WFB: Depends What Is Is (Kerry’s medals are fair game)

NRO ^ | 4-30-04 | William F. Buckley Jr.

[jmstein7]

One after another came in over the radio on the subject of Senator Kerry and his medals, and then we heard the blessed voice of Senator John McCain. He pleaded that the whole controversy should be dropped. What we need, he said, is bipartisan action on what to do now in Iraq. Senator Kerry has agreed that we can't just bail out, and of course that is the position of the president. So why don't the two sides get together on a common strategy? "The other stuff is just politics," McCain said.

Well yes, it is just politics, but politics has its place in the evolution of national deliberations on who should be the next president of the United States. "Politics," as practiced in this controversy, has to do with the question of the character and credibility of candidates, incumbents and challengers.

It's time to examine the candidate who, thirty-five years ago, did not serve in the Vietnam War. We need to remind ourselves that that war did not call for participation by all able-bodied Americans aged 18-25. This was not a war in which 16 million people served, as they did — as we did — in the Second World War. Yes, there were volunteers, and John Kerry, however much he later regretted it, was one of those volunteers and fought gallantly. But to have fought gallantly once engaged does not give you a warrant to condemn those who didn't serve. That includes men who dived into graduate studies to get an exemption, men who gratefully learned from their doctors that they had a lurking medical disability, men who drew the "lucky" numbers in the pool. If your number was X or higher, that meant you wouldn't be called, and getting X or higher was reason for an extra beer that night.

We have a volunteer army at this point, and it should be so until we come upon a national challenge that can't be met using only volunteers. Then we get the draft. During the Civil War, it was perfectly respectable to exercise the option to buy yourself (for $300) exemption from the draft. That went on until the needs of the union ended that form of exemption, but it was never suggested that to have taken advantage of it was unpatriotic. When Dick Cheney's turn came up, he said he had "other priorities," all of them legal. But to have exercised other priorities is being held now, by the Democratic Shrumguard, to have been less than honorable.

The Republican fusillade focuses on what is believed by an increasing number of people, namely that John Kerry has given confusing accounts of his own actions, of his appraisal of the military arm of government, and of his sentiments on the Iraq war. Columnist Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe records that, Yes, Kerry did say in 1971 that he had thrown away his medals, as a gesture "for peace and justice." In November of that year he said he had decided to "renounce the symbols which this country gives" to its soldiers at war. In 1984, however, running for office against a World War II Air Force veteran, he said those weren't his own medals he threw away, they were those of another veteran, tossed “at his request.” In 1986 he said they weren't actually medals, they were ribbons. At this point he got a little feisty, telling one interviewer: "They're my medals. I can do goddam what I want with them." On the recent TV show he tried to square a circle, which not even Einstein could do. Having distinguished between throwing away ribbons (okay) and medals (not okay) he said that “ribbons, medals, were absolutely interchangeable." He should have had better options than to say that.

But it is presumably impossible for the Democratic organization to dump Kerry and look around for someone more straightforward. The question then becomes: Is it wrong for the Republican reelection campaign to continue to bring up the metal/ribbon/did/didn't business? In yesterday's paper four possible vice presidential candidates were named. The story said they were being "vetted." That means they were being looked over to discover whether there was anything in their background which would play into the political slicing machine. Did they throw away/not throw away their medals? Vote for/vote against the Iraq war? If anything questionable is found, does that mean Senator Kerry would look for a running mate less vulnerable?

[jmstein7]

BUMP!

[steplock]

McCain just doesn't want the DNC telling what they know about his accepting 'favors' from the enemy in hanoi.

Kerry, Clark, Fonda, and McCain were all so buddy buddy with the NVA.

McCain - the real Manchurian Candidate?

[swilhelm73]

Nah, as long as McCain makes his media friends happy they won't bring up the Keating Five scandal. It is that simple.

[onyx]

Come on.
Kerry is the issue.
From time to time, McCain
likes to make himself appear
"wiser and more gracious" than
the rest of his GOP colleagues.
John wants the adoration of the media.

[drhogan]

i had never heard this before. do you have a reference for this information?

[skr]

I heard/read somewhere that Kerry had used up all his deferments. Not quite the type of volunteer we have now.

