Posted on 08/25/2004 1:55:24 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
With a mix of passion and dismay, newspaper editorials are weighing in on the furor over John Kerry's service in Vietnam, with many coming to his defense, a few standing behind his critics and others bemoaning the attention to a 30-year-old war rather than today's problems.
Many newspapers used strong language -- smear, deceit-ridden, odious -- to condemn accusations by a group of Vietnam veterans that Kerry did not deserve his medals, that he mischaracterized a mission to Cambodia and that he maligned all the troops with his anti-war comments.
"No informed person can seriously believe that Kerry fabricated evidence to win his military medals in Vietnam," the Los Angeles Times wrote, arguing that the tactic of using others to fling mud was "perfected" by President Bush's father.
Others just as passionately defended the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. "Kerry can't very well insist in one breath that his Vietnam record is the linchpin of his claim to become commander in chief and in the next denounce his opponents for inspecting that record with the attention it supposedly deserves," The Rocky Mountain News wrote.
Many spread the blame: to each candidate, to both parties for letting independent groups do their negative campaigning; and to Congress for the campaign finance changes that steered more money to those groups and away from the political parties.
"We are confident that we speak for a sizable number of voters when we reply, who cares?" wrote The Mail Tribune of Medford, Ore. "What really matters to us, and, we trust, to most thoughtful voters, is not what either man did during Vietnam, but how each plans to lead the United States of America now."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Bump for AM read
Sen.Kerry: Please SIGN STANDARD FORM 180 immediately and put this issue to rest!
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"Does not rise to the level of impeachment." It all sounds soooo familiar.
There are actually more than 2.
Rassman, Sandusky, Rood, Russell, Medeiros, and Langhofer have made statements supportive of Kerry.
And there is the comments of Belodeau, who has since died (from a 1996 AP article you can find here):
Kerry assails columnist who questioned war service
By Glen Johnson, Associated Press writer
BOSTON -- Stung by a column questioning the circumstances of his greatest war triumph, Sen. John F. Kerry gathered his commanders and crew from Vietnam yesterday to rebuff what several called an assault on his integrity.
Mr. Kerry, visibly angered, recounted how he chased down a Viet Cong soldier in February 1969 and killed him as he was just about to fire a rocket into Mr. Kerry's Swift boat. The action earned him the Silver Star, the country's third highest honor for bravery.
The critical column, however, quoted the boat's forward gunner as saying Sen. Kerry actually finished off the soldier after the gunner wounded him.
Yesterday, the gunner, Tom Belodeau of Dracut, stood beside Sen. Kerry and said he had been misquoted. "This man was not lying on the ground. This man was more than capable of destroying that boat and everybody on it. Sen. Kerry did not give him that opportunity," Mr. Belodeau said.
Mr. Belodeau did concede that he may have wounded the Viet Cong soldier with a burst from his own gun, but he said Sen. Kerry did more than just finish him off. The columnist, an economics writer David Warsh for a Boston newspaper, noted that such a "coup de grace" would have been considered a war crime.
"The soldier that Sen. John Kerry shot was standing on both feet with a loaded rocket launcher, about to fire it on the boat from which (Mr. Kerry) had just left, which still had four men aboard," Mr. Belodeau said.
The Democrat also describes it as a defining period in his life, since he came home opposed to the war and began his public life as co-founder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
The most celebrated moment came on Feb. 28, 1969. A three-boat flotilla Mr. Kerry was commanding on a river in South Vietnam came under fire and Sen. Kerry took his boat directly into it. By the end, a Viet Cong soldier was dead and Sen. Kerry was carrying an enemy rocket launcher with a rocket still loaded in the chamber.
In the column, Mr. Warsh quotes Mr. Belodeau as saying in the course of their interview, "You know, I shot that guy. ... When I hit him, he went down and got up again. When Kerry hit him, he stayed down."
Gov. Weld received educational and medical deferments from serving in Vietnam, something Sen. Kerry has never directly challenged. But Mr. Kerry was clearly insulted over having a segment of his service questioned.
Sen. Kerry's staff arranged a news conference at the Courageous Sailing Center in the Charlestown Navy Yard. It also flew in several people who attested to Sen. Kerry's character and his version of events.
They were retired Admiral E.R. Zumwalt Jr., who commanded U.S. naval forces in Vietnam; retired Capt. George Elliott, Kerry's commander at the time of the shooting; retired Cmdr. Adrian Longsdale, who commanded shoreline operations at the time; and Mr. Belodeau, an electrician who is currently working in Michigan.
Also participating by phone from San Francisco was Michael Medeiros, who was the rear gunner on the Swift boat. Tom Vallely, a former Marine and Sen. Kerry's close friend, introduced each speaker.
Mr. Zumwalt, with two Navy ships and the USS Constitution anchored over his shoulder, said he remembered only two such incidents from Vietnam and one of them was Sen. Kerry's. Mr. Zumwalt also said he wanted to recommend Sen. Kerry for an even higher medal, the Navy Cross, but approval would have taken too long. Instead, he personally approved a Silver Star and sped along the award to improve morale at a time his sailors were taking heavy casualties.
"To me it was such a terrible insult, such an absolutely outrageous misinterpretation of the facts, that I felt it was important to be here," Mr. Zumwalt said. "A wartime commander has a lifetime responsibility to look out for the guys under him."
Mr. Medeiros, who was chasing after Sen. Kerry and the fleeing soldier, said he did not see Sen. Kerry kill him but had no doubt that the senator did so.
"The only one that was there was Senator Kerry," he said. Sen. Kerry said his reaction to the column had nothing to do with the latest poll findings.
"This is not about Bill Weld," he said. "This is about my honor, this is about the honor of my crew and this is about the honor of those who served. ... This is just wrong. This is not the way to conduct American politics."
Kerry has been using his Vietnam service successfully for his entire public career. He is a one trick pony who is sticking with his game plan. Vietnam is now the framework for the discussion. We are now in the phase where he trots out veterans and attacks his opponent who has no combat experience. He will go after Bush rather than the SBVFT because he knows that they can match him and more in terms of a combat resume. His surrogates will try to destroy the SBVFT while Kerry will attack Bush with the I served, you didn't tactic.
Dec. 2nd 1968: Purple Heart #1 Cam Ranh Bay
Feb 20 1969: PH #2 Dam Doi Canal
Feb 28 1969: Silver Star (reissued under three different people)
March 13th 1969 PH#3 & Bronze Star
March 17th 1969 Leaves NAM.
Read the details in UNFIT FOR COMMAND
There were also ribbons, curiously not listed by Kerry.
It sounds like one of them required 6 mo. in-country
in combat, which of course didn't happen.
And it (or another ribbon) was festooned with stars
representing the trumped-up "actions" he was in.
Still waiting for my copy of UFC.
When I was a kid growing up in the 50s my Dad used to say ....It only takes a 7th grade education to write for a newspaper.
My, how they have fallen.
FRegards
Smart dad.
He is gone now but he was born August 25th 1909.
A WWII VET with a clear eyed vision.
nice to know that one paper isn't on the democrat plantation.
they are correct that the mccain-feingold bill produced 527's.
after 8 months of hate ads against dubya, funded by george soros and john sperling (billionaire from the university of phoenix), the democrats are screaming ouch!
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