John ("Benedict?") Kerry

Special to FreeRepublic ^ | February 9, 2004 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

[Torie]

Good luck, but I note that nowhere on your campaign website do you suggest that the issue is whether or not to run against Taylor for the Pubbie nomination, or indeed that you are a Republican. Thus my question, which was preciptated in particular by the DCPolitical website. Maybe he was confused as well. But then he also is a lawyer. Lawyers, lawyers, everywhere.

[PhilDragoo]

Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry also reports:

In 1991, the United States Senate created the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs to examine the possibility that U.S. POW/MIAs might still be held by the Vietnamese.

As chairman of the Select Committee, Kerry proved himself to be a masterful chameleon portraying to the public at large what appeared to be an unbiased approach to resolving the POW/MIA issue.

But, in reality, no one in the United States Senate pushed harder to bury the POW/MIA issue, the last obstacle preventing normalization of relations with Hanoi, than John Forbes Kerry.

In fact, his first act as chairman was to travel to Southeast Asia, where during a stopover in Bangkok, Thailand, he lectured the U.S. Chamber of Commerce there on the importance of lifting the trade embargo and normalizing relations with Vietnam.

During the entire life of the Senate Select Committee, Kerry never missed a chance to propaganderize and distort the facts in favor of Hanoi.

A further discussion of awards at MILITARY AWARDS: EARNED OR NOT, WAS THE CRITERIA MET?

Surely any American who joined Jane Fonda in slandering our fighting men in 1971 is only a war hero to the North Vietnamese Communists.

[T'wit]

Well done. I think the reference to Benedict Arnold is apt. Arnold's courage was not to be questioned. As I recall, he returned to fight hard against us as a British officer. His loyalty and judgment were the qualities that blackened his name to history.

John Kerry's leftist activities likewise call both his loyalty and judgment into question. His actions, I agree, did not meet the legal standard of treason. But there is no question that the so-called anti-war movement gave real aid and comfort to the enemy. It had secret ties to the enemy, it got secret funding from the enemy, and some of its inner circle took orders from the enemy.

As a leader of that enemy "fifth column" in this country, Kerry was disloyal to his country and to every American who served honorably in Vietnam. His supporters say he saved American lives in Vietnam. But how many American lives did John Kerry's disloyalty cost?

[stylin19a]

John Kerry - loved LBJ's war, hated Nixon's war. Course he didn't hate the war until after he got buried in his first attempt in getting elected.

[Congressman Billybob]

I won't push the label "Republican" until after the primary. Two factors apply here: Charlie Taylor, 6-term incumbent, is well-wired in the Repub establishment. He is less wired to "causual" Republicans. And he has no "street creds" as they say, with the 14% of the District who are registered independents (and they can vote in either primary on election day).

In every meeting I attend, I speak with equal clarity about what I believe and what I intend, as I have written on FreeRepublic for the last six years. So no one has the slightest doubt that I am a staunch conservative, with a particular hot button that the Supreme Court MUST obey the Constitution. I'm just using my best judgment to find and gain the 50,000 votes I estimate will be the winning number in the primary. Does that make sense?

John / Billybob

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

So no one has the slightest doubt that I am a staunch conservative, with a particular hot button that the Supreme Court MUST obey the Constitution.

That would almost be a lock for my vote!

[neverdem]

BTTT, I want all Americans to know this tale of woe.

[CyberAnt]

I agree with you, and my tagline confirms that.

[CyberAnt]

Thanks for posting this.

[GailA]

btt

[neverdem]

I want all Viet-Nam veterans to know how Kerry called them all war criminals.

[Keith in Iowa]

Good article. I wish my local paper would print it.

[WOSG]

Well said. And the correct history on Saratoga is indeed apt. gen'l Arnold was a war hero before he was a traitor, and Saratoga was the critical battle in the revolutionary war.

A Krauthammer column came down a bit different. He is usually excellent and he is perhaps right that in war-time records will be used in this current war-time
environment to show credibility in national security.

Yet Kerry is a special case.
Kerry has often used his 4 months in Vietnam as a prop in his 35 political career to tear down our military, not build it up.

