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John Kerry's 1971 Testimony That The" Swifties" Twisted ?
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I have an 18 year son and if he has to serve in the military volunteer or not, I will like my son to serve his country with honor not in false
pretenses and lies.
If my son has to give his life for his country I want to feel that his death was to keep others and me safe not because the stupidity and irrationality of our leaders
If my son has to give his life for his country I want to feel that his death was to keep others and me safe not because the stupidity and irrationality of our leaders
Originally posted by marg6043
I have an 18 year son and if he has to serve in the military volunteer or not, I will like my son to serve his country with honor not in false pretenses and lies.
If my son has to give his life for his country I want to feel that his death was to keep others and me safe not because the stupidity and irrationality of our leaders
I know how you feel Marg. My only son is 20, and of course I love him dearly. That's one reason I feel so passionately about this war. Alot of those kids over in Iraq really did'nt know what they were in for just being out of highschool and all. Alot of them are just kids.
Originally posted by nanna_of_6
Grady, please explain to us why you would want George W Bush to remain in office,...... knowing that the Iraqi war is a farce and our people along with their citizens are dying ,....... for NOTHING , just as it was back in the Vietnam War ?
None of these things are true.
Are you married ? Do you have grown children at the age where they could be drafted into war, when the draft-starts ?
If you do have children,....... how,... or should I say WHY would you want to subject your child to such a horrorble end ?
I have never married and I have no children. If I had a son, I could give him no better advice than to serve his country, in the Corps, if possible. If I had a daughter, I would not encourage her to serve in the military. There are more appropriate and more important forms of service for women. If she so chose, I would support her decision.
You say you know what Nam was like (first hand), so why ????
Because in all my life, despite the pain, the problems of readjustment, and the ridicule of my countrymen, there is nothing I have ever done or will ever do that is more important or sublime than serving in the cause of freedom. Those of us who served in Vietnam, fought to save the South Vietnamese from the scourge of communism. We fought to stanch the global expansion of communism.
Consider the following:
In 1993, President Clinton signed Public Law 103-199, authorizing a memorial in Washington to those who died in the ``unprecedented imperial Communist holocaust'' that began in 1917. It is a memorial long overdue. And it is well-suited to Washington, the capital of the Free World and the headquarters of what President Kennedy called the ``long twilight struggle'' against the totalitarians of the Left. When completed, the Victims of Communism Memorial will include a museum documenting the crimes committed by the disciples of Marx and Lenin; original artifacts from the bitter night of Communist brutality (a piece of the Berlin Wall, a cell from the ``Hanoi Hilton''); and a database preserving the names of those wiped out in history's greatest slaughter.
[...]
For pure murderous evil, there has never been a force to compare with Communism. The Nazis didn't come close. The Holocaust was uniquely malignant - never before or since did one people construct a vast industry of death for the sole purpose of rounding up and destroying every single member of another people. But the Nazis exterminated 11 million innocents; the Communist death toll surpasses 100 million. Nazi power lasted from 1933 to 1945. The Communist nightmare began in November 1917, and continues to this day.
[...]
Communism equaled murder in North Vietnam as far back as 1945, when Ho Chi Minh resolved to annihilate his Nationalist rivals. ``It was appalling,'' recorded the historian Lucien Bodard. ``Thousands, maybe tens of thousands of men had been liquidated . . .. The intention was that horror and dread should extinguish the last trace of respect for them among the masses: Their execution had to be both shameful and terrifying. That was the reason for the mass executions of hundreds at once, the fields of prisoners buried alive, the harrows dragged over men buried up to the neck.''
[...]
One hundred million victims of Communism. And those are only the victims who were slain. It doesn't include those who were maimed or driven mad. Those whose lives went dark when a loved one was butchered. Those who spun out their years in potato queues, in vodka stupors, in daily fear. It doesn't include those who wasted 30 years as slaves in Siberia. The boat people who flung themselves into the South China Sea. The stifled poets, the gagged priests, the tormented refuseniks, the exiled democrats.
Rarely do we think of them, or of the hundred million. We forget how pathologically evil Communism has been, or why we poured so much blood and treasure into fighting the Cold War. It is to correct that amnesia that the Victims of Communism Memorial will be built.
www.gulag.hu...
Communism's Worldwide Genocide
...[T]he Soviet Union appears the greatest megamurderer of all, apparently killing near 61,000,000 people. Stalin himself is responsible for almost 43,000,000 of these. Most of the deaths, perhaps around 39,000,000 are due to lethal forced labor in gulag and transit thereto. Communist China up to 1987, but mainly from 1949 through the cultural revolution, which alone may have seen over 1,000,000 murdered, is the second worst megamurderer. Then there are the lesser megamurderers, such as North Korea and Tito's Yugoslavia.
Obviously the population that is available to kill will make a big difference in the total democide, and thus the annual percentage rate of democide is revealing. By far, the most deadly of all communist countries and, indeed, in this century by far, has been Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot and his crew likely killed some 2,000,000 Cambodians from April 1975 through December 1978 out of a population of around 7,000,000. This is an annual rate of over 8 percent of the population murdered, or odds of an average Cambodian surviving Pol Pot's rule of slightly over just over 2 to 1.
In sum the communist probably have murdered something like 110,000,000, or near two-thirds of all those killed by all governments, quasi-governments, and guerrillas from 1900 to 1987. Of course, the world total itself it shocking. It is several times the 38,000,000 battle-dead that have been killed in all this century's international and domestic wars. Yet the probable number of murders by the Soviet Union alone--one communist country-- well surpasses this cost of war. And those murders of communist China almost equal it.
[...]
Communism has been the greatest social engineering experiment we have ever seen. It failed utterly and in doing so it killed over 100,000,000 men, women, and children, not to mention the near 30,000,000 of its subjects that died in its often aggressive wars and the rebellions it provoked. But there is a larger lesson to be learned from this horrendous sacrifice to one ideology. That is that no one can be trusted with power. The more power the center has to impose the beliefs of an ideological or religious elite or impose the whims of a dictator, the more likely human lives are to be sacrificed. This is but one reason, but perhaps the most important one, for fostering liberal democracy.
www.mega.nu:8080...
