Posted on 08/19/2004 11:12:56 AM PDT by Reagan Man
BOSTON, Aug 19 (MASNET & News Agencies) - Democratic Senator John Kerry launched an all-out counterattack at fellow Vietnam War veterans who charge he embellished combat exploits he has made a key part of his campaign for the White House.
Kerry accused President George W. Bush of using "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" to do his "dirty work" ahead of the November 2 election, and repeated his defiant demand for the White House to repudiate the group's accusations, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"They're a front for the Bush campaign. And the fact that the president won't denounce what they're up to tells you everything you need to know: He wants them to do his dirty work," Kerry countered in a speech here to the International Association of Fire Fighters, a politically active union which backs Kerry.
Kerry also says the Swift Boat ads were funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor in Texas, Bush's home state, reports Reuters news agency.
Bush and the White House have refused to condemn the ads, despite calls to do so — from as well as from Democrats.
The White House and Bush have refused to reject the veterans' ads, despite calls for them to do so by fellow Republican Senator John McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, insisting it respects the senator's wartime record, while at the same time accusing him of hypocrisy for using surrogates to attack Bush's National Guard service in the United States during the conflict.
"The president keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that.
"Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: Bring it on!" he said, to approving roars from the crowd.
Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said the president did not support the Swift Boat ads, which accuse Kerry of lying about his Vietnam combat record, reports Reuters.
"John Kerry knows his statements are false. John Kerry knows the president said his service in Vietnam was noble," said Schmidt. He said Bush wants an end to all political advertisements paid for by so-called soft money, the news agency reports.
Kerry won three Purple Hearts for wounds received in combat and a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for bravery. He uses his gunboat command to bolster his credentials on national security, a decisive election issue.
"Thirty years ago, this was the plain truth. It still is. And I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam," the Massachusetts senator told the union, which was the first to endorse him.
Bush served in the National Guard - a common way to avoid service in Vietnam - but a group opposing his reelection has charged that he used family connections to get in and highlighted questions about whether he reported for duty for several months in 1972 and 1973.
The ad attacking Kerry features veterans accusing him of exaggerating his bravery in the war, lying to get at least one Purple Heart, and lying to get his Bronze Star.
The group also charges that, by testifying against the war when he returned to the United States and alleging that U.S. soldiers had committed wartime atrocities, Kerry betrayed U.S. forces still in Vietnam.
Aides to the Democrat insisted that now was the right time to respond to what they called a "smear campaign," but two Democratic officials in Washington said recent polls showed the ad was hurting Kerry with independent voters.
Kerry has been put on the defensive by weeks of Republican criticism of his Vietnam War service as a decorated Navy lieutenant. U.S. military veterans usually vote in higher numbers than the general population, and Democrats fear the criticism may hurt his standing in key states in the November election, reports Reuters.
In his speech to firefighters, Kerry employed a wartime metaphor, reports the Associate Press (AP).
"More than 30 years ago I learned an important lesson. When you're under attack the best thing to do is turn your boat into the attack. That's what I intend to do today."
As part of the counterattack, the Kerry campaign released a new ad featuring former Green Beret Jim Rassmann, who relates that Kerry saved his life on March 13, 1969, after he was blown out of the swift boat Kerry commanded.
"All these Viet Cong were shooting at me. I expected I'd be shot. When he pulled me out of the river, he risked his life to save mine," Rassmann says in the ad, which will air in battleground states like Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
The campaign also held a press conference by Vietnam veterans who support Kerry, including two of his former crew. One said he would serve under Kerry even on "a gunboat to hell."
Members of Kerry's crew - dubbed the "band of brothers" - often appear at rallies to tell of his heroism, and are prominently featured in the candidate's television ads, which also use dramatic war footage.
Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, has also called Vice President Dick Cheney a "coward" for attacking Kerry's toughness despite his own lack of military service during the Vietnam War, reports Reuters.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported Thursday that the military records of one of Kerry's most vocal critics, former navy lieutenant Larry Thurlow, support Kerry and Rassmann's version of one incident for which Kerry was awarded the Bronze Star.
Thurlow, who commanded a swift boat alongside Kerry in Vietnam, and is a leading member of "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," has claimed there was no hostile fire during the March 13, 1969, incident and has disputed that Kerry was shot.
Thurlow has described Kerry's Bronze Star citation as "totally fabricated," saying "I never heard a shot."
But the Post said Thurlow's own military records, obtained by the paper under the Freedom of Information Act, make several references to "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire" that day directed at "all units" of the five-boat flotilla on the Mekong Delta.
Thurlow was also awarded a Bronze Star that day and its accompanying citation praises him for providing assistance to a damaged Swift boat "despite enemy bullets flying about him," the Post said.
Thurlow, a registered Republican, said he was angry with Kerry for his anti-war activities after his return to the United States, especially his claim that U.S. troops committed war crimes with the knowledge of their officers up the chain of command, reports the AP.
He said he believed his own award would be "fraudulent" if it was based on coming under enemy fire.
"We weren't under fire," he insisted, speculating that Kerry could have been the source of at least some of the language used in the citation, reports the news agency.
Thurlow said he lost his Bronze Star citation more than 20 years ago. He said he would not authorize release of his military records because he feared the Kerry campaign would discredit him.
Members of Kerry's crew have said Kerry is telling the truth. Rassmann said he has vivid memories of enemies firing at him from both banks.
Muslim American Society?
Typical liberal response...
When confronted by the truth, kill the messenger.
hmm .... I just don't like reading that. You need to be transparent in these things.
Now that's an unimpeachable source!
Another rag for Kerry. It is true that 10 out of 10 terrorists do not support Bush. This rag sounds just like the rest.
Good observation.
Why would any organization be against the President when he put forth the resolve to free millions of them? And if freedom is not important to this group, why are they not the Muslim Iraqi Society?
"Statement By Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Member Larry Thurlow
I am convinced that the language used in my citation for a Bronze Star was language taken directly from John Kerry's report which falsely described the action on the Bay Hap River as action that saw small arms fire and automatic weapons fire from both banks of the river.
To this day, I can say without a doubt in my mind, along with other accounts from my shipmates-there was no hostile enemy fire directed at my boat or at any of the five boats operating on the river that day."
Gee. Muslims carrying Kerry's water. Who'd of thunk it?
Exactly.
Kerry is running from the truth, the democrats should just hurry up and replace his dumb ass ASAP!
Then get John Kerry to become transparent and release his records! He's the one running for POTUS!
And nothing since.
Does anyone out there have any information on Jim Rassman? I mean, who is this guy? Who were his fellow soldiers and officers? Is this guy credible? First he says that he fell off Kerry's boat, now he was in the boat behind Kerry. He's obviously being paid by DNC, but I hear rumors that there is something coming out on him. Does anyone know?
nick
I agree with you. If the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth all released their own records, we'd have a better of the general tenor of fitness reports. Kerry's is extremely complimentary, but the SB Veterans say that kind of praise was routine. They could demonstrate that this was so.
Rush just said Carl Cameron was reporting that Kerry wrote the citations.
Has anyone heard this report?
Is Cameron digging?
I don't like reading that either, but considering the source of the article, the whole story may ring false.
I don't like reading that either, but considering the source of the article, the whole story may ring false.
If it's true that Kerry wrote up the citation for Thurlow's Bronze Star, then how can he (Kerry) and his mouthpieces (Lanny Davis), make the claim that the Swifties have no knowledge of the incident because they were not on Kerry's boat. How could Kerry write up a citation for someone who wasn't even on his boat?
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