2. Collectively these men have 375 years of experience in Vietnam and on their swift boats, compared to the 16 total months of Kerry and his nine enlistees.
3. These men were in boats yards away from Kerry and were witnesses to what happened. They were well positioned to observe the events in question.
4. Many of the Swift Boat Vets are decorated war heroes themselves and not only have earned the right but have a duty to expose thos who they believe received honors fraudulently.
5. The Swift Boat Vets who signed the petition collectively earned (Insert total of medals and honors) Saying these men do not have the right to speak out or claiming they are lying is an abomination and insult to all soldiers who served their country honorably during the VietNam war.
6. Saying the Swifties have no right to give witness to these events because they were not in the same boat as Kerry is like saying Ron Goldman (if he survived) has no right to testify against OJ because he wasn't wearing Bruno Magli shoes.
1) kerry lead a capitulation movement against his own country.
2) Bush lead a capitulation movement against our enemies, the way is should be done.
The election process, including the Swift Boat ads, is a vetting process for the presidency of the U.S. Americans have a right to speak, be heard and then to vote. Carry on.
b) the swift crews were as close as a football team to include the QB, offense, defense & special teams.
c) when somebody is interviewed the prosepective employer typically gets references from his former bosses and fellow peers, not those who served UNDER him.
They are not Republican operatives, just concerned citizens.
The voters have the right to know the truth. Bush released all his records, why doesn't Kerry?
It helps to remove some of the heat from the swifties, and puts the emphasis where it belongs, ON KERRY.
Simply Put, on several occasions Senator Kerry, in speech, and in writing spoke of the painful experience of being in Cambodia, on Christmas Eve of 1968, and being haunted by the fact that President Nixon denied their prescence.
Now, a simple Calendar tells one that he is lying about Nixon, because Nixon was not president yet.
But More importantly, IF Mr.Kerry was not in Cambodia, why did he repeatedly claim to have been?
Is that not really a slur against the United States of America, much akin to his Slur of Vietnam veterans during the Senate hearings...?
The repeating of the Cambodia fiction, tells a voter everything they need to know about Mr.Kerry's true feelings aobut the projection of American Force abroad.
Foretold, is Forewarned.
That's good, but do you have a brief talking-points synopsis of the Swift Boat Vets *claims*? It would be good have that in summary form.
So Kerry, lets get your crew together
and they can tell America how you and
they were in Cambodia on Dec 24 and 25 1968,
under Nixon's orders even though Nixon
wasn't Commander-in-Chief until Jan 20 1969
You and your crew were there.
They can verify this? Correct?
Johnson, Lyndon
1963-69
Nixon, Richard
1969-74
Odd, I was in Vietnam on Dec 24 and 25 1968
and Johnson was my Commander-in-Chief
John Kerry
Exhibit 25, Congressional Record - Senate of March 27, 1986, page 3594.
"Mr. President, I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have President Nixon telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia.
I have that memory which is seared -- seared -- in me . . . ."
By way of further example, Kerry wrote an article for the Boston Herald on October 14, 1979:
"I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."
See Exhibit 26.
Regardless of what Kerry did or didn't do in-country...his actions as a spokeperson for Viet Nam Veterans Against the War tells us all we need to know about being "Unfit for Command"!
It's a simple as this
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1188761/posts?page=13#13
Now where are the crew members that were on the boat with Kerry?
When Kerry testified before Congress in 1971, he alleged war crimes and confessed to participation. How can Kerry be a hero if he committed war crimes? Which Kerry story is true? Why won't the media ask him to elaborate? There's more evidence that he was a war criminal than there is that Bush went AWOL. Why isn't that news?
Anyone who has not contributed their own $'s to the Swiftboat ad fund, should have the decency to immediately donate to the Swift boat vets to counter the tie in with the mediots and Kerry.
Why we should contribute to the Swift Boat Money raising for tv ads, based on comments from Kerri's staff"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1188521/posts
According to a Kerry campaign source, senior campaign advisers tasked two Washington-based campaign staffers to vet the recently published Unfit for Command.
"The purpose was to compare what that book had with what we had on file from Senator Kerry," says the campaign source, who said that the research project developed more than 75 instances where Kerry's recollections, previous remarks, or writings conflicted with the book's reporting.
"We took some of the most glaring examples, like the Christmas in Cambodia story, and presented them to senior staff, and we assume that those things were put in front of Senator Kerry," says the source. "We haven't heard a word about it. All we were told is that it was being taken care of."
The campaign source said that the book was not considered a "serious" problem for the campaign, because, "the media wouldn't have the nerve to come at us with this kind of stuff," says the source.
"The senior staff believes the media is committed to seeing us win this thing, and that the convention inoculated us from these kinds of stories. The senior guys really think we don't have a problem here."
all the swiftboat vets are asking for is for Kerry to release all his records..he already said he would, President Bush has done so so why doesn't Kerry do what he said he would, what is he hiding? In fairness to all he should be held to the same standard he holds President Bush to...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040421-121056-7919r.htm
August 10, 2004
Fisking Rassman's WSJ op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal
From his op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal, Vietnam veteran Jim Rassman, who spoke eloquently for Sen. Kerry at the Democratic National Convention, now argues passionately against the SwiftVets who believe Sen. Kerry is unfit to be Commander in Chief:
This smear campaign has been launched by people without decency, people who don't understand the bond of those who serve in combat.
