott accurately, and they may have. But saying the Globe is "standing by its story" is like saying "Elliott retracted his July 21 affidavit." Either statement is demonstrably false.
Bronze star incident, did Kerry's boat detonate a mine
(after another boat was damaged by a mine)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.