P
pawclaws
Guest
...as he threw his support to Democrat candidate John Kerry; "We got to have a candidate that can defeat George Bush!" ...and I nearly puked. Is that what it is about? Getting our party to win and to hell with whether or not the candidate is the best man for the job? Is that what our nation has come to?? Here is a little refresher for you guys who may not remember:
John Kerry's Forgotten Book:
John Kerry never hesitates to mention his service in Vietnam. But how often does he talk about his antiwar activities when he returned to the States? I knew that Kerry had been a member of Vietnam Veterans Against The War but I don’t recall ever hearing about the book Kerry wrote:
Perhaps the Senator never mentions this work because he thinks that showing scroungy vets mockingly carrying the flag upside down in a homage to the Iwo Jima photo would hurt his campaign. More likely he thought that no one would ever bring it up. If so, Kerry underestimated his fellow Vietnam Vets.
Subject: He married the wrong gal should have been Jane Fonda.
Looks like it is starting already...
Vietnam stance irks veterans
By TERRY GARLOCK
Terry L. Garlock of Peachtree City was a Cobra helicopter pilot in Vietnam.
File
John Kerry, who headed a veterans' group opposed to
the Vietnam War, receives support from a gallery of peace demonstrators and
tourists as he testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in
1971.
Forum: * Were John Kerry's protests against the Vietnam War inappropriate?'
Now that U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is claiming the veteran vote based on his war record, both sides of that story should be told.
To appreciate the dark side of Kerry's war record, you should know a few things about Vietnam veterans.
The public and the press make a mistake when they divide us into decorated veterans like Kerry and then all the others.
We like to think of ourselves as brothers -- those who fought the enemy directly in combat and those who provided vital support in protected areas that were in many cases exposed to attack.
Even today, when two Vietnam veterans meet for the first time, they might say, "Welcome home, brother!" because many were never welcomed home. They met the cold shoulder of an ungrateful nation on their return.
Those of us whose job was combat feel an even deeper sense of brotherhood. We learned to trust our brothers on the ground, on the water and in the air to do the right things to protect one another, a bond that cannot be fully explained in words.
We quietly feared dying in battle, but there was something we feared even more. We knew if we should panic under fire and fail to do our job, we might lose our brothers' trust or we might lose their lives, and this we feared more than anything.
Like Kerry, I have a couple of medals, but who has what medal among combat veterans doesn't make a dime's worth of difference between us. What matters is that we are, for the rest of our life, brothers who kept faith
with one another in a miserable war.
A young Kerry, however, broke faith with his brothers when he returned to the United States. With the financial aid of Jane Fonda, he led highly visible protests against the war. He wrote a book that many considered to be
pro-Hanoi, titled "The New Soldier."
The cover photo of his book depicted veterans in a mismatch of military uniforms mocking the legendary image of Marines raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi in the 1945 battle for Iwo Jima, holding the American
flag upside down.
Kerry publicly supported Hanoi's position to use our POWs as a bargaining chip in negotiations for a peace agreement. Kerry threw what appeared to be his medals over a fence in front of the Capitol building in protest, on camera of course, but was caught in his lie years later when his medals turned up displayed on his office wall.
Many good and decent people opposed the Vietnam War. Many of us who fought it hated it, too. I know I did.
But like Fonda's infamous visit to Hanoi in 1972, Kerry's public actions encouraged our enemy at a time they were killing America's sons. Decades after the war was done, interviews with our former enemy's leaders confirmed
that public protests in the United States, like Kerry's, played a significant role in their strategy.
Many of us wonder which of our brothers who died young would be alive today had people like Fonda and Kerry objected to the war in a more suitable way.
Now that it serves his ambition to be president, Kerry reminds the public of his war record daily. But the dark side of that record is not being told. Many Vietnam veterans have taken notice, and many of us will vigorously oppose Kerry's election to any office.
Thought you guys ought to know the "rest of the story" about the anti-war activist running for the Presidents job.
John Kerry's War Record
By Michael Benge
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 13, 2003
Another Veteran's Opinion:
As Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, considers a bid for the White House, Americans should know a few things about him that he might prefer go unmentioned -- and I don't mean his $75 haircuts.