Atrocities by Vietnamese Communists
North Vietnamese troops or their guerrilla Viet Cong surely committed more democide than that for which I have been able to find estimates. Throughout the guerrilla period and during the war they shelled and attacked civilians in strategic hamlets and refugee camps, attacked refugees fleeing on the roads in order to create chaos, shelled civilians in most government controlled cities and towns, and purposely mined and booby-trapped civilian areas (as of mining roads traveled by civilian buses). Moreover, thousands or tens of thousands were abducted to disappear forever, but are not included here under assassinations and executions. The sources give no estimates of these killings and to leave it at this would thus create a large hole in the total democide. Accordingly, I will assume that the additional deaths from these North Vietnam/Viet Cong atrocities and terror amounted to at least 200 a month over the twenty-one years from 1955 to the end of the war. This seems consistent with both sympathetic and unsympathetic descriptions of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong tactics and actions during the war, especially in considering that as a minimum the 200 dead covers the length and breadth of the unestimated North Vietnam/Viet Cong atrocities and terror throughout all of South Vietnam for some thirty days.
[...]
Then there are the boat people for whose deaths at sea Hanoi is responsible. Some of these Vietnamese were forced to flee, some fled out of terror and fear for their lives, some fled by virtue of unlivable conditions that the communists had created for them. To understand the drive to flee on the dangerous open ocean often in unseaworthy boats is to realize the deadly hazards they faced from the regime, as discussed in Death By Government. The table lists estimates of the number of Vietnamese boat people that fled or tried to flee (lines 702 to 711) and their consolidation (line 713). Estimates of the percent of these then dying at sea are also given and consolidated (lines 716 to 730), followed by death estimates (lines 733 to 748). The consolidation of these (749) gives us one overall range of deaths. I calculate another by applying the consolidated percentage mortality to the consolidated number fleeing (line 750). Neither of these totals especially commends itself. In the usual fashion, I therefore took the lowest low and highest high and averaged the two mid-values to get the final range (line 751).
How many of these deaths is the responsibility of the communist Vietnamese, that is, democide? Neither the extremes of "none" or "all" is reasonable. Surely those who were forced to face death at sea, or risked it out of mortal fear of the regime or because their lives and families had been irretrievably ruined by it, should be counted as democide (by analogy consider that if children fled their family in winter because they fear being killed or are brutally abused, and then die of exposure in the snow, the parents could be tried for murder). However, those boat people who left for non-vital reasons, such as for economic reasons, and died at sea should hardly be counted as democide. What the proportion is between the two types of refugees is unknown. I assume that those for which the regime must be held responsible could vary from one-third to two-thirds, most reasonably a half of them. Applying this to the number who fled yields a likely Vietnam democide of 250,000 boat people (line 753).
www.mega.nu:8080...
Holocausts of Communism Test
This is the cause which John Kerry supported after returning to the US. This is the cause supported by Jane Fonda. This is the cause supported by all those who opposed American involvement in the war against communism in Vietnam.
Whose side were you on?
Is the scourge we now face any less deserving?
If I had it to do all over again, I would do the same thing. If there were some purpose I could serve today, I would go in a heartbeat. I don't know exactly when, but in the future, I will be serving those who return from their glorious cause who are in need of help with readjustment. It is the least I can do.
Originally posted by nanna_of_6
,Affirmitive Reaction, if you THINK my first post has been changed, ..... please do tell what was in my first post before I supposively changed it ?
You know exactly what the initial thread said, as you were the one who changed it after you were proven wrong. Go back and actually read my last post....you have no scruples...you have no honor...you are so afraid of being wrong that you edit your posts to change the questions you ask so that you can erroneously claim that you "never said that". Sorry, that's simply a lie, you know it, I know it, and fans around the world know it!
You said that Kerry never admitted to committing war crimes as the swiftvets proved in their spot by using Kerry's own words against him. You have now edited it, TWICE, because you were proven so utterly wrong by the video I posted. It's too bad that you don't have the integrity to admit when you have been proven wrong. But hey, you did a good job on the "bait and switch" there, since nobody quoted your entire post, there is no exact proof of what you REALLY posted. However, anyone with a lick of sense can read the resulting posts and clearly see what you did. And those that posted before you changed it know what it said as well. You aren't fooling anyone but yourself.....
[edit on 21-9-2004 by Affirmative Reaction]
I thought I'd share with "everyone" this e-mail I received from a Vietnam Veteran to day. In it Gary tells it like it was in Nam and in the year
1971 when John Kerry testified, Gary was there so he can tell it like it was,..... THE TRUTH !!!!!
Dear [my real name was here]
Thanks for your letter, and especially the kudos. I agree with everything you said. You cannot, or should not, hide truth under a barrel, but let it shine out that all the world may know the truth, and the truth shall indeed make them free. What I am trying to say is, of course you may print my url.
"Truth about Kerry," namtour.com...
I feel strongly that John Kerry was an honorable veteran whose reputation is being slimed, whose service and all medals has recently been verified and documented by the Dept of the Navy as earned and deserving. So many are passing on total fabrications, saying John Kerry said that which he never did. That is why I have posted this web site so that people can see his entire speech, not out of context, and see he did not say some of the evil things in it that they are attributing to him. Note that this same kind of political mudslinging was directed at John McCain, the ex POW who dared run against Bush, and Max Cleland, a triple amputee and ex president of the Disabled American Veterans to which I belong, when he ran against Bush. Bush has a history of mudslinging to detract attention away from his abysmal record on all fronts, from Iraq to the economy to jobs to taxes to health care...everywhere he is a poor president, and the only way he can win is through this negative campaign of smear tactics. And it is a sad commentary on the intelligence of our people that it is working.
