Mark Steyn - Running on cliches

Washington Times ^ | 2/16/04 | Mark Steyn

[kattracks]

If you own a computer or listen to talk-radio or read the British or Australian papers, you'll know John Kerry is currently beset by rumors of interns. By the time you read this, it may be that America's genteel broadsheets and network news shows will have overcome their squeamishness and tiptoed gingerly down the path blazed by Drudge and Fleet Street. Or maybe they'll decide to investigate it a bit longer, just to get chapter and verse nailed down, which means you may not get to read about it till, oh, midway through President Kerry's second term.

[Fledermaus]

Yesterday on "Captial Gang", Al the Hitman Hunt used his program ending "outrage" to blast Coulter and again play the lie card that Cleland DID, in fact, lost his limbs "in battle".

But of course, "in battle" now is being parsed like Clinton's "is" or "well, technically we were never alone in the White House" (impossible since staff and security are always present).

[hotpotato]

I think some are arguing that "Ann lied" by claiming it wasn't Cleland's grenade, but someone elses (though I'm not really sure how much difference that makes).

In Cleland's own words:

On April 8, 1968, I volunteered for one last mission. The helicopter moved in low. The troops jumped out with M16 rifles in hand as we crouched low to the ground to avoid the helicopter blades. Then I saw the grenade. It was where the chopper had lifted off. It must be mine, I thought. Grenades had fallen off my web gear before. Shifting the M16 to my left hand and holding it behind me, I bent down to pick up the grenade.

A blinding explosion threw me backwards.

It is a tragic accident. I'm not sure what I think of Coulter's article. But the facts are sort of interesting and only because of Cleland's accusations of Bush being AWOL.

[Fledermaus]

Notice Cleland doesn't bother to explain the circumstances for why he was stepping off a helicopter. These leads peole to think it in a comabt situation when it wasn't.

[hotpotato]

I think some are arguing that "Ann lied" by claiming it wasn't Cleland's grenade, but someone elses

hmmm... after reading that, I realize it's not very clear. I meant to say that some are arguing that Ann lied about Cleland dropping his own grenade on himself when it wasn't Cleland's grenade but instead belonged to someone else and he picked it up.

[hotpotato]

Really? ohhhh, I see now. What was he doing in a helicopter and do you have a reference (URL)?

[samtheman]

a terrified, Kerrified America

[Fledermaus]

I think it was a recon training maneuver, but in Vietnam. Which is why it was made worse because they weren't supposed to bring live arms but supposedly, as reported back then, someone did. Cleland once said it was someone else's but he then said he picked it up because "he wasn't sure if it was his".

But if he wasn't supposed to be carrying a live grenade, why was he? Was it his and he forgot to leave it behind or was it someone elses?

None of that has been determined from what I understand. You have to know how government bureaucracy works...he picked it up, it blew up, he lost three limbs. That's the story regardless. The rest was obviously just ignored and swept under the rug during a war. Who broke the rule, if the rule was in place or not, isn't important. They have an injured hero who will automatically get medals and a discharge. Case closed.

[Fledermaus]

Go to TownHall.com and click on Ann's columns.

I also think this one in particular was on Frontpagemag.com but I'm not sure of their archives.

She elaborates on the incident.

[hotpotato]

I found this (excerpt) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1076535/posts?page=18#18


"The blast was caused by a grenade that had fallen on the ground. It exploded as Cleland reached to pick it up.

For years, Cleland believed he was the one who dropped the grenade, which led to the loss of his right arm and both legs.

Cleland retold the story in 1999 on a History Channel program. Lloyd, who was watching the show at his home in Annapolis, Md., picked up the phone and called Cleland’s office.

The story, Lloyd said, was wrong.

Lloyd said the blast was caused by another soldier’s grenade — not Cleland’s.

Lloyd said he knew because after Cleland was loaded onto the helicopter, another soldier, who had been hit by shrapnel, was crying. Lloyd tried to console the soldier, who said he had dropped the grenade.

