Kerry slams 'refusal to serve'

http://www.theaustralian.news.com ^ | 04sep04 = 07 October 2004 rerun reprint ? | AP, AFP old status quo {ghost author}

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Kerry slams 'refusal to serve'
AP, AFP
04sep04

NEW YORK: Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry declared he had taken enough "incoming" yesterday and blasted back at his Republican antagonists by suggesting George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were draft dodgers.

In his toughest counter-punch of the campaign, the decorated war hero said he was not going to have his military qualifications questioned by "those who refused to serve" in the Vietnam War.

"For the past week, they attacked my patriotism and my fitness to serve as commander in chief ... well, here's my answer," Senator Kerry said in Ohio.

"I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq.

"Let me tell you in no uncertain terms what makes someone unfit for office and unfit for duty. Misleading our nation into war in Iraq makes you unfit to lead our country.

"Doing nothing while this nation loses millions of jobs makes you unfit to lead this country. Letting 45 million Americans go without health care for four years makes you unfit to lead this country.

"Letting the Saudi royal family control the price of oil for Americans makes you unfit to lead this country."

Mr Bush spent the Vietnam War in the Texas Air National Guard, and had faced accusations that even then he was absent without leave for long periods. Mr Cheney received five deferments and once explained that he had "other priorities".

[STOCKHRSE]

Letting 45 million Americans go without health care for four years makes you unfit to lead this country

Audit shows more like three million,and in twenty years you did not introduce one bill to insure these people.

The truth stings Like a bitch, eh John?

BTW, I wonder if you are including the poor in Louisiana, b/c every one of them gets full service fully free health care at state charity hospitals.That includes Prescriptions. Ray

[STOCKHRSE]

Yea, don't it just break your heart...HE he heeeeeeee!

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

Thanks for the PING.

We who read Free Republic tend to think that most people have now heard all about Kerry's real war record, but unfortunately, it just isn't so. I realized this a week ago when one of my liberal "friends" who prides himself on being intellegent, reading a LOT and following "all" the news stories (of course he says he trusts to be factual only those in the "mainstream" press), made a comment to me that while Bush dodged the draft, Kerry volunteered, served his tour, then reupped for a second tour! I asked him where he heard that... he replied on ABC (which may or may not be accurate, he really could not remember), but he knew it was fact! I pulled up the records and together we looked at the dates on Kerry's beginning of service and release. My friend was utterly shocked to realize that Kerry was only in Nam a little over 3 months and said, it could not be true. When challenged to find any other official records that showed further service, he could not, and finally had to admit I was right.

It brought home a truth to me....... very few people have actually heard the facts and those that have heard hints merely shrug them off as Republican lies or propoganda. Another Dem-friend of mine told me I was out of my mind to believe all the "lies" about Kerry's records because after all if they had a grain of truth in them then the news media would be all over them! When I suggested that the news media was biased and hiding the truth from him, he laughed and said, "riiiiiight, and Elvis is alive and well in Rio"

Several Freepers have suggested that it's time for a "revolution"... that it will come to a war between liberals and conservatives. But I suggest that we fight back, NOT with swords and guns, but with the values we hold so dear and know to be the real strengths of this great nation. Capitalism works! Let's prove it so! About half of this nations population is "with us", and an overwhelming majority of this nation holds the "purchasing/buying" power.... right? So we need a huge grassroots campaign to ask and convince conservatives to cancel their newspaper subscriptions, turn off the network TV channels (not just the news but the entire channel), cancel subscriptions to biased magazines, etc. It won't work if only a few thousand people do this... it will take ALL of us to hit the media in the pocketbook until they hear us. They cannot long exist if they loose their profit.

Do we have the will power to do this? Probably not, but to me it seems like an easier alternative than civil war or watching our nation crumble into socialism!

[Coop]

So one's service in the National Guard/Reserves is considered draft dodging and unworthy of leading this country?

Nice move, Johnny. ROTFL!!! Anyone smell desperation?

[cajungirl]

I think you missed something in your assessment of Kerry. He was born to a blue blood family that was not as welll off as what he was surrounded by. His fatheer was half Jewish, in his world a shameful thing. I think he was superficially coddled but was on the outside, looking in and sometimes participating in activiteis of the wealthy but really living some on the largesse of richer relatives. I don't think he was particularly loved or cherished,,,think of his mothers real or imagined death bed words. Are those the words of a loving motheer? For some reason Kerry has spent his life trying to be the ultimate blue blood Ivy league of taste and at the same time participating in the deconstruction of all the institutitions around him. He takes his purple hearts and bashes the service.