Let me introduce myself: My name is Gary Jacobson. I served with B Co 2nd/7th 1st Air Cavalry '66 - '67, as a combat infantryman. We called ourselves "Grunts," operating out of LZ Betty near beautiful downtown Phan Thiet, Vietnam. Mine was the same unit as depicted in the movie, "We Were Soldiers," only one year later. Vietnam changed us all indelibly and forever. I'm now on 100% disability rating with an extra hole in my head, covered by a 3X4 inch plate, shrapnel the size of a quarter imbedded three inches into my brain...this all compliments of a trip wire booby trap that triggered a grenade, that in turn detonated an artillery round...and in the process completely ruined my whole day...in April '67.
After I left them so unexpectedly, my unit went on to the A Shau Valley...a hell of a place they called Ah # valley, then up to Khe Sahn to relieve beleaguered Marines on the DMZ during the rockets of Tet...a place not a single member of my platoon escaped from without being either killed or wounded. But I missed all that fun, dang it all!
After I left them so unexpectedly, my unit went on to the A Shau Valley...a hell of a place they called Ah # valley, then up to Khe Sahn to relieve beleaguered Marines on the DMZ during the rockets of Tet...a place not a single member of my platoon escaped from without being either killed or wounded. But I missed all that fun, dang it all!
Bush is making a mess of Iraq, and killing Americans by the handful for a nothing...no WMD's, no culpability or connections at all with the 9/11 tragedy, no connection with Al Qaida at all, no connection with Osama Bin Laden at all (they didn't even like each other, for they were at cross purposes, Osama being a Religious Fundamentalist, and Saddam being a secularist.). I see haunting similarities between the quagmire of Vietnam, and the quagmire that is Iraq...and I am saddened that we have learned so little from our mistakes there, and are now repeating them. Paint the Iraqi sand dunes green and you have Vietnam, with all the corruption, the corporate finagling, the lies that got us into this with Bush's rush to judgment that angered the whole world against the US and Bush. I am saddened because I see in this Iraqi war the corruption, self-interest, the callous regard for boys on the ground fighting and dying, and self aggrandizement that doomed any hope of victory in Vietnam even before it started.
The military and tactical mistakes which have been made in Iraq will cause it to last decades, as did Vietnam, or maybe more. I am saddened because so many do not, or will not, see the problem because Bush keeps telling us lies to incite a kind of false patriotism, a frenzy to war like I was beat nto that propelled me to Vietnam, proclaiming loudly that righteous victory is at hand with the holy crusades of this regime. Too many lap up the pottage of information that they are fed, gluttonously proclaiming allegiance at all costs, to whatever course they are told we must follow, and will not listen to the voice of reason showing the great disparity between what is true and what they are being told. I see increasing horrors with body counts of lost American boys-next-door, a distortion of freedom's bell sounding a dangerous knell leading our country to a change to either barbarism or destruction of many of our ideals, because of the unwise stewardship.
Almost to a man, all retitred generals who do not depend on Bush for maintaining their jobs, are flat out against the debacle in Iraq. So many still believe Bush's lie that Saddam and Iraq are the terrorists responsibele for the attack on this country. The CIA, the FBI, Bush's own anti-terrorist chief, and the recently concluded 9/11 commission all unanimously and unwquivocally state that Saddam and Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with the attack on Amnerica of 9/11. Yet Bush keeps saying it did, but he also has said it didn't...flip flopping depending on what audience is listening to him.
God bless the American dream...
One shining moment in history rising to the top, like cream
Make her again be the land of the free and brave
I offered my life to save,
Make America a light on a hill that all the world may see,
A healing bastion to those downtrodden from depravity,
Hailing purity in freedom and liberty,
Displaying in deed and action morality
By its might giving light,
By its glory bringing intelligence and right,
The center of truth and justice,
Very integrity personified by word and deed selflessness...
I do not believe in, "America, wrong or right,"
Nay, I want her to be right
Always right...only right...
Always with a strong voice of reason giving hope
Giving the world courage to cope
Showing before the world moral excellence
American virtue's essence
Displaying this nation's Godly birthright
Ever held humble in liberty's fight
Our shield and buckler, star spangled bravery
Our sword keeping America free...
I'm getting very tired and weary of the false misrepresentations...the knowing lies...the gullible acceptance of what someone perverted said.
Yes, I too remember being met by protesters when I was offloaded on a stretcher at Travis AFB...and many sickened me because of the ignorance and where they were coming from in their diatribe. There were indeed protesters who did spit on boys-next-door returning from war, returning vets, and who did call us baby killers...but they were miserable little cowards, usually, many times hippies who were afraid to go to war, or just went along with the cult thing to do. But there were many kinds of protesters against the Vietnam war, and the agendas and reasons of the protesters were often vastly different. Lumping all protesters as the same...is neither fair, nor accurate.
John Kerry protested the senselessness of the Vietnam war from first hand fact. He had faced bullets with his name on them, bullets shot at him in anger. He too had shot and killed,. and fought the good fight. He had seen the war at its roots...so his protest was against a senseless war that had no winning precept, no chance for victory...no exit plan, yet was killing American boys by the hundreds and thousands, taking this or that hill, then giving it up, then taking it again, in a mad merry-go-round that was not fought to win. I know, I was there, a combat infantryman with the 1st Air Cavalry...and though we went over gung-ho to fight for our country, mom and apple pie...for the liberty for all, all too soon war changed us. It changed us when we saw the South Vietnamese government we fought for was more corrupt than the one we were fighting...the black market and drug running, the power struggles and assassinations rampant among ARVN generals, and even their president...who while in the midst of a campaign for reelection had all of his opponents rounded up and put into jail until after the election...guess who won? We, the boys on the ground could see this...see we were going nowhere, but to die! You ask any infantryman...when he became a veteran in-country, he no longer fought for those high and gung-ho ideals he had when he first got there. He was fighting only for his brothers around him, watching his back...and to survive to get back to "the world," that's all!
