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Posted on 08/23/2004 12:25:13 PM PDT by Dont Mention the War
John Kerry actually claims to have shot a fleeing Viet Cong soldier from the riverbank, something that I personally would have kept very quiet about. He used to claim that he was a witness to, and almost a participant in, much worse than that. So what if he has been telling the absolute truth all along? In what sense, in other words, does his participation in a shameful war qualify him to be president of the United States? This was a combat of more than 30 years ago, fought with a largely drafted army using indiscriminate tactics and weaponry against a deep-rooted and long-running domestic insurgency. (The biochemical dioxin, for example, was employed to destroy the vegetation in the Mekong Delta and make life easier for the swift boats.) The experience of having fought in such a war is absolutely useless to any American today and has no bearing on any thinkable fight in which the United States could now become engaged. Thus, only the "character" issues involved are of any weight, and these are extremely difficult and subjective matters. If Kerry doesn't like people disputing his own version of his own gallantry, then it was highly incautious of him to have made it the centerpiece of his appeal.
The Democrats have made a rod for their own backs in uncritically applauding their candidate's ramrod-and-salute posture. They have also implicitly subverted one of the most important principles of the republic, which is civilian control over military decisions. And more than that, they have done something eye-rubbingly unprincipled, doing what Reagan and Kissinger could not do: rehabilitating the notion of the Vietnam horror as "a noble cause."
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Now that Hitchens and Nat Hentoff have turned on him, the rest of the mainstream press will start to get their nibbles in, except of course for the dead-ender Kool-Aid Brigade. This could start to get fun!
What will be interesting is to see how the Clinton bunch plays this. My hunch is they'll do the public stuff to appear like good DNC supporters, but won't do anything behind-the-scenes to help Lt. John F. Kalley bail the water as it starts to leak in not only from starboard, but from port as well!
"...then it was highly incautious of him to have made it the centerpiece of his appeal."
Even the always blunt Hitchens cannot escape classic British understatement.
LOL. I generally enjoy reading Hitchens and will check the article out. Thanks!
There's nothing they can do to save Kerry...this is the beginning of the end fer Hanoi John's candidacy.
FReegards...MUD
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It's difficult to imagine that a Jane Fonda Mimbo was actually nominated for the Presidency. Kerry's Viet Nam experience, from any and all perspectives, appears corrupt.
He's always been a kept man, a Manchurian Candidate doing the bidding of globalists and foreign powers.
Hillary was probably the one who told John F'n Kerry to run on his Vietnam record.
Nonesense. The case against Kerry is compelling. Hitchens derides those who take refuge in "the fog of war" defense, and then proceeds to take refuge in the fog of history.
For the future of the Republic and the Free World, I do hope you are correct. Or else, you'll be re-writing "Its the End of the World as We Know it" come November 3!
Bump for the flaming liberal who has the guts to tell other libs when they're babies are ugly!!!
bookmark
HEY MR. KERRY...
YOU CAN'T BE BOTH ANTI-WAR AND SGT. YORK AT THE SAME TIME!!
(dummy)
even your liberal buddies have that much common sense!
ping
Hitchens is a top notch debater.
Anyone have this picture to post?
Clinton can have nothing to say about this issue. He was a draft dodger. Clinton defending Kerry on wartime service would be like Charlie Manson testifying as a character witness for Scott Peterson!
Did Kerry imagine that if he dressed up in his old uniform again, his former critics would decide to keep quiet? What, if anything, was he thinking?
A question that has a clear answer. Kerry was thinking that the leftwing media would do exactly what it's doing....spin the story in his favor. Thanks, Hitch, for rising above the swamp the other mudslingers inhabit.
Spot on, Mr. Hitchens.
Reference bump.
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