Free Republic

Debate Reaction As expected, the national press is in "Kerry won" mode. They are so easy to predict. They are all buzzed about the fact that Kerry seemed confident and presidential. I have not yet read a word about what he actually said. I paid attention to his points, and they were pure leftist pablum. I don't believe last nights debate will change much. Kerry is still an awful, awful candidate. Bush looked a bit tired at points. It may have been a mistake to allow him to engage in emotionally draining visits with Florida hurricane victims earlier in the...

John Kerry is being pilloried for his shocking Senate testimony 34 years ago that many U.S. soldiers—not just a few "rogues"—were committing atrocities against the Vietnamese. U.S. military records that were classified for decades but are now available in the National Archives back Kerry up and put the lie to his critics. Contrary to what those critics, including the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, have implied, Kerry was speaking on behalf of many soldiers when he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971, and said this: They told stories that at times they had personally raped,...

As a warning to young servicemen, a former Army Ranger in Vietnam and Florida state senator purchased full-page ads in military newspapers recounting how he learned of John Kerry's 1971 accusations of war crimes as he lay severely wounded in a hospital. Dexter Lehtinen, a Miami attorney, told WorldNetDaily the ads are entirely his own, though he consulted with his wife, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and grown children before pouring more than $50,000 of the family's money into spots in the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines Times last week. He also bought full pages in the Capitol Hill newspaper...