John Kerry saw this first hand. He saw the senslessness, and wanted to do what he could to save lives by ending the war, and bringing the boys back home. He didn't want one more drop of American Blood spilt in that unforgiving land. If the powers that be had followed his admonition, literally 14,000 American boys whose blood now nourishes some fetid, feral jungle, would be alive today...and the wall in Washington would be much smaller. No, John Kerry's protest was not the protest of those who called us baby killers, or spat upon us...for John Kerry was one of us. He had been a very aggressive swiftboat captain in Vietnam...he knew the score...he understood...he was pained by the memory of those left behind...he wanted to bring our boys home. His was not opportunism! He did not consider his protest "using vets" to further his personal and political gain...he was one of "us" still over there...he empathized with us...he revered us...and he didn't want to have Americans die in vain. He said as much, that he "didn't want one more American to be the last American to die a terrible death in vain."
I despise with a passion "those whose limited vision urges them to protest they know not what, for reasons they do not understand." But John Kerry was not one of these. Some say he used his protests for his own personal gain...be reasonable! Look around! What has his protest wrought in his career? What good has his protest done him? What gain did he achieve? John Kerry simply tried to do the right thing, and he was pilloried for it.
Some who are throwing dirt say he received his purple hearts for what amounted to scratches...I will agree some of them were slight...but the were wounds inflicted by the enemy. He still carries shrapnel in his leg. I have seen many officers get more awards for less...much less...imaginary almost. They too often hand awards out to the men like cracker jacks, often they're earned, but too often without rhyme or reason...to men who did no more or no less than I did, standing right beside them...but they were singled out because officers had to give them to somebody...because it made the Colonels look better in the eyes of superiors if his men were good fighters, getting awards, and getting a high body count. Those were the parameters officers were judged by, and they wanted to look good for their superiors.
John Kerry did not lie about his wounds...Kerry's were earned...according to the man who credits John Kerry with saving his life...Former Special Forces Green Beret officer Jim Rassmann, telling the nation at the Democratic Convention how Kerry saved his life in 1969, and thus earned a Bronze Star for valor, and earning one of his Purple Hearts...
Fellow GIs Tout Kerry Courage Under Fire
by ANDREW KRAMER, Associated Press Writer
BOSTON - Standing with a dozen of his Vietnam crewmates, all fiercely loyal to John Kerry. Former Special Forces officer Jim Rassmann is telling the nation how Kerry saved his life in 1969, and thus earned a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart. Rassmann's story of his dramatic brush with death was scheduled just before the presidential nominee's acceptance speech on the final night of the Democratic convention, designed to accentuate Kerry's leadership in wartime.
"Compartments that I have closed long ago are being pried open by all of this," the 56-year-old said. "I think that the catharsis it has provided has been very beneficial. To one degree or another, the same is true of all the
crewmates and John himself." Kerry's service in Vietnam as commander of a Navy swiftboat in the Mekong
Delta has been a main theme of the convention, and so has Rassmann's role in those events 35 years ago. Rassmann, who was leading a group of Chinese mercenaries on special operations, was knocked from the deck of Kerry's 60-foot patrol boat during an ambush on March 13, 1969. He dived toward the river bottom to avoid the propellers, as bullets and rockets flew overhead. When he came up for air, the boat was gone and Viet Cong on the river banks were sniping at him.
Kerry, noticing the man alone in the water, turned the boat around and came back through heavy fire for Rassmann, who grabbed a rope net on the bow. He was not able to climb onto the deck, but Kerry pulled him over, for his actions earning a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart for being wounded that day.
"I'll be forever grateful to John for coming back to get me, and pulling me over that thing," Rassmann said.
Many speeches at the convention have touched on the episode, with everybody from vice presidential nominee John Edwards on down pointing to it as evidence of Kerry's decisiveness in crisis. It's a theme the swiftboat crew will take on the road over the next three months, as their jobs allow, according to John Hurley, director of Veterans for Kerry. All those who appeared in Boston have also volunteered to continue working for Kerry. Some have become active in their home states, others will travel nationally.
The campaign plans to assemble the swiftboat crew, or as many as can make it, for bus tours through the swing states where the election will be decided. Sometimes they will be joined by younger veterans from Iraq. "These guys in particular, their story is compelling, these guys are the perfect ones to validate his character to be president of the United States," Hurley said. Rassmann, a former Los Angeles sheriff deputy was concentrating more on his hobby of raising orchids in a greenhouse in Florence, Ore., when he stepped into national politics in January. Rassmann, who had previously voted Republican, called Kerry's lagging presidential primary campaign in Iowa and asked if he could help. He imagined working a phone bank or licking envelopes. Instead, he was asked to talk about Vietnam. His appearance in Iowa galvanized the campaign in that state, campaign aides have said. Rassmann has since flown around the country on Kerry's plane, talking to veterans' groups and rallies in many states.
He has recounted how Kerry and he retrieved the body of a soldier killed by a mine, placing the man's shattered frame in a rain poncho to carry to the boat. He has said he expected to die in the river before the boat turned around. He recalled being exposed as a target to Vietnamese gunners while dangling from the net on the bow. "I had buried these things. It took some precipitating event to bring them out," he said of the campaign's role in jarring loose the old memories, which once caused him to break down in tears before the traveling version of the Vietnam Memorial wall. "We did all sorts of things" in Vietnam, he said. "Most of the guys I worked with are dead."
Every single one of his crewmates who knew his valor, courage and honor better than anybody else...certainly more than a distant officer...every one, had glowing words of praise for John Kerry...except for one man I'll tell you about in a minute. They said things like: "I knew back then in Vietnam that the skipper, John Kerry, was bound for high places. Stand up for John Kerry the same way he stands up for veterans. He took care of all of us�he really did. He made good decisions, I believe proper decisions, and the fact that we all returned alive is a good indication that they were the right decisions. Always, when there's a new guy on the boat, you check him out�It only took me a few days�we knew we had somebody special that cared for us�we bonded! What I saw back then 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. I figured with the abilities he had, he was going to go high, but I didn't have any idea about him running for president. Humble seaman. The decisions that he made saved our lives. He never shot from the hip when it came to decisions�he'd always confront problems head on. I never saw John back down from anything. He wouldn't let you go randomly down the river shooting up everything in sight." Oh yes, I mentioned there was only one man missing that was from Kerry's swiftboat crews... Steve Gardner didn't like Kerry because Kerry didn't like him, allegedly cussing him out when he mowed down a little twelve year old boy who he said had a gun, upon which Kerry rushed out, looked up at Gardner in the boat tub operating the 50 caliber machine guns, called him a son of a bitch, and said, "I ought to court martial you." No, that didn't make for a fast friendship...especially when Kerry escorted him from the boat as soon as he had the chance, and Gardner was assigned elsewhere.
