Dear Allison: Help yourself.
Note to Max: Don't pick this up if the pin is missing.
What were you thinking, if anything?
Next time, try to stay sober.
P.S. It's not your patrotism,
it's your judgment.
.
Posted on 10/04/2007 5:54:18 AM PDT by kristinn
Someone woke up on the wrong side of the collective farm this morning...
And, as for Kerry's purple hearts...I may stand alone on this issue, but I never make light of a Purple Heart. In a combat zone - particularly in the jungle, with all of it's associated crud - even a hangnail can turn septic.
I will mock Kerry, however, for his "I threw them over the White House fence, no I didn't, well, yes I did but they were someone else's" story. All of the veterans that I know would rather cut off their right arms, than get rid of their medals. At best, it shows that he's indecisive and pandering. At worst, it shows that he put no value on his own military service, while making it the centerpiece of his campaign.
While there were a million reasons to dislike Kerry, his handling of what should have been a trivial (throwaway? pardon the pun) story, was a deciding factor, for me.
Thanks for the info. I think the adage about patriotism being the last refuge of a scoundrel was never truer than when being used as political cover by the Left to divert scrutiny of their unpatriotic and anti-military actions.
bmflr, sounds like someone’s been having too much fun in freeperland
Nothing but more Liberal hate speech.
John F(raud)Kerry wasn't in Nam long enough for his hangnails and scratches to get infected. He quickly gathered his 3 purple hearts within the 3/12 months (Two tours by Kerry's reconing) he was there and immediately applied to be sent stateside to finnish up his obligatory service time.
He was a coward who couldn't get out of there fast enough.
Upon his arrival back in the USA, he began putting together his group of fake soldiers, organizing anti-war rallies and lying about "atrocities" he claims to have committed and witnessed, even though most of those fake soldiers never served, or never served in Nam. He also attended secret meeting in which his group which he was in a leadership role conspired to assassinate politicians, all of this while still technically serving out his time.
He should be in prison for that alone.
He then, in a traitorous act of treason and espionage met in France with our enemies on at least 2 occasions.
He should have been court Marshalled and hung for that as well.
Normally a purple heart is well deserved, and should never be something to mock someone over. But Kerry's case is unique, his actions were extremely dishonorable, shameful and disgusting. He made a mockery out of what a purple heart represents, and in the process cheaped the meaning of them for all servicemen who recieved them.
He deserves to wear that dishonor for the rest of his life. Or until he admits and apologizes for the dishonor he brought upon everyone and returns them.
During which Kerry claims he was laying in the cold wet jungle all alone and sad, thinking about baby Jesus and eggnog, while a bunch of nearby Buddhists were celebrating Christmas...
oh, and that is seared...SEARED into his memory.
LOL!
Not exactly playing with a grenade. He was on a beer run, and when he got into or out of a helicopter, a grenade caught on something and the pin was pulled out.
Not exactly a heroic injury.
He might have been heroic in other ways while he was serving in Vietnam, but those injuries were not heroic.
Full Disclosure: I was never in the military, ever. (But I don’t think the above is even a close call, so I’m not disqualified from commenting on it.)
Hope that you're not waiting on that one. Don't hold your breath.
Like I said, there were a million legitimate reasons to dislike the guy. I just won't hang him out over his Purple Hearts. Unless he awarded them to himself (and I'll admit, I have no idea how he obtained them) someone in Vietnam thought that his wounds were legitimate enough to hand them over.
I agree with you - what he did afterwards is utterly reprehensible, and I would file it under the "Million reasons not to like the guy". I just have no idea how he got away with as much as he did.
And I still think that the "getting rid of the medals in protest" story is a huge insight into his character, or lack thereof.
.
“Just one problem though — Coulter’s column was as per usual, dead-on accurate and she had the quotes to prove it...”http://www.rightwingnews.com/archives/week_2004_02_15.PHP
“(Cleland) told the pilot he was going to stay awhile. Maybe have a few beers with friends. ... Then Cleland looked down and saw a grenade. Where’d that come from? He walked toward it, bent down, and crossed the line between before and after.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dec. 5, 1999)
“[Cleland] didn’t step on a land mine. He wasn’t wounded in a firefight. He couldn’t blame the Viet Cong or friendly fire. The Silver Star and Bronze Star medals he received only embarrassed him. He was no hero. He blew himself up.” (Baltimore Sun, Oct. 24, 1999)
“Cleland was no war hero, but his sacrifice was great. ... Democratic Senate candidate Max Cleland is a victim of war, not a casualty of combat. He lost three limbs on a long-forgotten hill near Khe Sanh because of some American’s mistake ...” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sept. 29, 1996)”
It’s also worth noting that while Cleland earned a silver star, according to Cleland himself, he didn’t deserve it. After being clued in by an email from Mark Steyn to a Crooked Timber reader, I managed to find the following...
“(In) Mr. Cleland’s autobiography, Strong at the Broken Places (1986 edition), in which he writes on Page 87 regarding his having been awarded the Soldier’s Medal “for allegedly shielding my men from the grenade blast and the Silver Star for allegedly coming to the aid of wounded troops...”
“There were no heroics on which to base the Soldier’s Medal. And it had been my men who took care of the wounded during the rocket attack, not me. Some compassionate military men had obviously recommended me for the Silver Star, but I didn’t deserve it.”
And later, on Page 89: “I was not entitled to the Purple Heart either, since I was not wounded by enemy action.”
Now, I don’t bring all this up to denigrate Max Cleland. To the contrary, I have a lot of respect for anyone who serves in our military. Above and beyond that, Cleland deserves credit for volunteering to go to Vietnam and for his injuries in service to our country.
However, there are two points worth making here.
One, Coulter was right in her original column when she said, “There is more than a whiff of dishonesty in how Cleland is presented to the American people”. The reason the Democrats have been keeping Cleland front and center in the Kerry campaign, are using him as the point man to attack Bush on the bogus AWOL charges, and keep lying about Cleland’s patriotism being challenged, is because most Americans incorrectly have the impression that Cleland sustained his injuries in combat. If the average person on the street knew what actually happened to Cleland, the Dems wouldn’t be trying to use him as the face of the party on military issues. People on the left will hate to admit that because it makes them sound cynical & dishonest, but deep in their bleeding hearts they know it’s the truth.
Secondly, there are a lot of people on the left who should publicly set the record straight and admit that they were wrong about this issue and Ann Coulter was right. However, I’d advise you not to hold your breath waiting for them to do the right thing...
Sounds similar to the account I heard. Maybe it was conclusion jumping on somebody’s part that the grenade had come from Cleland’s vest and it had gotten pulled off as he got on or off the copter. But that’s what I had read.
How come I didnt get an invite to the WH? Now I’m bummed...
Keep up the good work...
They are whining splendidly.
Hahaha, your tears are delicous,
they only make us stronger. ^_^
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