When Mr. Kerry pontificated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day, a group of veterans turned their backs on him and walked away. They remembered Mr. Kerry as the antiwar activist who testified before Congress during the war, accusing veterans of being war criminals. The dust jacket of Mr. Kerry's pro-Hanoi book, "The New Soldier," features a photograph of his ragged band of radicals mocking the US Marine Corps Memorial, which depicts the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, with an upside-down American flag. Retired Gen. George S. Patton III charged that Mr. Kerry's actions as an antiwar activist had "given aid and comfort to the enemy," as had the actions of Ramsey Clark and Jane Fonda. Also, Mr. Kerry lied when he threw what he claimed were his war medals over the White House fence; he later admitted they weren't his. Now they are displayed on his office wall.
Long after he changed sides in congressional hearings, Mr. Kerry lobbied for renewed trade relations with Hanoi. At the same time, his cousin C. Stewart Forbes, chief executive for Colliers International, assisted in brokering a $905 million deal to develop a deep-sea port at Vung Tau, Vietnam - an odd coincidence.
As noted in the Inside Politics column of Nov. 14 (Nation), historian Douglas Brinkley is writing Mr. Kerry's biography. Hopefully, he'll include the senator's latest ignominious feat: preventing the Vietnam Human Rights Act (HR2833) from coming to a vote in the Senate, claiming human rights would deteriorate as a result. His actions sent a clear signal to Hanoi that Congress cares little about the human rights for which so many Americans fought and died.
The State Department ranked Vietnam among the 10 regimes worldwide least tolerant of religious freedom. Recently, 354 churches of the Montagnards, a Christian ethnic minority, were forcibly disbanded, and by mid-October, more than 50 Christian pastors and elders had been arrested in Dak Lak province alone. On Oct. 29, the secret police executed three Montagnards by lethal injection simply for protesting religious repression. The communists are conducting a pogrom against the Montagnards, forcing Christians to drink a mixture of goat's blood and alcohol and renounce Christianity. Thousands have been killed or imprisoned or have just "disappeared." The Montagnards lost one-half of their adult male population fighting for the United States, and without them, there might be thousands more American names on that somber black granite wall at the Vietnam memorial.
As Mr. Kerry contemplates a run for the presidency, people must remember that he has fought harder for Hanoi as an antiwar activist and a senator than he did against the Vietnamese communists while serving in the Navy in Vietnam.
Michael Benge is a Foreign Service officer and a former Vietnam POW (1968 to 1973
My point here is not to reflect on Mr Kerry's support or defiance of the Vietnam War rather to remind you that this particular jerk will say or do anything to win the election. Why?????
Must be for the free haircuts!!
[ 02-07-2004, 07:02: Message edited by: pawclaws ]
John Kerry's Forgotten Book:
John Kerry never hesitates to mention his service in Vietnam. But how often does he talk about his antiwar activities when he returned to the States? I knew that Kerry had been a member of Vietnam Veterans Against The War but I don’t recall ever hearing about the book Kerry wrote:
Perhaps the Senator never mentions this work because he thinks that showing scroungy vets mockingly carrying the flag upside down in a homage to the Iwo Jima photo would hurt his campaign. More likely he thought that no one would ever bring it up. If so, Kerry underestimated his fellow Vietnam Vets.
Subject: He married the wrong gal should have been Jane Fonda.
Looks like it is starting already...
Vietnam stance irks veterans
By TERRY GARLOCK
Terry L. Garlock of Peachtree City was a Cobra helicopter pilot in Vietnam.
File
John Kerry, who headed a veterans' group opposed to
the Vietnam War, receives support from a gallery of peace demonstrators and
tourists as he testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in
1971.
Forum: * Were John Kerry's protests against the Vietnam War inappropriate?'
Now that U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is claiming the veteran vote based on his war record, both sides of that story should be told.
To appreciate the dark side of Kerry's war record, you should know a few things about Vietnam veterans.
The public and the press make a mistake when they divide us into decorated veterans like Kerry and then all the others.
We like to think of ourselves as brothers -- those who fought the enemy directly in combat and those who provided vital support in protected areas that were in many cases exposed to attack.
Even today, when two Vietnam veterans meet for the first time, they might say, "Welcome home, brother!" because many were never welcomed home. They met the cold shoulder of an ungrateful nation on their return.
Those of us whose job was combat feel an even deeper sense of brotherhood. We learned to trust our brothers on the ground, on the water and in the air to do the right things to protect one another, a bond that cannot be fully explained in words.
We quietly feared dying in battle, but there was something we feared even more. We knew if we should panic under fire and fail to do our job, we might lose our brothers' trust or we might lose their lives, and this we feared more than anything.
Like Kerry, I have a couple of medals, but who has what medal among combat veterans doesn't make a dime's worth of difference between us. What matters is that we are, for the rest of our life, brothers who kept faith
with one another in a miserable war.