Forst consider: Once Kerry's Vietnam record is examined more closely, quite a different picture will emerge. He only served four months in Vietnam as a Swift boat CO (Dec - March) and initiated a request to leave Vietnam a scant four days after receiving his third "wound." The approval was granted because of an administrative rule that permitted thrice-wounded personnel to request reassignment. Three very minor wounds in four months plus a Silver Star and Bronze Star for separate actions. Makes one wonder. He was also given an early out to run for Congress. Kerry got a leave to go home from Vietnam early so he could be active in politics.

1. In 1971, John Kerry was a leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War protest group. Kerry testified to Congress that Americans in Vietnam had "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam."
He said, "We all did it."

He accused fellow veterans of being war criminals, but this awful charge was based on trumped on stories. In his book "Stolen Valor," B.G. Burkett points out that Mr. Kerry liberally used phony veterans to testify to atrocities they could not possibly have committed.

Kerry publicly supported Hanoi's position to use our POWs as a bargaining chip in negotiations for a peace agreement. Kerry threw what appeared to be his medals over a fence in front of the Capitol building in protest, on camera of course, but was caught in his lie years later when his medals turned up displayed on his office wall.


2. Kerry consistently helped The Hanoi regime. One example was preventing the Vietnam Human Rights Act (HR2833) from coming to a vote in the Senate, claiming human rights would deteriorate as a result. His actions sent a clear signal to Hanoi that Congress cares little about the human rights for which so many Americans fought and died.

3. Kerry voted against the first Gulf War. Without that successful war, we would not have removed Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, and we would not have found out how close he was to nuclear weapons and stopped that program.
It may well have led to Saddam's Iraqi regime as a nuclear power and effectively controlling the world's oil supply.

4. In 1995, Senator Kerry voted to freeze defense spending for seven years, cutting over $34 billion from the defense budget.

5. Kerry supported in the 1980s the nuclear freeze , the cause-of-the-moment of the disarmament left.

6. Kerry has fought against intelligence services budgets.

7. The worst behavior we wait for last: Kerry has insisted that we need to 'win the peace' in Iraq, but when the time came to support the funding for the occupation, Kerry voted no, even though he voted yes on the original war authorization. In other words he voted against finishing what he voted to start. And he did this for the worst of reasons: To get some anti-iraq-war 'credibility' against primary opponent Howard Dean. Kerry, to put it bluntly, put politics over patriotism.

The list goes on.

Which is it? Does Kerry think Vietnam was a shameful military exercise or something to be proud of? Does he think his service of 4 months in Vietnam means he will protect our nation better?

What of the 35 years of tearing at our national security institutions, defaming our military, voting against military budgets, and being wobbly on matters of defense and security?



In Bush we have a man who served more time in actual service, albeit as a homeland-based jet pilot, and who got an honorable discharge with 5+ years of service. He never made a big deal of that service, but he has been leading as commander-in-chief these past 4 years. And he has made the tough choices to win the war-on-terror and act agressively against threats. In the end, it was his call to go into Afghanistan and Iraq - with willing allies, but not constrained or hamstrung by grovelling for consensus. Bush has stood up for our national secuirty. Whether you like all his decisions or not, he has been a true leader, and he doesnt need to show off medals he once claimed to throw away to prove it.

Who really is the one who went AWOL?

[WOSG]

"I want all Viet-Nam veterans to know how Kerry called them all war criminals."

Try a letter to the editor to tell them.

[backhoe]

Cross-link:

-John Kerry- some selected, informative links...--

[Mike Darancette]

Kerry voted no, even though he voted yes on the original war authorization ...

When questioned about his authorization vote, Kerry stated it was only to create a talking point and that he now repudiates that vote because action was actually taken. If (God forfend) he becomes President what type of message will that send to America's enemies.

[neverdem]

"Try a letter to the editor to tell them"

I tried to reason. I'm wasting my time.

[shamusotoole]

I too wonder what a serious vetting of the Kerry medals would unearth. 5 major awards in 5 months of Swift Boat service. Smacks of "gun-decking" to me.

He was also the person making the awards requests, being the Officer present. The ONLY Officer present, I'll guess.

I wonder what his shipmates might say today. After all, they still had to complete their tours after "Pretty Boy" left. Were any of them wounded at the same time as he, or was he the only one in the line of fire?

Bogus awards happened to Lyndon Johnson and Joseph McCarthy and a host of others during WW II to add luster to the politically ambitious. Kerry was politically ambitious. And though it does not necessarily follow that he has an undeserved award, he had both motive and opportunity.

[I got the rope]

BTTT.

[RaceBannon]

You stole my yagline!!!