Posted on 06/23/2002 1:36:04 PM PDT by GeneD
This is Sen John Fitzgerald Forbes 20-20 Teresa Heinz-fortune-sight Kerry, well known medal thrower. Other peoples' medals, that is.
And to think, old Heinz-sight Kerry gets to spend part of the Heinz 57 fortune on his putrid political ambitions.
He's absolutely pitiful. And outrageous.
DITTO
He has about as much chance of being elected President as Dukakis had.
Thank God the Democrats have people like this running around, they will never get back the White House.
Then don't, because it's a ridiculous statement by a ridiculous Seanator from a ridiculous state.
``enormous mistake'' of sending Afghan forces into the mountains after entrenched al-Qaida fighters rather than using tested U.S. troops.
Those Afghans were accompanied, advised, and in some cases led by Americans -- in fact, the most successful Americans of this war, the special operations forces of the Army, Navy, and CIA. Kerry has access to enough information that he knows he is telling a whopper here.
By the way, at the time of Tora Bora, it was the Afghans (and their, invisible-to-Kerry, American advisors) who were "tested" and the American troops from light infantry units were green! (But they acquitted themselves well).
"I think that our troops did a superb job on the ground, ... a superb job of soldiering. They showed initiative, courage, and they really helped to topple the Taliban and move the process forward,"
This is right out of Politics 101. Praise the soldiery but bash the leadership... there are more privates that vote than generals after all.
"the Taliban are not the target. They were a collateral target. "
Wrong again. The Taliban were terror sponsors in depth and were joined at the hip with various Islamic terrorists. From day one, the Taliban had a choice: give up the terrorists, or die. They chose death. I weep not the slightest for them (and neither does self-absorbed Kerry. Trust me on that one).
The press seldom reports how much the people of Afghanistan appreciate the US for getting rid of the Talibs and letting them enjoy work, school, music, and for those who were Shi'a, Sufi or non-Muslims, religion, again. Of course that's what happens when you file your stories from the hotel bar.
:The target is and always has been al-Qaida, and al-Qaida, 1,000 strong, was gathered in one single mountain area, Tora Bora."
This statement is simply afactual. Al-Q had bases all over the country; it had far more than 1,000 men at the start of the campaign (try two orders of magnitude more), and while some terrs fled to Tora Bora, they were hardly "gathered." (Rest assured, those that did gather sleep with the fishes, or in Guantanamó).
"We turned to Afghans, who a week earlier had been fighting for the other side, and said, `Hey, you guys, go up there in the mountains and go after the world's number one terrorist and criminal who just killed 3,000-plus Americans."
Again, the mendacious (this means lying for any lurkers we might have tonight from DU or smirkingchimp) Kerry simply dismisses the facts readily available to him about the US planning, support and combat leadership in the Tora Bora operation.
"I think that was an enormous mistake."
What he is doing here is a common logical fallacy known as a straw man premise. He has deliberately made a false statement, then offers an opinion on the falsehood he has just uttered. Maybe if his description of the operation was a true one, his judgment would be valid (maybe not). But knowing that his judgment rests on a false description, why take it seriously?
"I think the Tora Bora operation was a failed military operation, which resulted then in Anaconda, which also did not do the job."
What job? Let's reword the statement in the light of history and see where Kerry is: "I think the Guadalcanal operation was a failed military operation, which resulted then in Tarawa, which also did not do the job -- Hirohito is still at large." See how stupid that sounds? Now, Tora Bora and Anaconda took place in different places against different people -- just like Guadalcanal and Tarawa.
"And the fact is that the prime target, al-Qaida, has dispersed, and in many ways is more dangerous than it was when it was in the mountains of Tora Bora."
Well, first, to buy this we have to buy the bill of goods about all of Al-Q being in Tora Bora in the first place. Please, not everyone in America is a brain-down-and-locked Massachusetts voter who swoons over eveerybody whose initials are JFK.
Now, as to John Kerry. While I was writing this I am sure someone corrected the poster who mistakenly thought he was Nebraska's Bob Kerrey (note the spelling), a retired Senator who was a SEAL officer in Vietnam, and lost a leg and won the Medal of Honor there. He has more recently had an atrocity scandal that seems kind of murky.
John Kerry is from Massachusetts, and is considered quite liberal even for there (Dukakis was more conservative. When the Duke left the state on business, Kerry as Lt. Gov would try to change policies). He served in patrol boats in Vietnam. His campaign literature claims (or used to) "two tours" which is (1) on his ROTC midshipman cruise his ship sailed by the coast and (2) about five or six months in the boats. He was wounded and went home early, with the Silver Star.
After returning, he became the photogenic front guy for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and ran the "Winter Soldier Investigation," which was a set of hearings in Detroit (IIRC) where a bunch of phonies stood up and claimed they had committed atrocities. Like I said, they were phonies. I'm fairly sure that Kerry was the only one of the big cheeses at the VVAW who was ever in combat in Vietnam!
As someone alluded to, he led a protest where "Veterans" threw medals over the White House fence in protest of the war. He said at the time that he threw his own medals, and there is a series of photos showing him throwing the Silver STar and Purple Heart over the fence.
Later a reporter questioned this, because as a Senator he has the medals ostentatiously displayed in his office (even McVain doesn't do that, does he?). Kerry then abruptly changed his story: he had thrown some other guy's medals... not his own... he forgot the other guy's name of course... just happened to have the same medals, and asked Kerry to throw them for him (maybe he had a weak arm. But the photos make it clear that Kerry throws like a girl...) In other words, John Phony Kerry lied. Imagine that.
Anyway, about the only place Kerry is near the mainstream is in his hometown of Cambridge and other college towns like Amherst in his native Marxachusetts. I would love to see the Dems nominate him. For one thing, he has a very large sense of his own importance and a very, very small sense of humour. He would make an entertaining candidate, and possibly liberate poor Gene McCarthy from his reputation as victim of American history's most lopsided landslide.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Actually Mr. Heinz is even MORE cynical than you realize. Those medals that he threw away in that publicity stunt weren't even his medals.
On the plus side, Mrs. Heinz occasionally does allow her hubby to remove his balls from the wall safe and walk around for brief periods with them on before he has to return them to her.
Was this one of those very rare occasions when Mrs. Heinz allowed her second best hubby check his cojones out of the locked walled safe?
Come to think of it, he did appear to be eyeing the airport lockers wistfully.
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