Someone wrote into a local paper recently and shed some light on the John F Kerry's Vietnam record. He had served with the man and I doubt he has a dumper sticker for Kerry in '04 on his car. This inspired me to do some research on this topic, because I had heard before that it is quite shady.
Well the reason Kerry got send home after a short stint during the war, was because he got injured in combat 3 times. Which means he was eligible to for a ticket out of Vietnam. His injuries were mostly minor from pieces of shrapnel. In fact his last injury by the accounts of the men that were there was his own fault for mishandleing one of his own weapons. The shrapnel piece was so thin that it was actually removed with tweezers and only needed a band-aid.
After leaving his group Kerry spoke out not only against the war, but the practices by the men he was with. He also went to many anti-war protests and allegedly mocked US solders while dressing up and making them look like jack-asses. Holding American flags upside down, and in one instance was seen with a group waving the communist Vietnam flag.
Now, okay lots of people were against that war. Most people are against the Gulf War 2 still going on right now. These people usually follow that up with stating they are against the war, but for the troops. I am not sure how Kerry could have justified that.
Now I tried to give Kerry the benefit of the doubt and chalk this one up to people on Bush's side trying to discredit him. However the amount of Vietnam veterans against him is just too alarming to discredit. He DID speak out against them and accused many of people he fought with of doing some fairly nasty stuff similar to what is depicted in NAM films.
Now he admits that he didn't really say anything other than blame leaders of the troops for leaving their men twisting in the wind. It wasn't a secret though that Kerry wasn't for the cause once he got there and wanted out. He all but begged for the third purple heart (or at least nominated himself for the purple heart) to get him out of combat from what I read. I don't know what to make, Kerry almost seem like a chameleon to me at times. The SUV story a awhile back where he denied ever having them in front of a bunch of environmentalists, after saying how great they were before and supposedly had it turned out he owned several. It makes you wonder if there is truth to this war record.
Now for those of you that wish to comment here, let us not compare his record to Bush. We all know he likely benefited from his rich parents and was kept out of harm's way for the most part. However, that is the way it always has been since the start of time not that it is right or anything. However, comparing the two it isn't nearly as bad.
Now perhaps you shouldn't elect a leader based on how they spend their youth in a troubled time. God knows they both served their country a lot more than I have. However, it is an example of how I just haven't been able to peg what exactly John Kerry is all about. Again their are just too many disgruntled veterans out there to discredit this. Kerry certainly shouldn't be claiming himself any kind of war hero.
I have yet to decide who I am voting for come November, and have pegged September 1st as the day I come out with an endorsement for Tucker's World. That way I can use the following months to root,root for the favored candidate in the election. I could easily go either way at this point.
Before I can make any decision I would like to get some discussion on here. I hear SO much anti-Bush and what he does wrong. However, I don't hear much about John Kerry other then he hates Bush and thinks he is an idiot. So let's use this as a chance to tackle this topic first and get some discussion about the man that likely (at is appears right now) could be the next leader of our country for the next 4 years.
Hope everyone had a good Micheal Moore Weekend!
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3 comments:
Kerry is a war hero. That is an undeniable fact. Even if all of his injuries were minor, he also received medals for valiently saving the lives of some of his troops at great personal risk to himself. If you want to say that Kerry's war record ain't all it's cracked up to be, that's fine, but they don't give the Bronze and Silver Star to just anybody. Kerry is a war hero.
I can't follow your links (they appear to be busted), and I can't remember the guy's name, but there's one guy out there who has been dogging Kerry for decades. He was hired by the Nixon White House specificaly to go up against Kerry on chat show appearances. He served on the same boat that Kerry commanded, but he didn't arrive in Vietnam until after Kerry left. I don't know the guy's name, so the guy you talk about may not be the same one, but it sounds like him.
And by all means, let's not compare Kerry to Bush. Let's just completely ignore the fact that one rich kid volunteered to go to Vietnam, while another rich kid got his father to pull strings to get him into the Texas Air National Guard, and checked the box saying that he did not want to be sent overseas. Let's also ignore the fact that one guy was honorably disacharged after winning three purple hearts, a bronze star, and a silver star, and the other guy still can't provide documentation to show that he actually fulfilled his commitment.
If you want to accuse Kerry of exaggerating his war record, that's fine. In fact, I agree with you. Kerry served with honor, distinction, and valor, but he wasn't Rambo. But if you're going to talk about what Kerry was doing during the war, you can't get out of talking about what Bush was doing.
I'd be interested in reading those links. See if you can fix them, or just email it too me.
The links worked fine for me. Anyone else having trouble? Must be all the high traffic my blog gets trying to read the links and crashing the sites.
Drew I wasn't trying to let Bush off the hook. I was simply trying to keep the comments on topic. Just trying to get to the bottom of just how extreme Kerry was and if he really hang his fellow men out to dry.
I'm sure everyone is setting their watches for Sept 1st.
Yeah, the links work now. I don't what the problem was earlier. And it is the Vietnam Vet I was thinking of, John O'Neill, who debated Kerry on the Dick Cavett show in the 70s.
And despite what the link says, Kerry didn't accuse his fellow soldiers of war crimes. He testified to Congress on the contents of testimony he had heard at other hearings. In other words, he told Congress what other soldiers had told him about the atrocities that they had committed. He never claimed to have first hand knowledge of what he was relaying.
I don't see anything shady about John Kerry's Vietnam service. I really don't. I like to think that had I been around and of draftable age during the Vietnam War, I wouldn't have fought. Kerry, out of a sense of patriotic duty, did fight. When he returned, as an expression of that same patriotism, he rallied againsts a war he disagreed with. I respect and admire him for that. I think it shows bravery both as a soldier and as a citizen. Kind of reminds me of Price, too, come to think of it.
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