Ex-green beret to Kerry: 'You are a liar'

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | February 26, 2004 | Ron Strom

[treeclimber]

A former Special Forces green beret who served in Vietnam has touched a nerve with fellow veterans after penning a scathing column hammering Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. In the article, he calls Kerry "...a bald-faced, unprincipled liar and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and all my fellow Vietnam veterans."

[treeclimber]

This guy nails it. This is what needs to be known about Kerry.

[Fenris6]

Woot! Bravo Zulu!

[hole_n_one]

Is WND a source that FR has restricted in it's use of full text posting of their articles?

If not, why is this post excerpted?

[Not now, Not ever!]

I'd buy him a beer anytime.

[treeclimber]

I dont know about that, but this article appears in several other sources...simply google it using 'kerry liar green beret' and dozens of sources pop up.

[zip]

ping

[hole_n_one]

It's also been already posted on FR, with the complete text, here and here.

[hole_n_one]

I dont know about that

You're the one that excerpted it....if you don't know why you did it, who does?

You have no clue as to what the (potential) ramifications are of having needlessly excerpted an article when posting it to this forum, do you?

[tomball]

The man WorldNet Daily is quoting what came to me in an email from my brother two days ago. My brother's wife is a US Army Reservist, and nurse serving Ft. Bragg since the Iraq operation began in March.

A Collection of Thoughts...Just in via email from Don Bendell, an honorably discharged Vietnam Combat Veteran and Special Forces Soldier...

Open Letter to John Kerry:

My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year, and the recovery is terribly painful. Then, she developed a staph-epi infection, and they had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just thinking about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a second time in the same wound, makes me cringe. That experience, however pales in comparison to what I am going through right now, in my heart.

The old hurts are surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow citizens, and their leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart again. I am being cut in the same scar. How did we who served in Vietnam suddenly become cold-blooded killers, torturers, and rapists, of the ilk of the Nazi SS or the Taliban?  Most of us were American soldiers who grew up idolizing John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and all the other heroes That was why I volunteered. But for political expediency, John Kerry has rewritten history, again. After spending only four months in the country of Vietnam, John Kerry testified before Congress in 1971 with these exact words about incidents he supposedly witnessed or heard about from other vets: "They 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."

I was a green beret officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and fought in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces A-team on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the elite. We saw the most action. Everybody in the world knows that. But we did not just kill people, we built a church, a school, treated illnesses, passed out soap, food, and clothing, and had fun and loving interaction with the indigenous people of Vietnam, just like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon, and everywhere American soldiers ever served. We all gave away our candy bars and rations to kids. Our hearts to oppressed people all over the globe.

My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced, unprincipled liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and all my fellow Vietnam veterans. Sure, there were a couple bad-apples, but I saw none, and I saw it all, and if I did, as an army officer, it was my obligation to stop it, or at the very least report it. Why is there not a single record anywhere of you ever reporting any incidents like this or having the perpetrators arrested? The answer is simple. You are a liar. Your medals and mine are not a free pass for lifetime, Senator Kerry, to bypass character, integrity, and morality. I earn my green beret over and over daily in all aspects of my life.

Eight National Guard green berets, and other National Guard soldiers, have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you totally dishonored their widows and families by lumping National Guard service in with being a draft-dodger, conscientious objector, and deserter, just so you can try to sabotage the patriotism of our President who proudly served as an Air National Guard jet pilot. I have a son earning his green beret at Fort Bragg right now, and his wife serves honorably in the Air National Guard, just like President Bush did, and I am as proud of her as I am my son. I volunteered for Vietnam and have no problem whatsoever with President Bush being our Commander-In-Chief. In fact, I am proud of him as our leader.

John Kerry, you personally derailed the Vietnam Human rights Bill, HR2883, in 2001, after it had passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote, and thousands of pro-American Montagnard tribespeople in Vietnam died since then who could have been saved, by you. Earlier, as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on MIA/POW Affairs, you personally quashed the efforts of any and all veterans to report sightings of living POW's, when you held those reins in Congress. You have fought tooth and nail to push for the US to normalize relations with Vietnam for years. Why, Mr. Kerry? Simple, your first cousin C. Stewart Forbes, CEO, of Colliers International, recently signed a contract with Hanoi, worth BILLIONS of dollars for Collier's International to become the exclusive real estate representative for the country of Vietnam.
"Hanoi John," now that it works for you, you beat your chest about your Vietnam service, but to me, you are a phony, opportunistic, hypocrite. You are one of those politicians that is like a fertilizer machine: all that comes out of you is horse manure, and you are spreading it everywhere.
Medals do not make a man. Morals do.

Don Bendell
Canon City, Colorado

Don Bendell served as an officer in four Special Forces Groups, is a best-selling author with over 1,500,000 books in print, a 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame, and owns karate schools in southern Colorado.

[Free Trapper]

FYI.

[Intolerant in NJ]

...But we did not just kill people; we built a church, a school, treated illnesses, passed out soap, food and clothing, and had fun and loving interaction with the indigenous people of Vietnam...this is an aspect of our efforts in Vietnam that few people know much about - when I was receiving orientation/training at Fort Sam Houston in early 1965 we were briefed on the program which even then was attempting to win over the Vietnamese people by helping them build wells, schools, and medical clinics - and we also heard about how, once our troops left an area, the Viet Cong would come in, destroy what our men had built, and just for good measure assassinate maybe the village chief, schoolteacher, nurse and/or anybody else who represented stability and authority - strange Kerry never mentioned this sort of thing in his testimony, book, and movie.........

[hole_n_one]

I should have checked your registration date before jumping on you and your post.

Sorry..

[stainlessbanner]

"Medals do not make a man. Morals do."

[Honcho Bongs]

Someone over at DU started a thread to debunk this email but there is no one responding.

[mylife]

LOL

[dogbrain]

stop looking at DU.

You'll go blind.

[Honcho Bongs]

"stop looking at DU. You'll go blind."

LOL - okay I'll stop when I need glasses!

But I can't resist going there once in a while. It's like watching a train wreck - you know it's horrible but it's strangely fascinating.

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP

VNVAJK

[WilliamofCarmichael]

My children and grandchildren could read your words and think those horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bald-faced, unprincipled liar and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and all my fellow Vietnam veterans.

Not only Kerry but also some in the press, political, and educational sectors promulgated the lies. Indeed some children and grandchildren of veterans could be struggling with mistaken thoughts about Vietnam. I am reminded of the movie What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? an innocent comedy about W.W.II GIs. That question takes on a grossly unfair ominous tone thanks to lies of Kerry and crew.

Not only is it critical that we learn from mistakes made and some allowed to happen (like politicians and the American press sanctioning a pro-commuist "anti-war" movement) back then but the issue of Kerry's character is critial also.

We cannot get mired in another political/media quagmire of lies. We need to learn from the events of that era. Vietnam should be an issue in November.

[treeclimber]

Hey, no offense taken. I need to learn how to participate here. I read lots of stuff that I like to share, but I need to follow the rules. Where on FR can I go to learn them?