My article in the washington Dispatch concerning the Swiftees...
www.washingtondispatch.com...
Also, I've read the disparaging remarks from the so called, �Swift Boat Veterans for Truth� Officers remembrances thirty+ years later, with memory skewed by political expediency and �dirty trick� chicanery pressures. But to find out what they felt...really felt, you must go back to what they said back then, when the memories were fresh...and you will find a completely different story way back then...and wonder as I have, just why did they change their tune to so completely to do an about face???? From John Kerry's entire chain of command...every single officer Kerry served under in Vietnam, here is what they said back then:
From Kerry�s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander George Elliott, who recommended Kerry for the Silver Star. NOVEMBER 28, 1969, he wrote in his annual fitness report, "In a combat environment often requiring independent, decisive action, LTJG Kerry was unsurpassed. He constantly reviewed tactics and lessons learned in river operations and applied his experience at every opportunity. On one occasion, while in tactical command of a three boat operation, his units were taken under fire from ambush. LTJG Kerry rapidly assessed the situation and ordered his units to turn directly into the ambush. This decision resulted in routing the attackers with several enemy KIA. LTJG Kerry emerges as the acknowledged leader in his peer group. His bearing and appearance are above reproach. He has of his own volition learned the Vietnamese language and is instrumental in the successful Vietnamese training program. During the period of this report LTJG Kerry has been awarded the Silver Star medal, the Bronze Star medal and The Purple Heart (2nd and 3rd Awards)." George M. Elliot, LCDR USN
Lt. Commander Grant Hibbard: was only Kerry�s commander for two weeks, and stated he could not evaluate him properly, but noted for the record that Kerry's initiative, cooperation, and bearing ranked among the top few.
Captain Allen W. Slifer: evaluation, October 19, 1967,
"A top notch officer in every measurable trait. Intelligent, mature, and rich in educational background and experience, ENS Kerry is one of the finest young officers I have ever met and without question one of the most promising."
Admiral Walter F. Schlech - March 2, 1970: �one of the finest young officers with whom I have served in a long naval career."
Captain E.W. Harper, Jr - evaluation September 3, 1968, "LTJG KERRY is an intelligent and competent young naval officer who has performed his duties in an excellent to outstanding manner."
I am more against George Bush than I am for John Kerry though, for this country has been led to the brink of disaster, militarily, tactically and economically. I had thought our nation, the mightiest in the world, could not fall...but then, people thought that about the Holy Roman Empire, which fell with a mighty thud when it spread its forces too thin, and became corrupt at the core. Do you know the United States has troops in over 130 countries today...? If you read my website "Truth about Kerry," you have seen what General Anthony Zinni, the commander of all the middle East (including Iraq...the position now held by Gen Tommy franks) has to say about war in Iraq...you can see what many top military men have to say about the worthiness of war in Iraq.
Rassman is a Republican, by the way. And for your information, I too am a registered Republican, and have voted for mostly Rep[ublicans over the years, although I vote for the best man for the job. I voted for both Bushes, but George W has led us down the garden path, lied to us, and got us into another war with no end in sight. John Kerry came out with a proposed plan recently that would have us get out of Iraq in four years, responsibly taking care of rebuilding and establishing the Iraqi government...but you know what Bush said? He said that four years wasn't even enough time to think about beginning to get out of Iraw. HBush said that there would most likely need to be a US military presence in Iraq always, like in Korea, or Germany.
I'm not a pacifist! Neither is John Kerry a "peacenik." What I am, is against senseless war, and waste...especially when that waste is my blood, or the blood of my brothers-in-arms, my countrymen, my brothers and sisters, my children... I believe Kerry feels that way too. Do you know that Bush is planning to start the draft again right after the elections...all men and women between 18 and 26?
I was all for President Bush 100% in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan against the Taliban, Al Qaida and Osama Bin Laden, who were the sponsors and masterminds of the attack on America. But when he left Afghanistan with only a skeleton crew in his six, using millions of dollars allotted specifically for Afghanistan to go after Saddam, a man who was tightly contained by the UN sanctions. woth no WMD's, who had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11, who posed no terror threat outside of the region at all...I threw up my hands in anguish. There is no reason for us to be in Iraq, and if Bush had used even a modicum of patience this knowledge would have come to the fore. Even Bush's own anti-terrorism chief said immediately after 9/11 that Saddam had nothing whatsoever to do with it at all...that Saddam Hussein was not a world terrorist, and in no way responsible for 9/11...that he was nothing but a thug. This fact was corroborated by both the CIA and the FBI in extensive reports...but Bush wouldn't listen. He angered the world by thumbing his nose at them, our friends, allies and people of the world who looked up to America, when they asked him not to go to war in Iraq because it would be a waste of thousands of men killed and hundreds of Billions of dollars spent. Bush heard their sincere reservations, that Saddam was contained by the UN...he wasn't going anywhere...weapons inspection chief, Hans Blich, declared his inspection was not finished, but that it looked like there were no WMD's. The FBI, CIA and world intelligence bodies stated there were no Al Qaida in Iraq (they are there now though, killing Americans, thanks to Bush) What did Bush do in the face of world opinion...he called them cowards, just because they were not willing to rush to judgment with him. Saddam was a very bad man, I agree...a despicable man, but he was just a little tin-horn dictator, and there are dozens of dictators much, much worse than Saddam in the world, if we want to be the world's policemen, and lead a new crusade for right...as Bush feels a moral imperative to do..
