Posted on 01/21/2005 3:40:27 AM PST by kattracks
Washington (CNSNews.com) - Vietnam Veterans who opposed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry held an "un-augural" reception on Thursday afternoon in Washington to celebrate the fact that Kerry lost the election and to honor the veterans who helped defeat him.
"We are celebrating the fact that John Kerry lost," said Jerome Corsi, co-author of the best-selling book Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry. Corsi wrote the book with former Swift Boat veteran John O'Neill.
"The whole Swift Boat effort was organized, not to re-elect George Bush but to defeat John Kerry, and that was the unifying factor that brought all the Vietnam Veterans together," Corsi told Cybercast News Service at the National Press Club reception. Cybercast News Service was the first news organization to report that Kerry's Swift Boat veterans were organizing to oppose Kerry's candidacy in May 2004.
The moderator of the reception, Lou Priebe, put it bluntly: "We are celebrating the fact that the commander in chief that raised his hand today was not John F. Kerry."
Under a banner that read "Kerry Lied, Good Men Died," the coalition of veterans groups, including Swift Boat veterans, POWs and other military veterans, declared their mission accomplished.
"These men literally changed history, because I believe that without Vietnam Veterans across the country taking a stand for the truth, this election would have gone otherwise, there is no doubt in my mind," said Carlton Sherwood, producer of the documentary "Stolen Honor," which details Kerry's "betrayal" of U.S. servicemen fighting in Vietnam.
Sherwood is an investigative reporter and thrice-wounded (and decorated) Marine Corps combat veteran. His documentary details POWs' resentment towards Kerry for what they see as his smearing of Vietnam Veterans through his anti-war activism in the early 1970s.
Kerry, in testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the Detroit "Winter Soldier" investigations, claimed that more than 150 Vietnam veterans "testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia -- not isolated incidents, but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command...."
According to Kerry's testimony, some of the 150 veterans admitted they "had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam..."
But Sherwood refuted Kerry's claims about the soldiers who fought in Vietnam. "Vietnam is not a four letter word. It was fought honorably and well by men who were not war criminals," Sherwood said on Thursday.
"John Kerry still hasn't answered any of the questions that were posed to him," he added.
'We confronted his lies'
B. G. Burkett, a military researcher and author of the book Stolen Valor , which details phony veteran claims, said that Vietnam Veterans "got the truth out about John Kerry."
"We confronted his lies and we told the truth," Burkett told Cybercast News Service.
Burkett noted that much of the media still does not give the Vietnam Veterans who opposed Kerry the respect he believes they deserve.
"The mainstream media is still saying the Swift Boat Veterans were completely discredited. Nobody has ever discredited anything the Swift Boat Veterans presented. You will see that type of phrase in column after column and articled after article and it's just totally bunk," Burkett said.
Kerry labeled the Swift Boat veterans' efforts against him "a pack of lies" in September 2004.
But Burkett said the facts prove otherwise: "John Kerry lied about this military service in Vietnam. That's just the absolute truth," Burkett said.
See Related Articles:
Kerry Blamed for Vietnam Vets Being Dubbed 'Atrocity Committing Monsters' POW Says
Kerry 'Unfit to be Commander-in-Chief,' Say Former Military Colleagues (May 3, 2004)
Kerry Lying About Anti-War Past, Supporter Alleges (March 18, 2004)
Kerry's Denials at Odds With 1971 Book He Authored (Feb. 20, 2004)
E-mail a news tip to Marc Morano.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
These guys are the best....
These guys will be all over the morning news shows, right?
(Did they even make it on Fox News?)
Yes, they were on foxnews. However, some of the people on fox, especially the leftists on Brit Hume's show continued to spout the talking point saying the Swifties were descredited.
It is important that we get foxnews to do a special report on the truth about what we did in Nam.
The leftist media will never be turned around. We need to work to put them out of business. CBS is on the way out, now. The New York Times, Time Magazine and Newsweek need to go next.
They are the best. They fought for us during Vietnam. They were treated horribly yet rose up once again during the Kerry invasion. Much gratitude to our vets.
I love Schadenfreude!
Heroes never die and some never fade away!
Vietnam Vets for the Truth / Kerry Lied, especially Capt.Larry Bailey and Amanda Prewett
POWs for the Truth, especially Col. Bud Day
Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry
Operation Street Corner and organizer Tony Snesko
Swiftboat Vets for the Truth
John O'Neil and Jerry Corsi
and of course the men who slogged through rice paddies and jungles, putting it all on the line, only to come home and be spit at by the likes of John F Kerry at the airport, suffered in silence for thirty some odd years, and then rose up to reclaim their honor by their hard work in the election of 2004.
God Bless You Men
In God We Trust.....Semper Fi!
One Last Time
BIG Ditto! Couldn't have said it better.
Thank you Swifties. So sad to see the MSM ignore these heroes.
I notice Kerry has somewhat amended his bio -but still does NOT count his actions as a Naval Officer in the reserves as Betrayal.Neither does he seem to wish his
anti-American activities discussed.
Integrity, integrity, integrity. Thank you Swift Boat Veterans for TRUTH.
If Kerry runs again, he'll get more of the same.
I wonder why 'Kansas City' didn't come up?
Did anyone else notice that Fox edited out, "So help me God" when they ran the taking of the oath.
Yes. I didn't catch the actual ceremony and I wondered why Bush didn't say it.
I think Foxnews thinks it has the conservative audience and is now trying to grab some of the less mentally ill leftists.
We have a word for them. They're called Heroes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.