Kerrey/Rice Clash; Ex-Nebraskan not satisfied with testimony

wowt.com ^

[DaBroasta]

Poor Kerrey, got b!tch slapped on national TV and now he's crying. Guess Condi just proved a little too tough for the big bad war criminal.

[NordP]

""I simply don't like a conclusion that says we didn't make any mistakes," Kerrey said..."

Then you're REALLY goin' to hate what Clinton has to say! ;-)

[Smartass]

CONDI KICKED KERREY'S BUTT

[auboy]

Rice appeared to blame lack of communication between the FBI and CIA on intelligence matters, but that is not an acceptable response, Kerrey said.

Did you just infer that Dr. Rice is lying, Bob? There was a "firewall" between the CIA and the FBI before 9-11. Stupid? Yes. Dr. Rice's fault? No way!

I'd like to refer Kerrey back to the Church Committee in the early 70s (I think). Another "wonderful" sinator. I believe this is when the wall was erected between the sharing of intelligence by the CIA and the FBI.

I would also like to ask Kerrey who gutted the eyes and ears on the ground (human intelligence) of the CIA. IIRC, sinator Torricelli was involved in that boner. Maybe Kerrey himself cast a vote to castrate that important element of intelligence.

Then there are the cultural reasons Dr. Rice referenced. Would that be racial profiling? We wouldn't want to single out any group of people, just because this particular group had everything in common with Bin Laden and his thugs, huh Bob? We needed to be sensitive to their feelings. Sensitivity and diversity are paramount, right?

Are you sure you want to "go there" Mr. New School? You and your liberal friends' fingerprints are everywhere. You left a stained trail.

[My memory is fuzzy. Please correct me if my recollections are off-base.]

[ServesURight]

But he does have an extremely smooth forehead.

Dude, get your Kerries straight! There's Effing Kerry, running for President, and there's former Nebraska Senator Bob KerrEy, trying to pick on Condi Rice.

[altura]

I'm not a dude.

Nor yet a dudette.

Anyway, I know the difference, but I was struck while watching the hearings at how very smooth and unlined and really pretty Bob Kerrey's face is.

I was trying to make a joke with the botox thing. Sometimes my jokes don't work.

[stocksthatgoup]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1298289.stm

Former United States Senator Bob Kerry, a possible contender for the White House in 2004, has admitted that his commando unit massacred civilians when he was a Navy officer in Vietnam, The New York Times has reported.
Mr Kerry was awarded a Bronze Star for the 25 February 1969 action in the village of Thanh Phong in the Mekong Delta.



Basically you're talking about a man who killed innocent civilians

Bob Kerry
The two-time Democratic senator from Nebraska says his unit of seven Navy Seals - elite commando troops - killed at least 13 women and children during indiscriminate night-time firing.

One of the men under his command at the time disputes Mr Kerry's version of events, claiming that the unit rounded up the civilians and killed them to hasten their escape.

Mr Kerry refused to contradict the man, saying their memories differed.

In-depth investigation

Mr Kerry, who stepped down from the US Senate in January and is now president of the New School University in New York, admitted his role in the massacre over the course of more than two years of interviews with The New York Times.



Mr Kerry said he has been haunted by Vietnam memories

A possible presidential candidate, Mr Kerry said it would be "very interesting to see the reactions to the story. I mean, because basically you're talking about a man who killed innocent civilians."

It is not clear what effect the revelations would have on any decision that Mr Kerry might make to run for office in the future.

In Mr Kerry's version of events, his group approached Thanh Phong near midnight on 25 February, 1969.

They encountered a hut on their approach, and men under his command entered it and killed the people inside.

Mr Kerry denied participating in the killings, but took responsibility for them as commanding officer.

Indiscriminate firing

When his group reached the village, they were fired upon in the darkness and shot back, firing some 1,200 rounds.



When they investigated after they stopped shooting, he said, they found they had killed a number of women and children. There were no adult men among the dead.

Gerhard Klann, a more experienced soldier who was under Mr Kerry's command at the time, remembers events differently.

He said Mr Kerry helped him kill an old man and woman and three children at the first hut, and that the unit then rounded up and shot the women and children of Thanh Phong to prevent them raising the alarm.

The Army Field Manual explicitly forbids killing prisoners "on grounds of self-preservation", but many people who served in Vietnam said the unwritten rules of the conflict made it clear that such actions were acceptable.

Witnesses

A Vietnamese woman who says she was an eyewitness supported Mr Klann's story.



I thought dying for your country was the worst thing that could happen to you - I think killing for your country can be a lot worse

Bob Kerry
The only other member of the commando unit willing to speak to the press about the raid supported some elements of each account and contradicted others.

Mr Kerry - who was given the Medal of Honour for a later operation and lost a leg to a grenade in the conflict - says he has been wracked by guilt for 32 years since the event.

"I thought dying for your country was the worst thing that could happen to you," he told The New York Times, referring to how he felt before he went to Vietnam as a 25-year-old lieutenant.

"I think killing for your country can be a lot worse. Because that's the memory that haunts."

[syriacus]

I was struck while watching the hearings at how very smooth and unlined and really pretty Bob Kerrey's face is.

Me, too.

His face is "pretty" in a "scary" sort of way. He looks like he is an alien who's wearing a mask to try to look like an earthling.

I'm so involved in trying to resolve the conflicting messages which come from his face that it's hard for me to take him seriously.

I hope his toddler isn't similarly perplexed.

[syriacus]

"I think killing for your country can be a lot worse. Because that's the memory that haunts."

Kerrey didn't need to kill the civilians.

Kerrey could have brought some duct/duck tape along on that mission. It's been in use by the Navy since WWII.

If Kerrey had spent an extra "pre-mission" moment in preparation, he could have had the tape to use to bind and gag the civilians. Even Boy Scouts know to "Be prepared."

How could Kerrey tell Dr. Rice, with a straight face, that she was unprepared?

(I guess I can answer my own question...Botox makes Kerrey's straight face possible.)

[BibChr]

You see this every day; you see it here.

Someone makes an idiot of himself, in public (as Kerry did).

He has two choices:

1. He can admit it and deal with it like a man, changing his mind and doing whatever repairs need doing.

2. Or he can dig in his heels and redouble his efforts to prop up (and supposedly cover up) his initial idiocy (as Kerry is doing).

And nine times out of ten, folks seem to opt for #2.

Here's the verse that says it:

"He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion"
Proverbs 28:13

Dan
Biblical Christianity web site