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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...

Senator John F. Kerry, ending at least two years of refusal, has waived privacy restrictions and authorized the release of his full military and medical records. The records, which the Navy Personnel Command provided to the Globe, are mostly a duplication of what Kerry released during his 2004 campaign for president, including numerous commendations from commanding officers who later criticized Kerry's Vietnam service. The lack of any substantive new material about Kerry's military career in the documents raises the question of why Kerry refused for so long to waive privacy restrictions.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Sen. John Kerry, whose baffling explanation of votes on Iraq war funding hurt his 2004 White House bid, said on Tuesday he would back President Bush's new $81.9 billion request for Iraq and Afghanistan. "I think we're in a very different situation," Kerry told reporters. "I'm going to vote for this ... I think this money is important to our being successful and to the completion of the process." The Massachusetts senator, who failed in his bid to unseat Bush last November in an election focused on national security, defended his decision to not back the...