Kerry: Unfit For Command

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2004
Kerry: Unfit For Command
9
Sun, 10-03-2004 - 12:55pm
In 1971 after returning from a 4 month tour of duty in Viet Nam and applying for and receiving three purple hearts for minor injuries - John Kerry began a campaign to portray himself as a war hero with unusual insights into military action. Much of what Kerry said and did then is eerily familiar.

In 1971 Kerry said: "ll too often American men were dying in those rice paddies for want of support from their allies." In 2004 he says the U.S. should take military action only with international approval - a "global test".

In 1971, although we were at war and he was still in the naval reserves, Kerry met on at least one, and possibly two occasions with leading communist leaders of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. In 2004 he implies that he has had conversations with foreign leaders in which they have made unspecified assurances to him which he refuses to reveal. The U.S. Constitution, Article III, Section 3, forbids U.S. citizens from negotiating with foreign powers.

In 1971 he wrote a book with the title "The New Soldier" which portrayed on its cover a group of young Americans in military outfits carrying an America flag upside down, an international sign of distress. In 2004 he runs ads showing a young American in a military outfit carrying his rifle held above his head, a universal sign of surrender.

In 1971 he joined forces with Jane Fonda who hated America, supported the enemy, and accepted as a gift from the Viet Cong a ring made from a downed U.S. airplane. In 1971, Kerry welcomes Michael Moore to the Democratic convention where his anti-American film is prominently screened.

In 1971 Kerry predicted that if the U.S. pulled out of Viet Nam "at most there might be two thousand to three thousand people killed." In reality, after the U.S. pulled out of Viet Nam some 3.5 million people died in the Communist purges that followed. Today -despite his vote to authorize military force - Kerry wants to pull out of Iraq, leaving the Iraqi people at the mercy of Saddam loyalists and foreign terrorists. Are you willing to trust his judgment about a military withdrawal in 2004?

In short, Kerry has historically been willing to manipulate information about war for his personal political gain.

Rear Admiral Roy F. Hoffman, USN (Retired), commander of the Swift Boats in Viet Nam from 1968 -69 says: "I do not believe John Kerry is fit to be commander in chief of the armed forces of the United States. This is not a polical issue. It is a matter of his judgment, truthfulness, reliability, loyalty, and trust - all absolute tenets of command."










iVillage Member
Registered: 04-23-2004
Sun, 10-03-2004 - 1:54pm
you wrote:

"In short, Kerry has historically been willing to manipulate information about war for his personal political gain."

^^^^

That CRACKS ME UP.

You are

(a) talking about something that happened almost 35 years ago which indicates how far back you have to dig to dredge up a distraction (proven to be Republican-funded distortions: the whole Swift Boat Vets 527 calamity) that keeps focus off the disastrous dishonest job Bush has done RIGHT NOW as president, and

(b) much more recently OUR PRESIDENT and his cabinet engaged IN A MASSIVE MANIPULATION of information about war for personal political gain. May I recommend you watch:

Hijacking Catastrophe

http://www.hijackingcatastrophe.org/


That you would train your eyes back to Vietnam, overlook the deliberate draft-dodging Bush participated in (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30E13FD3E5D0C738EDDA00894DC404482&incamp=archive:search), and make the above statement completely free of irony, is wildly fascinating.

Just make a substitute the proper noun in your statement and you have the VERY reason millions of Americans are voting for Senator John Kerry.

go senator go!

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2004
Sun, 10-03-2004 - 3:50pm
The point is that 35 years ago Kerry engaged in behavior that bordered on treason - And - his behavior has continued. If the American public was misled about Iraq - then Kerry was part of the deception - he described Saddam as dangerous, expressed the belief that Saddam had wmd, and voted to authorize use of miltary force to remove him. Kerry supporters truly have to turn a blind eye in order to rationalize supporting a candidate who reached the same conclusions about Iraq that the President did - - the difference is that now Kerry wants to bail on the Iraqi people!
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-03-2003
Sun, 10-03-2004 - 6:49pm
He IS unfit for command. If every American were required to read the book, Kerry wouldn't even get one single vote.


Edited 10/3/2004 9:26 pm ET ET by kellybelly2
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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-23-2004
Sun, 10-03-2004 - 7:17pm
you wrote:

"in order to rationalize supporting a candidate who reached the same conclusions about Iraq that the President did"

^^^^

That's where you (and many Bush supporters) are mistaken. Many senators, including Senator Kerry, accepted what their government's intelligence agencies gave to the president AND accepted that the president was being upfront about the credibility of it. Most agreed AT THAT TIME: yes, although he has not attacked us, it sure does appear that Saddam Hussein is a potential threat. We did NOT all agree on: the degree to which he was a threat, whether he was a bigger threat than Osama bin Laden, or how best to confront that threat. On the part of Bush & Co., it's clear now that linking Saddam to 9/11 was dishonest, and framing Iraq as part of the "War on Terror" was manipulative.

Agreeing that "Hmm, yes, this intelligence (testimony from Chalabi, etc.) seems to indicate that Saddam considers America an enemy," does not mean that a smart person should not weigh NEW information when it indicates a totally different conclusion. Senator Kerry rightly did that, like many of us rightly did that, when it became apparent that the president's "strong case" was bogus. I believe a leader is OBLIGATED, in the name of truth, to consider relevant new information when it points to an error of that magnitude. It was not Senatory Kerry's error, remember!-- the president's song & dance about Iraq was his choice. When the world (apparently not you?) could see that the WMD "evidence" was bogus, it was time to say, "WHOA WAIT A MINUTE". That has been the experience for millions of Americans who have decided Bush has got to go.

