Posted on 08/25/2004 4:42:18 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Thank God the fall high school sports season is rapidly approaching. Bring on soccer, football, field hockey, volleyball, cross country and golf and maybe the purity and sanity of the athletes' efforts will take the place of the story that won't end - just what did John Kerry do in VietNam? The Massachusetts senator is being criticized hourly for the "plan" he put in place to use VietNam as a springboard to the presidency. It has become painfully obvious over the past decade and plus that the plan to the presidency does not run through VietNam, rather it runs through Alabama and whatever state a person chooses to live in after getting a deferment.
I am at a loss just why veterans would be more upset with somebody who did go to VietNam that people who avoided it like the plague.
In retrospect, Kerry should have gone to Alabama as part of a National Guard unit, because it's obvious that's where all the heroes were.
Truthfully, I wasn't there when Kerry served, but I am having trouble discounting the accounts of Jim Rassmann, who said that Kerry saved his life, Del Sandusky, who drove the boat, and Gene Thorson, who was also on the boat at the time.
Forget the fact that the Veterans for Truth waiting until Kerry ran for president to get righteous, but how can the testimony of Rassman, Sandusky and Thorson not mean anything.
Just four years ago, John McCain was the subject of allegations concerning his past and the questioning of his patriotism. McCain is a genuine war hero and possibly the only honest politician in existence, someone with the ability to cross party lines. (honest and politician may be the ultimate oxymoron.
Just what do Kerry and McCain have in common?
Both ran against George W. Bush.
There is little question that had George W. Bush lived in the time of the American Revolution he would be known as "The Father of the County." Washington would have been beaten by Bush in an election, because some of the facts concerning his past came under close scrutiny.
Some of these were:
Washington created the Continental Army as part of his plan to become the first president.
Washington secretly supported taxation without representation.
He was nowhere to be found when the Delaware was crossed. He was off vacationing in Palm Springs. Discount the testimony of those in the boat with him, and listen to the Row Boat Veterans for Truth.
The hardships of Valley Forge were vastly exaggerated. The reports of lack of provisions and clothing were false, used to pump up Washington's eventual move to the presidency.
Washington was a friend of Benedict Arnold's.
There is no way that Washington would have survived these attacks, and he would have never been the first president of the county. It is fascinating to think of how history might have been changed had George W. Bush been born two centuries earlier.
So bring on the games. I can't wait for Groton Dunstable to meet North Middlesex in the first week of the fall sports season on the soccer field. Anything is better than listening to this rubbish.
Just like Kerry's "war stories".
From what I understand, this is bogus. Bush supporters never questioned John McCain's past and patriotism. They questioned his support for veteran's causes.
(((POUND! POUND! POUND!)))
...while pretending to be a patriot.
The fact is that from January the 29th or 30th, 1969 till March the 16th, 1969.
A period slightly more than 6 weeks accured 3 Purple Hearts, 1 Silver Star w/combat V, 1 Bronze Star w/combat V. While the Officers and enlisted men on his boat or directly beside him are branded as "war criminal" by John Kerry
John Kerry became the most decorated man to serve on Swiftboats in a 6 week period without spending a day in a hospital.
Now that may not be suspicious to the "kool-aid drinking" crowd, I find it absurd and un-believable to the extreme.
They bought a pig in a poke.
one reason why the LEFT has a hard time understanding why VETS support Bush, a pilot in the ANG for 2 years, vs Kerry a turncoat is that - they (the LEFT) did not serve.
I am not at a loss to understand why this writer thinks doing a third of what his comrades did, grasping at credit, and using that credit to bug out ASAP is the real deal. I am not at a loss to understand why this writer thinks that voluntarily making public pronouncements of a sort that his comrades underwent torture rather than make is praiseworthy.Because I understand that the writer is a "liberal." Such people think that personal responsibility is for chumps, and Public Relations is the only thing that matters. To the liberal, life is a soap opera - and once you have learned to fake sincerity, it is easy.
Media Bias Bump.
....to fool the masses.
That's their ticket.
;^)
"The hardships of Valley Forge were vastly exaggerated."
Actually the winter at Valley Forge has been steeped in some legend and the encampment was not the worst of the war.
The winter of 1777-1778 was actually typical for the period in Pennsylvania, there was no abundance of snow or cold. While chronic supply problems plaugued the Continental Army, they were not exceptionally worse than some other winter encampments and by early spring, the problems of food and forage had largely been solved.
The worst winter encampment of the war was "The Hard Winter" of 1779-1780 when the Main Army under Washington was encamped at "Mount Kemble" Jockey Hollow, just south of Morristown, New Jersey. At one point during this winter, it snowed almost four feet in four days and supplies were non-existant. Soldiers were forced to eat tree bark and old shoes just to survive. The Connecticut Line mutinied and it was only because of a personal plea by Washington himself that enough food was sent to the army to keep it alive.
I forget who the officer was who said that the winter at Morristown made the previous winters at Valley Forge and Middlebrook look easy in comparison.
One of the reasons that Valley Forge has attained almost legendary status is that it was an encampment of units from all over the Colonies (North Carolina to New Hampshire) and as such, its hardships became lore in all parts of the original United States. The encampment at Morristown only involved divisions from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New York, Connecticut and the Continental Artillery.
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