[Smartass]

[Bonaparte]

"But to have exercised other priorities is being held now, by the Democratic Shrumguard, to have been less than honorable."

Gee, I wonder why none of the liberal mediots have asked Kerry his opinion of draft dodger Bill Clinton. I mean, they've already shown great interest in Kerry's opinion of George Bush's service to his country.

[Peach]

Good article.

[jmstein7]

Thanks, Peach :)

Hey, check this out on DU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1511596&mesg_id=1511596

Is that disgusting or what? They are even making some DUers sick.

[Peach]

I won't sleep tonight and should have known better than to visit that site.

Dear Go*. What is wrong with those people? Comparing President Bush to Hitler and saying he's killed over 50,000 Muslims and has no intention to stop?

The ignorance over there is astounding.

#1. Most of the dead are terrorists.

#2. Even the Washington Post and other leftist organizations have said that Saddam was killing over 5,000 civilians a month for years and/or they were dying of starvation. NO way our soldiers are killing anywhere near that number.

Jmstein - I am sickened by what I've just read. How I wish there was a competency test required before allowing people to vote!

[jmstein7]

Awww... now i feel bad that I made you go there :(

[Peach]

No problem -

I never go there unless a freeper mentions something specific so maybe they are always that bad.

I'll just play online backgammon for a bit and get over them!

[AUsome Joy]

It is rare in this day to read what the draft was really like. Selecive Service drafted how many they needed. Those not called went on with their lives. Others that knew they were subject to the draft would choose to join the service they wanted. Some went to National Guard, some went to Air Force, etc. Some were able to get exemptions to go to college and graduate school. In high school the various services would come and talk to the boys about their options.

If my memory is correct, Kennedy in early 60's said that those that were married didn't have to go. (It didn't affect my husband, because even though we were married he had gone to ROTC and was obligated to time after college. His deferments for college and grad school put the date of going into the Army as 1965. He stayed stateside.)

I don't think our friends and relatives who didn't go were unpatriotic, probably because I know they would have served. But I did think that those that were drafted were unpatriotic to run to Canada to avoid serving. That is what a "draft dodger" really was.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks ! bttt ....

[steplock]

Pictures of the below exceprts are at:
http://www.arkansas2004.com/mccain.htm

John McCain...

He'll be a presidential candidate again. Fear this man. Fear him mightily. He's hungry for power, and he'll step on anyone and say anything he needs to get it. He's a nasty-tempered, self-serving, vicious SOB.

— Neal Boortz 5/16/01

---

When Col. Bui Tin, a former Senior Colonel in the North Vietnamese Army (he had actually interrogated McCain and other U.S. prisoners) testified before the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs in 1992, McCain did not display that same "pit bull" inclination to attack as he did when the POW/MIA families and activists were testifiying.

During a break in the hearing, Sen. McCain moved to where Col. Bui Tin was seated and warmly embraced him as if he were a long lost brother.

---

Sen. John McCain (left) warmly greeted Vietnam Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet (right) during a 1992 visit to Hanoi. Kiet was a ranking communist party member of the secret Central Committee of the former National Liberation Front (Viet Cong), and was part of the elite clique responsible for setting policies and directing the communist war waged against the prodemocracy Vietnamese as well as U.S. forces in South Vietnam.

---

July 11, 1995 Sen. Jonh McCain, R-Ariz., (right), and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., (center), gave President Bill Clinton, (left), the valuable political cover he needed to remove the U.S. imposed trade embargo against communist Vietnam. All major U.S. veterans organizations, the two POW/MIA family groups, and the majority of VietnameseAmericans in this country opposed Clinton's lifting of the embargo.

---

Senator McCain (left) is pictured above embracing Mai Van On in Hanoi, November 13, 1996. On identified himself as one of the Vietnamese who pulled McCain from Hanoi's Truc Bach Lake, where McCain parachuted in 1967 after his bomber was shot down.

http://www.arkansas2004.com/mccain.htm

[drhogan]

i read your post, but i'm still not clear on the favors that you said mccain accepted from the vietnamese. are you referring to favors he is accused of accepting while he was a prisoner, or favors he is accused of accepting after he became senator? what were the alleged favors?