Now, about John Kerry...he did not say what many vets gullibly acting on rumors say he said. No way did he call all vets baby killers, or war criminals. He was referring to a specified group of men who had been with him in a "Winter Soldiers Conference" who had confessed to these acts...no one else, and certainly not all vets. Remember when I said, "Today�s dirty trick�s campaign has two fronts to disparage John Kerry�s sterling Vietnam War record, bogging it down with a flotilla of rumored fabrications launched on two fronts, the so-called �Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,� and flooding the internet with falsehoods and out-of-context distortions of Kerry�s war views as given before Congress. This beguiling sleight-of-hand machination rammed down the throats of gullible vets and other patriotic Americans, with the dirty trick squad�s blatant deception, is carefully manipulated to appear as if the dirty tricks did not come from Republicans.That's why I gave his full address on my site, and you have only to look at the sentences and simply be able to tell what the noun and subject of the sentences are to know who he was talking about.
"Truth about Kerry," namtour.com...
And say what you want, John Kerry was a very forceful officer during the short time he served, facing bullets fired in anger and with his name on them. You say vets should not like him...why? He is one of us...he answered the call...he went into the jungles...he faced the demons...and he did not shoot a man in the back, as too many that should know better pass on rumors that he did. He did track down a fleeing VC with an armed rocket launcher, who boatmates say was trying to get into firing position, chasing him into a building and dispatching him before he could launch is rocket...but he did not shoot him in the back. Don't believe that just because someone told you he did.
And what is hardest to believe, is that many vets favor George Bush who ducked any Vietnam service by joining the national guard to keep away from Vietnam? Still, service in the NG wouldn't have been so bad, but Bush didn't even attend all of his guard duty...he was AWOL...but he was never called on it because he had connections. Like Chaney was quoted as saying when asked about why he didn't serve, he said, and this is a direct quote, "I had better things to do." Yet many favor that coward who can send men to die, but would not go there himself...who is profiting from the war effort, as a former CEO of Halliburton.
It is unbelievable how many good Americans are duped by the slanderous accusation of rumors...even from among those that should be John Kerry's constituency, the veteran community. Too many are too ready and incredibly too gullible, even the very elect, the intelligent, bowing before these ridiculously unfounded rumors, half-truths, innuendoes, and outright bald-faced lies planted by right-wing extremists whose job it is to sling mud in nefarious ways so that they do not appear to be the source of the mud slinging. This is the same "dirty tricks squad" who made the Watergate break-in, and they are alive and well today, and up to their old tricks of spreading rumors and falsehoods. It is unbelievable to me that too many veterans glibly and patriotically are so willing to take up the banner with fervor and zeal, in a campaign of hate and slander that is so blatantly and obviously false.
I do believe Americans should vote however they feel...but do so with the knowledge necessary to cast that vote through the clarity of truth, with full understanding of what forces are at work. The way you vote should not be determined by lies! If you don't like Kerry, fine, but don't like him for what he has done...not what others with agendas of their own say he's done. I am confident that if this is accomplished,...we should shortly have a new president, and begin the task of rebuilding our country's sorely tarnished image and stature worldwide.
Our founding fathers felt strongly about hearing differing points of view being of tantamount importance for this country to survive. In fact, they often stated there was no other way for a people and president to make wise choices in policy than by his looking at all opinions and angles, not only from his close circle, but throughout the nation, and throughout the world. Thus he would make his decisions from a base of knowledge, and not just by one narrow minded faction. A leader that does not do this..a people that does not do this...is bound to fail. It's called listening to diversity.
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the
American public." --Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
Bush's worst debacle is his economy. Our schools here in Idaho are really hurting because federal funding they counted on dried up when our "education president" spent over two hundred Billion dollars and still counting on a senseless war with Iraq, and bribed many nations further untold billions with massive new federal aid to join our joke of a coalition. We don't know how much this price tag was, but Turkey is an example: Bush offered Turkey 70 Billion dollars, and they turned him down. Think of it...if we hadn't waged a meaningless war with Iraq, the government could send each and every one of our fifty states 5 or 6 Billion dollars...oh what the states could do with that, and the people would have rejoiced. My daughter has Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy, a birth defect due to my Agent Orange exposure, and the programs that offered her a chance at a good life and education dried up and programs closed their doors because of the economy, and no more Federal funding they counted on. Our cities are hurting financially for the same reason, and people here are out of work because the jobs disappeared, or like a friend whose large company folded due to the economy, and he had to take a minimum wage job to keep the wolves from the door.
Too many see Kerry's war votes as flip-flops...they're not! Yes, Kerry voted for giving our president the power to go to war, but he did not think George Bush would rush so to judgment in a preemptive strike without precedent. He gave the president the affirmative ability to go to war when the time was reasonable, thinking the president would act reasonably, exploring all other options before taking that terrible step to war that would cost thousands of lives and extreme heartbreak, and cost hundreds of Billions of dollars. He hoped Bush would wait to see the sanctions and weapons inspectors finish their assignments, as the chief inspector, Hans Blich, said they were close to finishing. Kerry thought surely Bush would surely not go to war alone, without the force of the UN backing us with a mandate so we wouldn't have to go it virtually alone, and Kery thought Bush would get the regional Arab countries supporting us as they did before. But when this didn't happen, because Bush couldn't wait, Kerry voted against Bush's senseless rush to judgment pre-emptive war...war without reason, without anybody in real terms backing us but England...and they only have a piddling one tenth of our US troops...and Australia's hundreds, and Japan and mighty Bulgaria, Uganda and Peru and others of lesser ilk make up a trivial joke of a coalition...and all Arab countries are now united in hating us. Even our friends and allies now are calling Bush an "Arrogant warmonger..." Notice the quotation marks...these are their words, gleaned from their newspapers.
