What if Kerry told the truth?

09/10/04 | Beverley Eyre

[Kettlebelly_0]

I had a thought the other day which rocked me. There are so many words being slung around these days in the presidential race. Accusations, claims of this and that, attack, defense, truth, partial truths, lies. So much hot air and blather.

But then I was listening to Sean Hannity the other day, and he was talking about Kerry's testimony before congress, and his interview on the Dick Cavett show. Before congress Kerry said that soldiers:

"personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads . . . razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan."

and then on the Dick Cavett show, Kerry said:

"Yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed...".

Hannity was doing his usual thing, and I could tell that, to him, it was just another way to attack Kerry. A way that was on a par with other attacks he's used in the past. But then it suddenly struck me.

What if Kerry was telling the truth?

Nobody who talks about this publically, or who I've talked to privately, really believes it. To most people it's just Kerry, a relentless and prodigal liar, just doing his usual schtick. Nothing to take seriously. And it may be that that's all it is. Kerry just being Kerry.

But he made these statements when he was still a young man, before 35 years in politics had turned him into the corrupt and contemptible ward heeler he is today. He may even have been idealistic, acting for what he conceived of as a good motive. If so, there's a chance that he was telling the truth.

The horror of that thought really hit me. A person running for the office of President of the United States who, by his own admission, committed atrocities like cutting off ears and heads of innocent vietnamese villagers, burning down villages, and who knows what else? I had this powerful image of a young Kerry, running through the jungle in Viet Nam, shooting a fleeing vietnamese villager, then grabbing him (or her) by the hair, pulling out his knife, and hacking the ears off of the struggling victim. I was asking myself, what was Kerry thinking while he was doing this? What expression did he have on his face? Do these events ever enter into his mind today? Does he ever relive those moments? The moments when he committed the atrocities that he claims to have committed when interviewed on the Dick Cavett show?

What if he really did this? What if he's not the liar that we all take for granted that he is? How can anyone vote for this evil thing?

The Democrats of today bewilder me. I could understand where they were coming from when advocated peace, even though I disagreed with them. But today, they seem to feel nothing but the most intense hatred, wish that a dictator on the scale of a Hitler or a Stalin were back in power torturing and murdering the Iraqi people by the tens of thousands, and are going to vote for a candidate who publically claimed to have committed "atrocities" on innocent victims with no qualms of conscience at all.

I seriously don't get it.

[moehoward]

He's tried everything else, why not?

[Tribune7]

What if Kerry told the truth?

His chin would stop growing.

[Tempest]

Kettlebelly_0
Since Aug 2, 2004

This is not news or current events.

Gee DU'ers are mount a massive attack today.

[Crazieman]

See, its wrong if you think about sticking a panty on some islamofascist's head, but if you have a D by your name, you can get away with being in the KKK, murder(manslaughter via dihiydrogen monoxide overdosing), and committing warcrimes.

[kcinnh]

What is Ted Kennedy told the truth, What if Bill Clinton told the truth, these guys make up their own truth.

[Chieftain]

S enator

We

I nsist

F orthrightness

T ruth

V eracity

E thics

T rustworthiness

S ervice

One of the BIG reasons that Kerry has tanked in the polls is because of the Swiftees killer ads!

You can bet the CBS and DemocRAT 'smear the President and National Guardsmen and Swiftees' campaign will be kicked up to a whole new level now.

FReepers are key in getting the word out about the righteousness of the SBVFT by exposing Kerry's FRAUD.

These Swiftee window stickers get the word out to the driving public, display public support for the SBVFT, as well as displaying the website address!

[Tempest]

forget my last remarks I'm eing overly cautious today.

[UltraKonservativen]

What if Kerry told the truth?

Damn! Is that possible?
Up against the wall. FIRE!

[counterpunch]

It is funny, isn't it, that the best case scenario for Kerry is that he is merely a liar.

His supporters are betting on it, in fact. They do not support his position(s) on Iraq and most other things. They are hoping that Kerry is a liar and just saying stuff to try to get elected. And all the while, they are accusing the President of being a "liar" with selective, manufactured outrage and righteous indignation.

[Graybeard58]

forget my last remarks I'm eing overly cautious today.

Why?

It's still not news or current events.

[Joe 6-pack]

"What if Kerry told the truth?"

What if my aunt had balls? Would she be my uncle?

[thoughtomator]

I dunno about then, but if he told the truth now he would explode!

[GreenHornet]

What if Kerry told the truth?

What if Eleanor Roosevelt could fly?

[counterpunch]

ummm.. did you actually read the post before you began making paranoid accusations?

[kcinnh]

What if Theressssssssa was good looking?

[airborne]

How far back would you like him to go? He's been lying for so long that by the time he got done the election would be over!

[swilhelm73]

I've raised this issue with a number of liberals.

Namely, John Kerry says he committed atrocities in Vietnam - are you willing to vote for a self confessed war criminal?

I've got three responses in order I'v heard them;

1) "He didn't do anything like that. He didn't lie when he said he did either."

This is known as cognitive dissidence, as obviously one statement or the other is true.

2) "He lied. But that's ok because it was such a important cause, well worth lying for."

But then this is the left's incessant complaint about Bush, isn't it?

3) "Yeah he is a war criminal. But Bush is worse."

This one I can't comprehend. They admit the man is the war criminal he says he is, but they are going to vote for him anyway...

[Theresawithanh]

Senator Kerry is a supreme opportunist, a liar and a traitor, and is unfit to command other soldiers in a war which we will continue to wage, no matter who gets elected president (but it's going to be President Bush)!

The subject of whether he was telling the truth or not is moot.

[Kettlebelly_0]

That's funny.

1) "He was telling the truth when he said that he committed atrocities, but it's not true that he committed them."

That's not necessarily contradictory. But it could only be true if Kerry is insane.

2) "He lied, but it's OK to lie in an important cause, unless you're someone I don't like, then it's despicable."

I hope this guy posts a list of all those he doesn't like, so we can know who is permitted to lie. It would also help if he posted a list of "important causes".

3) "Yeah he's a war criminal, but Bush is worse, he's a successful Republican. I feel fine about voting for a war criminal, but Republicans are bad people, so I can't vote for them."

So, this is what you do for entertainment? Tune into the "Liberal Comedy Hour?"

Kettlebelly