[old and tired]

Well, I watched the whole speech and then I watched the response on Fox. The speech went better for Kerry than I hoped. Kerry's clearly been highly coached. Much less arrogance than he normally displays. Slightly too long and a little boring. He began the speech pandering to the Legionnaires, where applause was obligatory. Even so, there was never really a lot of applause and several times when he gave the briefest of pauses anticipating applause there was none. I suspect Kerry had a good number of his people scattered throughout the crowd.

Kerry made the following charges:

1) Bush didn't have the troops guarding nuclear waste and stores in Iraq.
2) Bush sent Afghan troops after Osama instead of our own guys.
3) 9 out of 10 troops are either in Iraq, home from Iraq or going to Iraq at a time when troops will be needed due to increased tensions in North Korea and Iran.

Kerry also said that he would add a large number of active duty troops to our forces - sorry can't remember the number.

[BlueLancer]

"Kerry also said that he would add a large number of active duty troops to our forces - sorry can't remember the number."

And, before he can do that, he's going to have to get the House and the Senate to approve an increase in the manning numbers for the military ... which he would vote against if he were still in the Senate.

Why does he think all of those divisions were deactivated and all of those officers and troops RIF'd and given early-outs? Because Congress decided to reduce the numbers of men allowed to be in the Services. It wasn't like most of them wanted to get out or that the slots couldn't be filled. The slots were done away with and, without positions to fill, the troops and officers were "fired".

Someone needs to ask him why, if the military needs more men, manning level numbers haven't been increased by the Congress to authorize more enlistments and the creation (recreation) of disbanded units. The military cannot just enlist more soldiers or commission more officers; Congress has to authorize it and it .. and, by extension, he .. hasn't seen fit to do so.

[mass55th]

"Kerry also said that he would add a large number of active duty troops to our forces - sorry can't remember the number. "

Well then he's going to have to reinstitute the draft because most active duty soldiers say they won't serve under him.

[sweetliberty]

Thanks for the recap. Looks like Kerry is flip flopping again. Reminds me of a fish trying to escape the line. Too late.