By our very presence in Iraq, in the face of no WMD's , and without a link between Saddam and Al Qaida, and no link whatsoever with 9/11, Bush has made the USA the greatest recruiting tool Al Qaida has. War on terrorism, balderdash...Bush isn't winning the war on terrorism...the terrorists are stronger now than they ever were before. This is what prompted General Wesley Clark to say, "I am not attacking our president for attacking terrorists, I am attacking him for not attacking terrorists." If Bush was serious about wanting to combat terrorism, he should have stayed in Afghanistan where the terrorists were. He should be hunting down Osama Bin Laden right this minute...not some petty dictator cowering in a rat hole. Why did Bush leave real terrorists in his six, and head for Iraq????
So Kerry knew what he was doing...Bush didn't. Don't take my word for it...read General Zinni's report...and I believe he, like me, is a registered Republican.
****************
Below are a few of my more than sixty poems online, my memories of that time when,
"I FELT I'D DIED," namtour.com...
"A Combat Soldier's Prayer," namtour.com... featured by the American Legion.
"It Don�t Mean Nuthin�," namtour.com...
"My Thousand Yard Stare," namtour.com...
"PTSD," namtour.com...
"Welcome Home," namtour.com...
"War�s so different, yet, somehow still the same," namtour.com... wars.html
I have since written a special poem, a prayer, for those now in harm's way in Iraq: "Prayer for the Warriors," namtour.com...
"i�m no hero," namtour.com...
"Soldiers Of The Wall," namtour.com...
"Feel their spirits lingering in the wind," namtour.com...
"Agent orange," and "Feral Stalking Night," namtour.com...
"Wife of the Man, From Vietnam," namtour.com...
"Sharon Ann Lane," namtour.com...
"Airborne, Hill 875," namtour.com...
"Song Of Napalm," namtour.com...
"Just Before The Battle Mother," namtour.com...
"Just Marchin� Through The Nam," namtour.com...
"A Shau Ripcord," namtour.com...
"Rockets Of Tet," namtour.com...
"LZ Snoopy And The Red Baron," namtour.com...
"Airborne, Hill 875," namtour.com...
"Dawn Patrol," namtour.com...
"Once We Were Young," namtour.com...
"How Can I Keep From Singing," namtour.com...
"War�s Carousel," and "War And Peace," namtour.com...
"A Mother Lost Her Son To War," namtour.com...
"Just Before The Battle Mother," namtour.com...
"We Were Soldiers," and "Eye of the Tiger," and "Combat," namtour.com...
***********
Poems of peace
"Somewhere Out there," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"The Peacemaker Cometh," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
War, What is it Good For?" namtour.com...
"The Sound Of Guns," namtour.com...
Special tributes to 9/11:
"Terrorism," and "A New Awareness," namtour.com...
"We The People," namtour.com...
"Roll Up Your Sleeves," namtour.com...
"Truth about Kerry," namtour.com...
Many think I am way too serious, but my site, "Realm of Poetry" predates my Vietnam writings. It deals with poems from the heart, of love and romance, spirituality and meditation, an Angel's Message, Golden Oldies, comedy, Quests of the regal knight Richard Lionheart to the crusades and seeking the Holy Grail, dueling dragons, frolicking fairies...tributes to my dear mother, including a treatise on that profane Alzheimer's disease which took her sweet life...and also links to my site when I rode that foul and bestial ogre called war...
dreamerzz.tripod.com...
Poetry Of Love ~~~
"Tender Love In Dreams Doth come," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Moon River," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Before The Next Teardrop Falls," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"If Tomorrow Never Comes," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Kissed By A Rose," themecca.tripod.com...
"Love�s good Vibrations," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Stardust," Knight..._and_LadyKaye.tripod.com/stardust.html
"An Affair to Remember," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"I�ll Love You Forever," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"For No One," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Sometimes I Cry," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"True Love Blooms, When A Man Loves A Woman," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"First Kiss," Knight..._and_LadyKaye.tripod.com/firstkiss.html
"Your Kiss," and "Some Say Love..." Knight..._and_LadyKaye.tripod.com/somesaylove.html
"Golden Oldies Tour," Knight..._and_LadyKaye.tripod.com/lava.html
"Drive In," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
SPIRITUAL AND MEDITATIVE
"Heavenly Message." dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"I�ll Walk With God," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"The Hand Of God," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Somewhere Over The Rainbow," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Just A Closer Walk With Thee," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Compassion," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Choose The Right," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"One Day At A Time," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Penneys From Heaven," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Day Dawn Is Breaking," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
And about two hundred more on my website. It's so hard to pick, for my poems are my children you know...so please treat them kindly. I would appreciate it if you would pass my site on to our veterans, and all those others that need to know...
Gary
Gary Jacobson
Dear [my real name was here]
Thanks for your letter, and especially the kudos. I agree with everything you said. You cannot, or should not, hide truth under a barrel, but let it shine out that all the world may know the truth, and the truth shall indeed make them free. What I am trying to say is, of course you may print my url.
"Truth about Kerry," namtour.com...
I feel strongly that John Kerry was an honorable veteran whose reputation is being slimed, whose service and all medals has recently been verified and documented by the Dept of the Navy as earned and deserving. So many are passing on total fabrications, saying John Kerry said that which he never did. That is why I have posted this web site so that people can see his entire speech, not out of context, and see he did not say some of the evil things in it that they are attributing to him. Note that this same kind of political mudslinging was directed at John McCain, the ex POW who dared run against Bush, and Max Cleland, a triple amputee and ex president of the Disabled American Veterans to which I belong, when he ran against Bush. Bush has a history of mudslinging to detract attention away from his abysmal record on all fronts, from Iraq to the economy to jobs to taxes to health care...everywhere he is a poor president, and the only way he can win is through this negative campaign of smear tactics. And it is a sad commentary on the intelligence of our people that it is working.