Furthermore, Senator Kerry, like the millions of intelligent Americans who support him, can believe another nation is a threat without necessarily aggreeing on HOW to solve the problem.

I don't understand why people are confused about that. Well, yes I do, it's Karl Rove's aggressive PR campaign to paint the Iraq war as simple, and his 'War on Terror' as black & white. People who love to hear that the world IS simple (watch how many answer me in the affirmative on that... yikes, too many!) eat it up, and can't recognize that they have been sold a bill of goods.

Let me explain it more simply then:

If I was stranded on a desert island with somone, and he told me he had heard a huge tiger's roar inside a cave, we both might AGREE that we need to protect ourselves from the danger of the tiger, and AGREE to investigate and discuss solutions-- but it's very possible we would DISAGREE about how to go about it. And I better hear an acknowledgement/apology for the error if there was no tiger in the cave after all, and I had risked my life under that assumption.

The Senator & the president (and many others) AGREED that it would be good to do something about suspected WMD's in Iraq, and what has always been true is they DISAGREED on how to go about it. Now that the President's shaky solution has been proven to be based on even shakier bits of "justification" the least he can do is acknowledge bad judgment. Instead what you see is his desperation.

I'm with the millions of Americans who are with Senator Kerry.

go senator go!

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
Sun, 10-03-2004 - 7:27pm
I agree. Also, don't forget that Senator Kerry was not priviledged to see the same evidence the President was. He saw the shortened white paper (which was the same document available to American citizens), rather than the full 90 page report, which the President had access to.
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2004
Sun, 10-03-2004 - 11:38pm
The difference is that if you and Kerry were on an desert island, heard a tiger roar in a cave, and decided to investigate. . .Kerry would let you enter the cave first, if the going got rough he would abandon you there, and if he skinned his knee on the way out he would nominate himself for a purple heart.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-23-2004
Mon, 10-04-2004 - 12:00am
Fascinating bit of speculation... So you know him...? Methinks you are being deliberately obtuse about the point of my little analogy because you'd rather not think about it.

this president lies.

go senator go!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Mon, 10-04-2004 - 12:09am
Kerry may have reached the same conclusions about Iraq as the President, but the differed greatly on the actions those conclusions demanded. And where do you get that Kerry wants to "bail on the Iraqi people"? He's said repeatedly that now that we're there, we have to win. His plan to pull troops out within four years is predicated upon him fixing the security situation over there in four years...not leaving the country to lapse into civil war. Kerry supporters aren't blind at all. We're the ones actually paying attention.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2004
Mon, 10-04-2004 - 12:23am
Hmm..I don't think so. I remember hearing not too long ago a fellow sentaor was choking on an apple piece and Kerry was getting off an elevator when this was happening. Instead of ignoring him he went over and did the heimlich maneuver (sp?) manovor getting out the apple. Does this sound like someone who would abandon someone? And what about the man who's life he saved in Vietnam? Oh and here's the story and link of the apple incident: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/02/06/state1618EST0095.DTL

(02-06) 13:18 PST LAS VEGAS (AP) --

Former U.S. Sen. Chic Hecht of Nevada may be a staunch Republican, but he is grateful for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry.

It was July 12, 1988, when Hecht was attending a weekly Republican luncheon in the Capitol when a piece of apple lodged in his throat. Kerry was just getting off an elevator when he saw Hecht buckled over in the corridor. The Massachusetts Democrat rushed over and performed the Heimlich maneuver.

"This man gave me my life," the 75-year-old Hecht told the Las Vegas Sun in an interview Thursday.

The lifesaving incident made international news, and Dr. Henry Heimlich, who invented the maneuver in 1974, called Hecht to say that if Kerry intervened 30 seconds later, Hecht might have been in a vegetative state for life.

Hecht told the Sun he was amazed Kerry acted so quickly and that some people wrongly assumed he was having a heart attack.

"He knew exactly what to do," Hecht said. "But a lot of people know what to do. They just don't size up the situation immediately."

Hecht was up for re-election that year, and Kerry, who was serving as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, had pegged Hecht as one of the most vulnerable Republican seats. Hecht wound up losing the race.

"Only in America can this happen, where he's working against me to get me defeated and then saves my life," Hecht said.

Hecht, who prides himself on having one of the most conservative records on the books during his six years in the Senate, said he and his wife, Gail, see politics as a secondary issue when it comes to Kerry.

"We've had a wonderful life, and it would have all been down the tubes," Hecht said.

Each year, the Hechts speak with Kerry, thanking him again for thinking quickly in a Senate hallway that day.

This year, Hecht said Kerry told him his campaign was finally gaining momentum -- something Hecht's daughters are excited about. Both have attended Kerry events.

A longtime businessman and banker, Hecht served as President George H.W. Bush's ambassador to the Bahamas. He said he and his wife have each given $2,000 to President Bush's current campaign.

Hecht said he would appear at a Kerry campaign event if he is asked. Kerry has appeared with Jim Rassmann, a Special Forces officer whom Kerry rescued in Vietnam.

But Hecht won't say who he would vote for in November if Kerry wins the Democratic nomination.

"Only the Good Lord and myself will know how I'm going to vote," he said.