Posted on 08/04/2004 8:49:40 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
John Kerry served in Vietnam.
And I couldn't care less.
I was born in 1984, over eight years after the end of the Vietnam War. The fact that John Kerry served in the Navy on a swift boat for four months means little to me, beyond the fact that I'm grateful for the service of any veteran -- even if that service was clearly an excuse to bulk up a resume.
John Kerry was anti-war before he ever set foot in Vietnam, so the idea that he became pacifistic only after seeing the horrors of war is baloney. In 1966, two years before Kerry entered the Gulf of Tonkin, he told his graduating class at Yale that "The United States must, I think, bring itself to understand that the policy of intervention that was right for Western Europe does not and cannot find the same application to the rest of the world."
In any case, I'm far more concerned with John Kerry's record since he got back to the United States. His record starts with stabbing in the back American soldiers who were still under fire. In 1971, he told Congress that American military members "raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, (blew) up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam ... "
Hilariously, Kerry has attempted to build his 2004 presidential campaign on the idea that he was a famous war hero. Kerry infamously intoned upon reaching the stage at the Democratic National Convention: "I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty." In his nomination acceptance speech, Kerry referred to his Vietnam service no fewer than eight times. He didn't refer to his 1971 testimony before Congress once.
But the fact remains that had Kerry not defamed American troops, he would be an obscure war veteran, not a presidential candidate. To ignore this essential element of Kerry's history is to overlook his opportunism. If experiencing enemy fire makes you a better president, being a selfish mercenary surely makes you a worse one.
Despite his encouragement to judge him by his record, during his acceptance speech, Kerry completely overlooked his tenure as Massachusetts lieutenant governor under Michael Dukakis. He explicitly mentioned his Senate service a grand total of one time and even then only mentioned three policies he pursued. This is a man obviously attempting to escape his record -- which is why he can only point to his four months of service in Vietnam.
Kerry believes Americans are children who will accept platitudes over substance, who will overlook 30 years of radical liberalism in favor of four months in Vietnam. We are not. Whether "help is on the way" or whether Kerry is campaigning for "a stronger America," Americans want real policy solutions, not tired one-liners. And merely hearkening back to Vietnam, when candidate Kerry led men into combat -- men whom he would later slander -- won't do the trick. Those voters within my general age range especially refuse to look back years before our births to find the last recorded example of Kerry's honorability.
It's much easier and much more accurate to examine Kerry's actions in the past few years. In fact, let's simply scrutinize the key point in Kerry's acceptance speech: "I will bring back this nation's time-honored tradition: The United States of America never goes to war because we want to, we only go to war because we have to."
The idea that elective war must be denounced is absurd. Yet Kerry reiterated this ridiculous idea, stating: "Any attack will be met with a swift and certain response."
Apparently, Kerry believes that only a direct attack on the United States justifies war, which would invalidate every major American military action since 1900 aside from World War II in the Pacific sphere and the Afghanistan war. In John Kerry's world, Americans have to die in Los Angeles or New York or Chicago or Washington, D.C., before the American military can defang the monster.
That solution is unacceptable. John Kerry can talk all he likes about avoiding military engagements around the world. But fighting abroad is certainly a better solution than watching as more American buildings become smoking rubble -- or standing by as millions die from the effects of a biological or dirty-bomb attack. No amount of posturing about service in Vietnam can justify Kerry's lack of a pre-emptive strategy. And I'm not willing to risk that a President John Kerry would prevent such an attack, just because he spent four months on a swift boat.
I could use some real proof to help me refute the lefties I debate with who are constantly telling me that he served two years. Where they get that number, I don't know, and they don't have any verification either. It would be good to get some evidence to support my claim. Can anyone point me to any good sources?
Thanks,
I don't have a good source for you, but I'm fairly sure that sometime in the last week I saw on Fox News that he arrived in VN in October or November of '68 and departed in March of '69. Perhaps a search with that little bit of info will yield more.
try here http://www.swiftvets.com
BUMP
Thanks for posting this. barset
Democrata especially the power elite democrats believe that people are sheep that need to be lead to do what is in their best intersts.
The concept of "the sheeple" is something that excites them because "they" are the wolves among the sheep.
This is Kerry's bait and switch. Kerry is avoiding discussion of his record in the Senate by rambling on about his pitiful war record. Ask a liberal about his voting record-it's the best kept secret of the Kerry campaign!!
John Kerry thinks he is Audie Murphy!
Forget about the nice article. I'm just happy to see someone using this phrase as it was intended. :-)
The Peoples' Rebpublic of Viet Nam awarded Kerry three Purple Stars of the Peoples' Work, a palm leaf cluster, three Hero of the Peoples' Republic medals (one, first class), and made him a Colonel in the Peoples' Ministry of Propanganda.
Of course, most Americans view his actions after he returned from Nam and finished the yacht races off the Cape to be treason, but the Vietnamese view them as heroism and honor him for his efforts in support of winning the war.
BTW, Kerry's Naval Reserve service after Nam won't stand the level of investigation that Bush's ANG service has. Kerry simply didn't bother showing up for anything. He DD-214 may indicate a problem in this regard. Has anyone actually seen Kerry's DD-214 or are we still accepting was he says is his record to be true?
Actually Roosevelt ordered our navy into action against the Germans on 9/11/41, ie.. prior to 12/7/41. Pearl Harbor just gave us a reason for a declared and open war. One that we were already in. So, I guess that leaves Afaganistan.
"My name is Steve Gardner. I served in 1966 and 1967 on my first tour of duty in Vietnam on Swift boats, and I did my second tour in '68 and '69, involved with John Kerry in the last 2 1/2 months of my tour. The John Kerry that I know is not the John Kerry that everybody else is portraying. I served alongside him and behind him, five feet away from him in a gun tub, and watched as he made indecisive moves with our boat, put our boats in jeopardy, put our crews in jeopardy... if a man like that can't handle that 6-man crew boat, how can you expect him to be our Commander-in-Chief?"
-- Steven Gardner
The above quote was from a press conference given at the National Press Club in Washington on May 4, 2004. You may view Steven’s comments at the following web site. Just scroll down to Steven’s picture and click on it.
http://www.swiftvets.com/index.php?topic=SwiftVetQuotes
Searching through that web site, you will find 250 men who served on Swift boats, including the entire chain of command above Lt. Kerry, agree with Steven Gardner that Kerry is not fit to be Commander-in-Chief. That compares to the 13 crew members who support his candidacy.
No offense ok, but you haven't searched hard enough. There's only about a gazillion threads in the FR archives and almost every major newspaper - all with the facts you seek.
Ergo, let your fingers do the walking.
His service in Vietnam on the swift boats was Dec 2 1968 to March 17 1969, according to the bio on johnkerry.com, the campaign website. That is 3 1/2 months. He was in the Navy for a total of 4 years.
"The Peoples' Rebpublic of Viet Nam awarded Kerry three Purple Stars of the Peoples' Work, a palm leaf cluster, three Hero of the Peoples' Republic medals (one, first class), and made him a Colonel in the Peoples' Ministry of Propanganda"
Are you joking or are you serious???
So true, Coop!! It's like nails on a chalkboard when I hear people say "I could care less". That doesn't make any sense.
Can anyone believe that the person who wrote this article was only 20? Great writer!!
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