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Your first link is not from the Washington Post, but from the Washington Times.

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Thanks for pointing out my miniscule typo - here's the link to the Washington Post article in case you missed it the first time.

Now, did Kerry spend Christmas Eve in Cambodia while escorting covert-ops into that nation? I have no idea - and neither do you. The facts are obscured in government secrecy, possible misunderstanding of position (no roadsigns on the jungle waterways), as well as political ambition and agenda and spin (both from Kerry and the O'Neill stalker gang).

...and what of all the cable news shows (MSNBC, FOX) who have already covered this story? It just aint sticking - no one cares except those looking to fling mud this thick political season.  There goes your "evil liberal media" conspiracy theory.

wait, what year is it again?

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d33p said:


Are some people just blind by nature or just clinically insane when politics are involved.

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d33p said:


Are some people just blind by nature or just clinically insane when politics are involved.

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Skikid16 said:

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d33p said:


Are some people just blind by nature or just clinically insane when politics are involved.

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Why because John Kerry's military history isn't nearly as large of a concern of mine as how he will run the country? If you're fine with Bush, so be it. I'm not.

I get it that Kerry is basing so much of his image on his war record. I got that, and the only reason he's doing that is because people in America right now are on a security kick, for a plethora of reasons. Frankly I don't really give a fuck what Kerry has to do to get elected because I am of that camp that Kerry, Badnarik, Nadar, anyone would be better than Bush. And not because Bush is all that harmful, in fact, I'd say quite the contrary. But its his admin that scares me, and a different president would have a different admin. So there you go, is that blind or clinically insane, do you think Rumsfield is good for America? Do you think Ashcroft is good for america? Do you think Wolfowitz is good for America? Cause I sure don't. I honestly can't think of anything positive that they have initiated.

Thats why I say I don't care what Kerry did in Nam, and I find it funny that the Bush Campaign even has the balls to try to call Kerry out on his war record, considering Powell is the only dude in the admin to ever see combat.

That's all. Dick

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d33p said:


This post only enforces my ealier question.

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It wasn't the Republicans who injected Viet Nam into this presidential campaign, it was Kerry and his pathological inability to string more than seven or eight sentences together in public without mentioning Viet Nam at least once.

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Come on pinky, first of all, we all know that campaigns are more abut image than substantive issuses.  Bush is running hard on his war on terrorism.  The media is obsessed with the war on terrorism.  Security is a major issue in this election, Kerry didn't make it so, but he's just trying to play ball. 

His best way to illustrate he understand what it takes to command an entire armed force is to point back to his combat experience. 

The fact that he has fabricated, or continues to do so, some of his experience is shameful, I agree.  But there is a bigger picture here. 

If ya'll have your panties in a knot because Kerry lied about War Crimes, cool, whatever.  I wasn't alive in Vietnam, I didn't fight it, honestly, I haven't really read much about it, and I need to.  All I really know about the war is most of the boys that fought there are now men who don't like to talk about it, well except Kerry I guess   

Here's my take on it all: Kerry does, or has (I don't know, I haven't had cable for three weeks) talk about vietnam way too much, but he is simply trying to show he's actually seen real combat (even if some of his "real" combat isn't really real, for real, really), at least more than Bush has.  He's trying to show that he's seen the horrors of war first hand, and he would be much more cautious about entering conflicts, than the cowboy from texas.   

I don't know, whatever, he's an asshole, but better than Bush, just my opinion.

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Although the men quoted above are often identified as "John Kerry's shipmates," only one of them, Steven Gardner, actually served under Lt. Kerry's command on a Swift boat. The other men who served under Kerry's command continue to speak positively of him:

"In 1969, I was Sen. Kerry's gun mate atop of the Swift boat in Vietnam. And I just wanted to let everyone know that, contrary to all the rumors that you might hear from the other side, Sen. Kerry's blood is red, not blue. I know, I've seen it.

"If it weren't for Sen. John Kerry, on the 28th of February 1969, the day he won the Silver Star . . . you and I would not be having this conversation. My name would be on a long, black wall in Washington, D.C. I saw this man save my life."

? Fred Short

"I can still see him now, standing in the doorway of the pilothouse, firing his M-16, shouting orders through the smoke and chaos . . . Even wounded, or confronting sights no man should ever have to see, he never lost his cool.

