posted 01-29-2004 05:09 PM         

SEN. JOHN KERRY: Vietnam stance irks veterans
Terry Garlock - For the Journal-Constitution
Thursday, January 29, 2004

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.

posted 01-29-2004 08:07 PM         

I was just a hair to young for Viet Nam but you folks who went and fought on my behalf will always be heros in my eyes. Whether we should have been in Viet Nam is not the issue. Men were called by their country, and they answered the call. Others ran and hid. What a shame that America came to the point where the coward hiding out in Canada was held in higher esteem than the brave who stepped up.

posted 01-29-2004 08:22 PM         

The President and Enron

This is an interesting bit of information that
you don't hear much about in the media ---

a.. Enron's chairman did meet with the president
and the vice president in the Oval Office.

b.. Enron gave $420,000 to the president's party
over three years.

c.. It donated $100,000 to the president's
inauguration festivities.

d.. The Enron chairman stayed at the White House
11 times.

e.. The corporation had access to the
administration at its highest levels and even
enlisted the Commerce and State Departments to grease
deals for it.

f.. The taxpayer-supported Export-Import Bank
subsidized Enron for more than $600 million in
just one transaction. Scandalous!!

g.. BUT...the president under whom all this
happened WASN'T George W. Bush.

SURPRISE ......... It was Bill Clinton!

Please pass this on so the whole Country will Know.
The Media Won't.

posted 01-29-2004 08:33 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by CJ:
Why isn't someone making this public??? ......

---

I agree CJ, that is a great question. Sometimes you even have to check into a paper's sources to see if they are telling the truth or not. That bothers me alot.

If it is true, I would suspect it to become public to a national audience very soon.

But let's be sure first.

To be honest, I don't see how he could think he could hide this from the public.

I'm a Viet Nam Vet also, and always welcome home others.

------------------

quote:

---

Originally posted by CJ:
Why isn't someone making this public???

---

You honestly have to ask????

I think by now, pretty much everyone knows which way 99.9% of the media leans.....

posted 01-29-2004 08:48 PM         

Also check this out
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/1/20/131219.shtml

and this
http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/c-e/erickson/2004/erickson012604.htm

and this
http://www.usvetdsp.com/jf_kerry.htm

posted 02-04-2004 03:31 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by ALLEY CAT:

I heard Kerry's wife on talk radio last week. Now there is one rude, obnoxious, and self serving lady. True, she gives away alot of $$$ to charity, but her talk and actions remind me of Barbara Streisand ( WITCH )
Even "if" I liked him,,,,he wouldn't get my vote because of her! JMO[/B]

---

AC You have no idea how much i agree with you on this.

posted 02-08-2004 10:23 PM         

Thank you to all the veterans that did serve and welcome home.

I did know some of what Fonda did but did not realize what all Kerry did. Would not have voted for him anyway.

What I did find disturbing about Kerry was his comments that going to Canada to avoid the draft and serving in the national guard was the same thing. And this from a man that supported Clinton (wasn't he in Europe to avoid the Draft?).