We need a thread on Kerry psychology and I will bet it will be fascinating. I see Kerry as deprived emotionally, unable to love a wife, unable to father children, unable to be a patriot, unable to be proud. I see him as empty and sad and somehow knowing himself all to well.

[patton]

I was in the reserves for a year...some of those suckers were pretty darn hardcore.

[A knight without armor]

Alright, this really woke me up this morning. I was going to have a pleasant day but now I am so disgusted. I hate Kerry's tactics so much. This is just unreal. That article is like a Saturday Night Live script. It is so freaky it is laughable. Except this is not funny. I'm praying all the time everyday to quash this danger to America just waiting in the wings. We have GOT to keep this man's hands off America. Imagine our brave soldiers around the world and in hospitals and in graves and the Dems want Kerry in charge. I'm serious this is the most crucial election in my time. I was born in 1956. God Bless America and keep America safe from this threat.

[Coop]

And I don't imagine too many of them committed treason with the enemy either.

[adam_az]

"Add to that the fact that Kerry himself applied for a student deferment, but was denied."

Kerry requested a deferment to study in FRANCE.

Go figure.

(it was turned down)

[gunnedah]

This sorry SOB dodged the draft himself until he got caught up with. He received 5 deferments and was trying to get another one and when he saw he wouldn't get it he signed up for the Navy thinking he could get out of harms way and not be a grunt.
When he realized he was under fire still he devised a lawyerly approach and figured a way to get out of there using the rules like a lawyer. He wounded himself once if not twice and maybe got lucky on the third one and used it to leave those he served with after only four months.Remember he never was wounded badly enough to miss one day of duty and his medical records would probably prove it if they were released and he continues to hide them. If this conniving jerk is elected President America will get what it deserves for electing him.
Kerry is nothing more than a conniving coward who also used the system and succeeded in fooling some Americans to think he was a hero.
John Kerry in is whole life has never done anything to deserve the office in which he seeks and has lived off of others and the government his whole sorry life!

[A knight without armor]

I agree. Even if he wasn't Kerry, but just a person I know from work or something I would view him as empty and emotionless. He does not seem comfortable with himself. Certainly, he is stiff and not an athletic person which is so obvious from his bizarre attempts at sports and hunting. I guess I picture Kerry as a liberal college professor on tenure where he'd live out his life detached from the real world. The thought of him in battle is just horrible. I'd never want him watching my back. He just would not comprehend it. Even in everyday life I don't picture him loving a family. I truly hope his daughters do feel loved by their father but I feel he is a father to them rather than a daddy.

[woodyinscc]

This man tried to pass himself off as another Audie Murphy during the democrat convention. He has been called and raised, and has no chips to play. What does he do? He attacks the people who had no interest in playing the game. This man wants to be President? I think not.

[sweetiepiezer]

Why isnt the MSM picking this up?
This is an Australian paper.

[Condor51]

_sKerry enlisted in the Naval Reserves in 1966. His six year obligation ended in 1972.

wait..... that can't be correct, he was meeting with the PRG (VC) & NVA in 1971?!?!

/sarcasm

[adam_az]

"Clinton is a happy man, a happy con artist, and Kerry is a sad human being full of bloated ego. I do believe Clinton had transcended his ego."

You're insane.

[pabianice]

Another lie from the traitor. Bush volunteered for Vietnam service and was turned-down because he did not have the required minimum of 500 hours in type (F-102A).

THIS Vietnam vet, and all of the 600 others with whom I served there, despise Kerry as the traitorous rat he is. I WILL call him a traitor, coward, and liar. I was there, too, and I know EXACTLY the swine he is.

If he has a problem with that, he can contact me here pivately so I can rip him a new, ah, rectum.

[adam_az]

"Did anyone ever see Kerry's discharge?"

I hope you aren't referring to his "urinary tract infection" from mamasan's daughter.

[Condor51]

In Vietnam? I didn't think any National Guard units got called up in Vietnam.

No offense, but are you series?

Thousands of Army NG personnel were 'in country'.

[kellynla]

The Swift Boat ads must be getting to the TRAITOR! LMAO

Semper Fi,
Kelly

[1stMarylandRegiment]

So he prevaricates to himself, he believes his lies . . .

Therein lies the source of Kerry's outrage. Clinton was never outraged.

In his twisted psyche Kerry has BECOME his fantasies and lies. When they are questioned he is (in his mind) PERSONALLY attacked and he roars back.

Clinton knew all along his stories were untruths; to attack them was a gambit to be rebutted - and he did it with glee and the joy of the game.