Posted on 12/05/2010 9:19:45 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Kerry: 'Afghanistan is just not Vietnam' By J. Taylor Rushing - 12/05/10 11:33 AM ET
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Sunday gave a firm defense of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, rejecting any comparison to the Vietnam War in which he served.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press" to host David Gregory, Kerry said the Obama administration has acted correctly in continuing the war in Afghanistan and should be able to withdraw troops as planned in 2014. Gregory had played Kerry a video clip of his 1971 testimony before Congress in which Kerry famously called the Vietnam War "a mistake."
"In my judgement, Afghanistan is just not Vietnam," Kerry said. "We shouldn't have been in Vietnam. It was a surrogate war, it was a cold war. There are any number of reasons it was a gigantic mistake. In Afghanistan, we're there for a purpose. I don't believe the size of the footprint we have doing everything we're doing, as I've said publicly many times, and I don't think the president, in the long run, wants to do that, which is why he has committed to this transition.
"I believe the president and our military are on the right track, which is to turn this over to the Afghans as rapidly as possible in a way that meets their needs to have sufficient stability and capacity to survive, and our needs to prosecute counter-terrorism efforts. I think you can do a lot of counter-terrorism with a smaller footprint and still manage the progress of Afghanistan.
"Can we do it by 2014? Yes, I believe we can, and I think the president is absolutely intent on preventing this from being the mistake that begged the question that I posed in 1971."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1061806/posts
Here are facts and quotations that reveal the character of the new Democrat leader.
Denouncing America with Hanoi Jane: Although Wesley Clark and others have attacked former front-runner Howard Dean as a draft-dodging ski bum, Kerry is far more complex than the simple war hero he portrays himself as.
He became a celebrated organizer for one of America’s most extreme appeasement groups, Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He consorted with the likes of Hanoi Jane Fonda and Ramsey Clark, Lyndon Johnsons radical former attorney general.
He attended a seminar bankrolled by Fonda in Detroit in February 1971. Watching 125 self-proclaimed Vietnam veterans testify at a Howard Johnsons about atrocities allegedly committed by U.S. forces, the man who would be president later said he found the accounts shocking and irrefutable.
Dubbed The Winter Soldier Investigation, the protest attracted minimal media attention, according to the Los Angeles Times, because Fonda insisted it be held in the remote Michigan city rather than the less authentic Washington, D.C.
Still, the event gave Kerry an idea for a protest that was sure to be a media smash, and he immediately set out to organize one of the most confrontational protests of the war.
Operation Dewey Canyon III began on April 18, 1971, when nearly 1,000 Vietnam veterans and people claiming to be veterans gathered on Washingtons Mall for what they called a limited incursion into the country of Congress.
The group staged mock firefights on the steps of the Capitol and Supreme Court and defied U.S. Park Police after the Department of Justice issued an injunction barring it from camping on the Mall.
He was there just long enough to get some good footage walking through the bushes with an M-16 then stub his toe and get his purple heart.
A COMMUNIST’s statements, judgements, and actions are always driven by the accumulation of POWER. Criticising Bush was intended increase RATS’ power; supporting Obama is intended to increase (or at least retain)their power.
They then use that power to implement the socialist utpopia. There is no inconsistency here at all. We conservatives must understand the mentality, goals, and tactics of the enemy.
2014? I thought in his big deal "Surge" speech Obama said it was 2012. When did this change?
Who better to comment than one who was there and served with honor (didn’t he win a door prize or something?)? /sarc
The new talking point. Heard that from another genius this morning while channel surfing.
Was it Eleanor Clift???????? Just can’t remember but it’s out there.
And they refer, Senator, to a speech on the floor in which you said that you were there, that the president of the United States was saying you were not there, that there were troops in Cambodia. You have the memory seared in you. In a letter to the Boston Herald, you remember spending Christmas Eve ‘68 five miles across the Cambodian border. You told The Washington Post you have a lucky hat given to you by a CIA guy “as we went in for a special mission to Cambodia.” Were you in Cambodia Christmas Eve, 1968?