I see. None of the 250+ SwiftVets understand that bond. You and the small handful of other vets who travel from campaign appearance to campaign appearance with Sen. Kerry do, however — exclusively. Those 250+ guys were just kind of standing around in Vietnam, and didn't really form any bonds, care about their wounded, care about their fellows who died. They don't understand. You and the veterans who do support Sen. Kerry have a monopoly on decency. Right.
Their new charges are false; their stories are fabricated, made up by people who did not serve with Kerry in Vietnam.
Again, I see. Your own quality time spent with John Kerry in Vietnam should instead be persuasive to us. And you tell us how much time that was, quite candidly:
I was not part of John Kerry's command. I was a Special Forces officer who happened to be on his boat at that time.
In fairness, you also say that you "worked with him on many operations and saw firsthand his leadership, courage and decision-making ability under fire." But you suggest that we should discount to zero, however, the views of the gunner from Kerry's own boat; everyone else on the boat "served with Kerry," as, apparently, did you, Mr. Rassmunn. But not that guy!
And we should likewise ignore the views of John Kerry's fellow officers-in-charge of the swift boats that accompanied him on the same day you say he earned his Bronze Star. Precisely one out of twenty-three of the OICs in Coastal Division 11 who served fought worked ummm, did whatever they did at the same time Kerry was in Coastal Division 11 — the officers who actually lived with him, who trained and briefed with him, and whose boats accompanied Kerry's own on the other missions he undertook during his four-month in-country tour (which they, and most of us, might consider "serving with" him) — now supports Sen. Kerry. However, you, Mr. Rassman — who abhor "smears" — apparently value their service, their word, and their opinions, at zero. They, you say, "should hang their heads in shame."
For his actions that day, I recommended John for the Silver Star, our country's third highest award for bravery under fire. I learned only this past January that the Navy awarded John the Bronze Star with Combat V for his valor.
Ah! Okay, from these two sentences, we learn precisely how well you knew John Kerry in Vietnam, and how strongly indebted you felt to him at the time, and how closely you've followed his career ever after. You neither knew of his medal when it was awarded, nor followed up what had happened with your own medal recommendation, nor paid sufficient attention to any of Kerry's multiple election campaigns over the last 30+ years (including the entirety of his presidential campaign before January 2004) to hear of his Bronze Star. John Kerry made national headlines for throwing his/someone's medals/ribbons over a Capitol fence, but it never occurred to you to wonder if one of those medals/ribbons came from saving your life. You couldn't be bothered — we can only presume because of your "passion for orchids." Yes, sir, clearly you are the man to whom America should turn now for a comprehensive assessment of John Kerry's military career!
Mr. Rassman, in the unlikely event that you're reading this: I do honor your service, just as I do John Kerry's (however much or little it was). I don't doubt that you're genuinely grateful to him — as no doubt was Licorice the Unlucky Hamster, whom he also saved from a watery death many years later. (All snark aside, Mr. Rassman, I don't seriously mean to compare you to a hampster. Snark is as intrinsic to fisking as bullets are to combat, but no one would suggest that snark be taken as seriously as bullets or combat, least of all me.)
But those of us who are trying to sort out the differences between your version of events and those of the SwiftVets who were also there on-scene at the time, like Larry Thurlow, are still wondering about the answer to the very specific question that Mr. Thurlow put to you — for which you offered no answer — during your and his recent joint interview on CNN:
If these men can't evaluate Kerry because they weren't on the exace same boat, how can John McCain evaluate their claims? He was on an aircraft carrier and then in a POW camp. Nowhere near these events. Somehow his word is supposed to be dispositive though.
Kerry says that he spent Christmas 1968 on a Swift Boat "five miles inside Cambodia listening to Presiden Nixon telling the Nation we weren't there" or something like that BUT ---- Nixon wasn't president until Jan 20, 1969!
Lyndon Johnson was president that Christmas. Probably Nixon hatred was a big formative factor in Kerry's anti-US dogma. If he is not smart enough to check the facts when constructing his past, why should we trust him to get it right when constructing our (and our children's) future?
Is this his current band of brothers? Just before kerry's early departure with his medals. As stated; "Worried that his crew members would be killed, Kerry "arranged for them to receive a safer assignment". Michael Kranish, Globe Staff, 6/16/2003 Candidate in the making.[Part Two] Also has been posted that; On the day Kerry received the Silver Star. He put his crew in for medals also. 2 Bronze Stars w/combat V and 3 Navy Commendation medals w/combat V were awarded based on Kerry's lies in addition to his Silver Star.
The notion that being "half a football field" away from Kerry's boat, and saying they couldn't have known what was going on, is stupid. Any service member can see and hear things happening 50 yards away. Besides, Van O'Dell was manning a .50 caliber machine gun 14 feet above the water line - he had a better view of the action than someone in the water, and if there was a firefight, he would have been involved.