The grenade exploded when its cotter pin had fallen out, activating the explosive, said the 57-year-old Lloyd. The soldier told Lloyd that he had straightened the pins so it would be easier to pull them when he had to throw a grenade.

Lloyd’s revelation, which checked out, changed Cleland’s life, Cleland has written. For 30 years, Cleland had blamed himself for his injuries. "

[Prodigal Son]

The soldier told Lloyd that he had straightened the pins so it would be easier to pull them when he had to throw a grenade.

Damn.

Those pins aren't that hard to pull out. That doesn't seem like a very smart thing for the young man to have done. I'd feel bad too if it had been mine.

[Brian Allen]

<< Thanks to John F-ing Cohn/Kerry in his Hanoi Jane period, Vietnam was a disaster for America that gave the [For seven-long-deccades obsessively-"DemocRAT"-oriented] establishment a wholly irrational fear of almost every ramshackle Third World basket-case on the planet. >>

And bastard bred and projectile vomited upon us the Communist Party of America-descended traitors, Carter and Cli'ton -- and now -- full circle: Cohn/Kerry.

[1rudeboy]

bttt

[mylife]

Ping

[wayoverontheright]

As Ann Coulter pointed out in a merciless but entirely accurate column, it wasn't on the "battlefield." It wasn't in combat.

To me, anyone who was IN Vietnam in those days is a hero. That said, a hero not consumed with himself would always put the asterisk to this type of event, instead of allowing others to depict it as something it wasn't. In what way is the other side showing mercy in its attacks on out people? If Ann hadn't broken the ice, even Steyn would be afraid to say the truth.

[mylife]

"A Terrified Kerryfied America"

Thats the part that I loathe, Kerry would have America be a UN bootlicking nation.

[alwaysconservative]

In 2002, the Democrats had no ideas and they ran on biography: In Missouri, Jean Carnahan was the brave widow of the late governor; in Georgia, Max Cleland was a Vietnam veteran and triple amputee; in Minnesota, Walter Mondale was the lion of the '84 campaign and a friend of Paul Wellstone. And in all three cases the public shrugged and voted Republican. These are serious times and they demand politicians rise to them.
Yet here we are two years later, and they're running on biography all over again. But this time their chosen biography is Vietnam, and for many Americans, and especially Boomer Democrats, that's far more psychologically complicated.
Look at John Kerry's stump speech: "We band of brothers," he says, indicating his fellow veterans. "We're a little older, we're a little greyer, but we still know how to fight for this country." Thirty years ago, he came back from Vietnam and denounced his "band of brothers" as a gang of drug-fueled torturers, rapists, and murderers.
These versions are not reconcilable. When he was palling around with Jane Fonda in the '70s, he hated the military. It wasn't just that he opposed the war but that he accused his "band of brothers" of a level of participation in war crimes and civilian atrocities unmatched by the Japanese, the Nazis and the Soviets.
So one John Kerry is a fake. Which is it? Running on biography is lame enough. Running on fake biography is pathetic.

Steyn must be one of the most brilliant men out there! I wonder how hard it would be to get him syndicated in more papers nationwide?

[BonnieJ]

Regardless of how he lost 3 limbs, he is a tragic person. I can't imagine living all these decades like that. His bitterness is misdirected but it's understandable. Attacking him would be a mistake. Every time I see him it just tears at me and you know many feel that way. If he was in Vietnam when he lost his limbs, that will be the most significant fact to most.

[alisasny]

For 30 years, Cleland had blamed himself for his injuries. "

Does this mean he now blames Lloyd for his injuries instead of a wartime accident which is common???

[Fledermaus]

But that doesn't explain the "in battle" line since I was under the impression from Coulter's article that it was at a training site in Vietnam.

Now, Hunt and others could argue that is "in battle" and I guess I'll give them that distinction. When I normally hear "in battle" is assume a fight against the enemy.