SEN. KERRY: We were right on the border, Tim. What I explained to people and I told this any number of times, did I go into Cambodia on a mission? Yes, I did go into Cambodia on a mission. Was it on that night? No, it was not on that night. But we were right on the Cambodian border that night. We were ambushed there, as a matter of fact. And that is a matter of record, and we went into the rec— you know, it's part of the Navy records. It's been documented by the other guys who were on my boat. And Steve Gardner, frankly, doesn't know where we were. It wasn't his job, and, you know, he wasn't involved in that. But we did go five miles into Cambodia. It was on another day. I jumbled the two together, but we were five miles into Cambodia. We went up on a mission with CIA agents—I believe they were CIA agents—CIA Special Ops guys. I even have some photographs of it, and I can document it. And it has been documented.
MR. RUSSERT: You'll release those photographs?
SEN. KERRY: I think they were shown. I gave them to the campaign, but...
MR. RUSSERT: And you have a hat that the CIA agent gave you?
SEN. KERRY: I still have the hat that he gave me, and I hope the guy would come out of the woodwork and say, “I'm the guy who went up with John Kerry. We delivered weapons to the Khmer Rouge on the coastline of Cambodia.” We went out of Ha Tien, which is right in Vietnam. We went north up into the border. And I have some photographs of that, and that's what we did. So, you know, the two were jumbled together, but we were on the Cambodian border on Christmas Eve, absolutely.
MR. RUSSERT: Nixon was president-elect, not president, at that particular time. He wasn't sworn in until...
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SEN. KERRY: In 1968, he wasn't sworn in yet.
MR. RUSSERT: But he was president-elect, not president.
SEN. KERRY: That's correct.
MR. RUSSERT: Many people who've been criticizing you have said: Senator, if you would just do one thing and that is sign Form 180, which would allow historians and journalists complete access to all your military records. Thus far, you have gotten the records, released them through your campaign. They say you should not be the filter. Sign Form 180 and let the historians...
SEN. KERRY: I'd be happy to put the records out. We put all the records out that I had been sent by the military. Then at the last moment, they sent some more stuff, which had some things that weren't even relevant to the record. So when we get—I'm going to sit down with them and make sure that they are clear and I am clear as to what is in the record and what isn't in the record and we'll put it out. I have no problem with that.
MR. RUSSERT: Would you sign Form 180?
SEN. KERRY: But everything, Tim...
MR. RUSSERT: Would you sign Form 180?
SEN. KERRY: Yes, I will. But everything that we put in it, Tim—everything we put in—I mean, everything that was out was a full documentation of all of the medical records, all of the fitness reports. And I'd call on those who have challenged me, let's see their records. I want to see the records of each of those people who have put up a challenge, because some of them have some serious questions in them, and it hasn't been appropriate...
MR. RUSSERT: So they should sign Form 180s for themselves as well?
SEN. KERRY: You bet. . .
[Transcript for Jan. 30, 2005—MEET THE PRESS]
Kerry´s supposed to wear the CIA hat that agent gave him in Cambodia before he can unwind with his whoppers.
It was “seared’’ into his memory. “Seared I tell ya!! Did I say it was ‘’seared’’ into his memory? :-)
You did say “Seared” didn’t you? As in seared into his memory?I wonder if it’s still seared in his memory? (gotta believe it’s a slow day here). :)
Yes, I said seared. Seared I tell you! Why it’s the searing-est thing I ever saw seared!!
Now you’ve gone too far ... just took a steak out of the freezer ....
Well enjoy my friend. If I may offer a suggestion? Thyme and Lea&Perrins Wochestershire Sauce on steak is mmmm good!
Well I crack some peppercorns, and chopped garlic and roll the meat into that. I get the BBQ up to high temp, throw that bad boy on it. Get it seared into my memory and then close the lid. Time it just right and boy does it come out ever so good. Sorry, hope I didn't offend any vigeans out there.
Sounds nice, good eatin’!
...on Sunday gave a firm defense of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, rejecting any comparison to the Vietnam War in which he served...As if he'd know. Thanks Sub-Driver.
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