I had to sit on my hands [after a firefight], I was shaking so hard . . . He went to every man on that boat and put his arm around them and asked them how they're doing. I've never had an officer do that before or since. That's the mettle of the man, John Kerry."3

? David Alston

"What I saw back then [in Vietnam] was a guy with genuine caring and leadership ability who was aggressive when he had to be. What I see now is a guy who's not afraid to tackle tough issues. And he knows what the consequences are of putting people's kids in harm's way."2

? James Wasser

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Navy records, fitness reports by Kerry's commanders and scores of interviews with Swift boat officers and crewmen depict a model officer who fought aggressively in river ambushes and won the respect of many of his crewmates and commanders, even as his doubts about the war grew.

"I don't like what he said after the war," said Adrian Lonsdale, who commanded Kerry for three months in 1969. "But he was a good naval officer."

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Anti-Kerry Book Scribe Sorry for Slurs

Tue Aug 10, 5:36 PM ET

By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - One of the authors of a new anti-John Kerry (news - web sites) book frequently posted comments on a conservative Web site describing Muslims and Catholics as pedophiles and Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II as senile.

But as he prepared to launch the book, "Unfit for Command," Jerry Corsi apologized for the remarks in an interview with The Associated Press Tuesday, saying they were meant as a joke and he never intended to offend anyone.

In chat room entry last year on freerepublic.com, Corsi writes: "Islam is a peaceful religion ? just as long as the women are beaten, the boys buggered and the infidels are killed."

In another entry, he says: "So this is what the last days of the Catholic Church are going to look like. Buggering boys undermines the moral base and the lawyers rip the gold off the Vatican (news - web sites) altars. We may get one more Pope, when this senile one dies, but that's probably about it."

Corsi, who described himself as a "devout Catholic," said the comments are being taken out of context. "I considered them a joke," said Corsi, who owns a financial services company and has written extensively on the anti-war movement.

In a March posting, Corsi discussed Kerry's faith, writing: "After he married TerRAHsa, didn't John Kerry begin practicing Judaism? He also has paternal grandparents that were Jewish. What religion is John Kerry?"

Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, are Catholic.

"I don't stand by any of those comments and I apologize if they offended anybody," Corsi said.

The Kerry campaign called Corsi's Web chat postings disgusting.

"President Bush (news - web sites) should immediately condemn this sleazy book written by a virulent anti-Catholic bigot. It says something about the smear campaign against John Kerry that it has stooped to enlist a hatemonger," said campaign spokesman Chad Clanton.

Calls to the Bush-Cheney campaign were not immediately returned.

"Unfit for Command," which goes on sale Wednesday, accuses the Democratic presidential nominee of lying about his decorated wartime record and betraying comrades by returning from Vietnam and alleging widespread atrocities by U.S. troops.

The book claims that Kerry earned his Silver Star not in a barrage of enemy fire, but rather by killing a fleeing Viet Cong teenager. It also questions the three Purple Hearts that Kerry earned, saying that none was for serious injuries and two wounds were self-inflicted.

According to medical records from his naval service, Kerry still has shrapnel in his thigh from a war injury.

"I think it's important the country have the facts about John Kerry so that they can reach a reasonable decision," said co-author John O'Neill, who succeeded Kerry in command of a swift boat. O'Neill also is spokesman for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which began airing an anti-Kerry ad last week.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&am...1&printer=1

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As far as these Viet Nam vets complaining about Kerry coming out against the war: I've met very few people who have said, "I was proud to have served my country in Viet Nam." It wasn't that kind of war.

Everyone came back injured emotionally. I knew a bunch of guys who went there, and were never the same afterwards. Its as though everyone who went came back suffering from PTSD. But this wansn't the case with WWII. Even as crappy and the Korean war was, vets weren't as harmed emotionally as they guys who went to Nam.

Keep that in mind when you see any of the anti-Kerry people try to frame Viet Nam, and service in Viet Nam, on the same level as WWII ("proud service to your country") vein. They are just spin doctoring.

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John Kerry lied while good men died.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5771731/ (Click for full article)
REPORT CONNECTS BUSH TO SWIFT BOAT VETERANS:

MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 12:54 p.m. ET Aug. 20, 2004

A newspaper investigation into the veterans' group behind the controversial TV ads about Sen. John Kerry's Vietnman war record has found a "web of connections" to the president and his family and many inconsistencies in the veterans' public statements on the matter.

How the group known as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth "came into existence is a story of how veterans with longstanding anger about Mr. Kerry's antiwar statements in the early 1970's allied themselves with Texas Republicans," The New York Times reported in Friday's editions.

The group's ads accuse the Democratic presidential nominee of exaggerating his war record to win war medals and say he is unfit to be president.

"A series of interviews and a review of documents show a web of connections to the Bush family, high-profile Texas political figures and President Bush's chief political aide, Karl Rove," the Times reported. "Several of those now declaring Mr. Kerry 'unfit' had lavished praise on him, some as recently as last year.

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