A young Kerry, however, broke faith with his brothers when he returned to the United States. With the financial aid of Jane Fonda, he led highly visible protests against the war. He wrote a book that many considered to be
pro-Hanoi, titled "The New Soldier."
The cover photo of his book depicted veterans in a mismatch of military uniforms mocking the legendary image of Marines raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi in the 1945 battle for Iwo Jima, holding the American
flag upside down.
Kerry publicly supported Hanoi's position to use our POWs as a bargaining chip in negotiations for a peace agreement. Kerry threw what appeared to be his medals over a fence in front of the Capitol building in protest, on camera of course, but was caught in his lie years later when his medals turned up displayed on his office wall.
Many good and decent people opposed the Vietnam War. Many of us who fought it hated it, too. I know I did.
But like Fonda's infamous visit to Hanoi in 1972, Kerry's public actions encouraged our enemy at a time they were killing America's sons. Decades after the war was done, interviews with our former enemy's leaders confirmed
that public protests in the United States, like Kerry's, played a significant role in their strategy.
Many of us wonder which of our brothers who died young would be alive today had people like Fonda and Kerry objected to the war in a more suitable way.
Now that it serves his ambition to be president, Kerry reminds the public of his war record daily. But the dark side of that record is not being told. Many Vietnam veterans have taken notice, and many of us will vigorously oppose Kerry's election to any office.
Thought you guys ought to know the "rest of the story" about the anti-war activist running for the Presidents job.
John Kerry's War Record
By Michael Benge
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 13, 2003
Another Veteran's Opinion:
As Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, considers a bid for the White House, Americans should know a few things about him that he might prefer go unmentioned -- and I don't mean his $75 haircuts.
When Mr. Kerry pontificated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day, a group of veterans turned their backs on him and walked away. They remembered Mr. Kerry as the antiwar activist who testified before Congress during the war, accusing veterans of being war criminals. The dust jacket of Mr. Kerry's pro-Hanoi book, "The New Soldier," features a photograph of his ragged band of radicals mocking the US Marine Corps Memorial, which depicts the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, with an upside-down American flag. Retired Gen. George S. Patton III charged that Mr. Kerry's actions as an antiwar activist had "given aid and comfort to the enemy," as had the actions of Ramsey Clark and Jane Fonda. Also, Mr. Kerry lied when he threw what he claimed were his war medals over the White House fence; he later admitted they weren't his. Now they are displayed on his office wall.
Long after he changed sides in congressional hearings, Mr. Kerry lobbied for renewed trade relations with Hanoi. At the same time, his cousin C. Stewart Forbes, chief executive for Colliers International, assisted in brokering a $905 million deal to develop a deep-sea port at Vung Tau, Vietnam - an odd coincidence.
As noted in the Inside Politics column of Nov. 14 (Nation), historian Douglas Brinkley is writing Mr. Kerry's biography. Hopefully, he'll include the senator's latest ignominious feat: preventing the Vietnam Human Rights Act (HR2833) from coming to a vote in the Senate, claiming human rights would deteriorate as a result. His actions sent a clear signal to Hanoi that Congress cares little about the human rights for which so many Americans fought and died.
The State Department ranked Vietnam among the 10 regimes worldwide least tolerant of religious freedom. Recently, 354 churches of the Montagnards, a Christian ethnic minority, were forcibly disbanded, and by mid-October, more than 50 Christian pastors and elders had been arrested in Dak Lak province alone. On Oct. 29, the secret police executed three Montagnards by lethal injection simply for protesting religious repression. The communists are conducting a pogrom against the Montagnards, forcing Christians to drink a mixture of goat's blood and alcohol and renounce Christianity. Thousands have been killed or imprisoned or have just "disappeared." The Montagnards lost one-half of their adult male population fighting for the United States, and without them, there might be thousands more American names on that somber black granite wall at the Vietnam memorial.
As Mr. Kerry contemplates a run for the presidency, people must remember that he has fought harder for Hanoi as an antiwar activist and a senator than he did against the Vietnamese communists while serving in the Navy in Vietnam.
Michael Benge is a Foreign Service officer and a former Vietnam POW (1968 to 1973
My point here is not to reflect on Mr Kerry's support or defiance of the Vietnam War rather to remind you that this particular jerk will say or do anything to win the election. Why?????
Must be for the free haircuts!!
[ 02-07-2004, 07:02: Message edited by: pawclaws ]
