Are medals no longer good enough proof of valour?
Must we now ask the opinion of talk radio hosts and the opinon of websites before we respect a man's medals?
I will respect Kerry for any medals he has until my government tells me otherwise.
Well,when a person's current words and actions show he has little or no respect for truth, our soldiers, or our Constitution,THEN I harbor doubts about his past.
Kerry's refusal to allow scrutiny of his records whilst seeking the office of President is indicative of a desire to hide something.
All he has to do is release his military records and we will know. Until he does, I'll believe the true heroes, the men that were there with him. He wrote up his own battle reports and put himself in for medals that were originally refused. He shopped around for someone to sign off on the medals.
He has various versions of the same incidents in his own book and his authorized biography. He was not in Cambodia. He lied to the Senate and to the American people. He lied about being in Cambodia. He called our soldiers war criminals.
All he has to do is release his records.
I would suppose this would depend on how they were obtained.
In my opinion, to focus too much attention what his medals ought to mean is to ignore the larger picture of who John Kerry is. I want to respect his medals, too, but it is impossible for me to ignore the character revealed in the testimony of his own words and deeds, things merely reported by talk show hosts and websites, not created by them. If the source of the truth happens to be a talk show host or a website, is it any less the truth?
I'd be willing to say that most medals are true and deserved proof of valour and should be respected. It's even possible, though not likely, that Kerry's medals are proof of valour AT THAT TIME. However, medals alone are not proof of a life of integrity, courage, and honor...and when a man who proves in so many ways that he lacks these virtues points to his medals as "proof" of his character, he dishonors those medals. A man can taint his past laurels by the life he leads afterwards. And if it's true that he received these honors deceptively, then they cannot even be called laurels, however deserving of respect they ordinarily would be.
There's enough eye-witnesses to cast much suspect and doubt on his "valor".
When you start placing all the pieces together...it appears like once John Kerry knew he was going to the real 'Nam...he designed a self-serving plan to get out.
I'm sure he wasn't the first to do that, nor the last. But, don't swing the medals in my face...and not expect me to "look into" them.....ESPECIALLY in light of his Senate "Testimony" once he got back here.
So...recapping, I think it highly likely..and not entirely circumstantial that Kerry's medals are fraudulent.