Posted on 07/30/2004 1:03:34 PM PDT by americanbychoice2
Since I didn't watch his speech last night, did he really say that, anyone? The German paper has that as their headline about F'Kerry. We have been in the freedom business longer than the Europeans, especially Germans. What did he learn from his own country?
I assume he meant that he learned of freedom in Germany by the lack of it. But that's just a guess...
Yup. He tried to convince people that he somehow got across to East Berlin on his bike when he was a kid without being shot. And SOMEHOW he was able to witness the oppression on people's faces on the East side.
I'm calling BS.
Yeah, just like little Billy Clinton watched all those black churches burn in Arkansas.
I have gone across Checkpoint Charly numerous times. No big deal.
As for oppression on people's faces, there was only disgust at the most, since they were indoctrinated into the communist system. They always(until the end) thought they were better than anyone else.
So he was still full of sh!t.
You're right about the border, especially pre Wall. As for learning about freedom by seeing the faces of a people living under Communism, Kerry, in his testimony during Dewey Canyon told the Congress that America was fighting a war against a mythological enemy in Communism. In other words, the Coummunists were not a real enemy of the U.S. and freedom. Like many statements and actions of the Democrat nominee they don't square.
Now that the Bush team knows who they are up against, they will use (hopefully) all of his inconsistencies against him?
They'd better.
Okay, I may be only 50, but my childhood memories of the Berlin Wall always involved someone being shot for going to close.
I can hear the East German guard now "Don't shoot! That is the cute little boy who will one day grow up to be President because he was born in the West Wing! He will be our friend."
I went through Checkpoint Charlie in 1978 for an afternoon's stroll around the East side. It sucked. That evening, back in West Berlin at a dingy, loud hipster dive bar, I had a number of idiot lefty Krauts harangue me for the failings of America. (Same as it ever was...) What I learned in Germany was that the ability to make really good beer does not necessarily translate into the ability to tell your ass from a hole in the ground.
You are partially correct.
Once you crossed into East Berlin through the checkpoint you saw a flat area behind the wallthat containe mines. It wa about 30-40 yards wide. The also had barbed wir below and on top of the wall. Guard Towers every 100 yards.
If an East German tried to cross over, he/she was probably shot.
Through the checkpoint though, no big deal. If you had an i.d. card and drove through, you couldn't roll down the window, you had to show your ID to a "Russian" guard. Civilians were examined by East German guards.
There is a very interesting Museum at checkpoint Charly. Amazing stuff.
Ok. But Kerry said he "found himself" in East Berlin.
Implying he just happened to cross over unknowingly.
I'm thinking he's full of it.
Does anyone believe that he was able to see the faces of the people there. The only thing visible was the razor wire on top of the wall which was quite high.
He could have if he had proper papers on him.
As to wandering there, absolutely NOT.
The Wall went up in 1961, Kerry was 18 then.
So yes, before that, it was really easy to enter the Soviet Sector. It was possible to enter by accident, thats why all those signs "Warning you are leaving the American Sector" were every where.
Watch Billy Wilder's Movie "One, Two, Three" to get a feel of pre 1961 Berlin.
The Wall went up in 1961, Kerry was 18 then.
So yes, before that, it was really easy to enter the Soviet Sector. It was possible to enter by accident, thats why all those signs "Warning you are leaving the American Sector" were every where.
Watch Billy Wilder's Movie "One, Two, Three" to get a feel of pre 1961 Berlin.
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