Let me introduce myself: My name is Gary Jacobson. I served with B Co 2nd/7th 1st Air Cavalry '66 - '67, as a combat infantryman. We called ourselves "Grunts," operating out of LZ Betty near beautiful downtown Phan Thiet, Vietnam. Mine was the same unit as depicted in the movie, "We Were Soldiers," only one year later. Vietnam changed us all indelibly and forever. I'm now on 100% disability rating with an extra hole in my head, covered by a 3X4 inch plate, shrapnel the size of a quarter imbedded three inches into my brain...this all compliments of a trip wire booby trap that triggered a grenade, that in turn detonated an artillery round...and in the process completely ruined my whole day...in April '67.
After I left them so unexpectedly, my unit went on to the A Shau Valley...a hell of a place they called Ah # valley, then up to Khe Sahn to relieve beleaguered Marines on the DMZ during the rockets of Tet...a place not a single member of my platoon escaped from without being either killed or wounded. But I missed all that fun, dang it all!
After I left them so unexpectedly, my unit went on to the A Shau Valley...a hell of a place they called Ah # valley, then up to Khe Sahn to relieve beleaguered Marines on the DMZ during the rockets of Tet...a place not a single member of my platoon escaped from without being either killed or wounded. But I missed all that fun, dang it all!
Bush is making a mess of Iraq, and killing Americans by the handful for a nothing...no WMD's, no culpability or connections at all with the 9/11 tragedy, no connection with Al Qaida at all, no connection with Osama Bin Laden at all (they didn't even like each other, for they were at cross purposes, Osama being a Religious Fundamentalist, and Saddam being a secularist.). I see haunting similarities between the quagmire of Vietnam, and the quagmire that is Iraq...and I am saddened that we have learned so little from our mistakes there, and are now repeating them. Paint the Iraqi sand dunes green and you have Vietnam, with all the corruption, the corporate finagling, the lies that got us into this with Bush's rush to judgment that angered the whole world against the US and Bush. I am saddened because I see in this Iraqi war the corruption, self-interest, the callous regard for boys on the ground fighting and dying, and self aggrandizement that doomed any hope of victory in Vietnam even before it started.
The military and tactical mistakes which have been made in Iraq will cause it to last decades, as did Vietnam, or maybe more. I am saddened because so many do not, or will not, see the problem because Bush keeps telling us lies to incite a kind of false patriotism, a frenzy to war like I was beat nto that propelled me to Vietnam, proclaiming loudly that righteous victory is at hand with the holy crusades of this regime. Too many lap up the pottage of information that they are fed, gluttonously proclaiming allegiance at all costs, to whatever course they are told we must follow, and will not listen to the voice of reason showing the great disparity between what is true and what they are being told. I see increasing horrors with body counts of lost American boys-next-door, a distortion of freedom's bell sounding a dangerous knell leading our country to a change to either barbarism or destruction of many of our ideals, because of the unwise stewardship.
Almost to a man, all retitred generals who do not depend on Bush for maintaining their jobs, are flat out against the debacle in Iraq. So many still believe Bush's lie that Saddam and Iraq are the terrorists responsibele for the attack on this country. The CIA, the FBI, Bush's own anti-terrorist chief, and the recently concluded 9/11 commission all unanimously and unwquivocally state that Saddam and Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with the attack on Amnerica of 9/11. Yet Bush keeps saying it did, but he also has said it didn't...flip flopping depending on what audience is listening to him.
God bless the American dream...
One shining moment in history rising to the top, like cream
Make her again be the land of the free and brave
I offered my life to save,
Make America a light on a hill that all the world may see,
A healing bastion to those downtrodden from depravity,
Hailing purity in freedom and liberty,
Displaying in deed and action morality
By its might giving light,
By its glory bringing intelligence and right,
The center of truth and justice,
Very integrity personified by word and deed selflessness...
I do not believe in, "America, wrong or right,"
Nay, I want her to be right
Always right...only right...
Always with a strong voice of reason giving hope
Giving the world courage to cope
Showing before the world moral excellence
American virtue's essence
Displaying this nation's Godly birthright
Ever held humble in liberty's fight
Our shield and buckler, star spangled bravery
Our sword keeping America free...
I'm getting very tired and weary of the false misrepresentations...the knowing lies...the gullible acceptance of what someone perverted said.
Yes, I too remember being met by protesters when I was offloaded on a stretcher at Travis AFB...and many sickened me because of the ignorance and where they were coming from in their diatribe. There were indeed protesters who did spit on boys-next-door returning from war, returning vets, and who did call us baby killers...but they were miserable little cowards, usually, many times hippies who were afraid to go to war, or just went along with the cult thing to do. But there were many kinds of protesters against the Vietnam war, and the agendas and reasons of the protesters were often vastly different. Lumping all protesters as the same...is neither fair, nor accurate.
John Kerry protested the senselessness of the Vietnam war from first hand fact. He had faced bullets with his name on them, bullets shot at him in anger. He too had shot and killed,. and fought the good fight. He had seen the war at its roots...so his protest was against a senseless war that had no winning precept, no chance for victory...no exit plan, yet was killing American boys by the hundreds and thousands, taking this or that hill, then giving it up, then taking it again, in a mad merry-go-round that was not fought to win. I know, I was there, a combat infantryman with the 1st Air Cavalry...and though we went over gung-ho to fight for our country, mom and apple pie...for the liberty for all, all too soon war changed us. It changed us when we saw the South Vietnamese government we fought for was more corrupt than the one we were fighting...the black market and drug running, the power struggles and assassinations rampant among ARVN generals, and even their president...who while in the midst of a campaign for reelection had all of his opponents rounded up and put into jail until after the election...guess who won? We, the boys on the ground could see this...see we were going nowhere, but to die! You ask any infantryman...when he became a veteran in-country, he no longer fought for those high and gung-ho ideals he had when he first got there. He was fighting only for his brothers around him, watching his back...and to survive to get back to "the world," that's all!
John Kerry saw this first hand. He saw the senslessness, and wanted to do what he could to save lives by ending the war, and bringing the boys back home. He didn't want one more drop of American Blood spilt in that unforgiving land. If the powers that be had followed his admonition, literally 14,000 American boys whose blood now nourishes some fetid, feral jungle, would be alive today...and the wall in Washington would be much smaller. No, John Kerry's protest was not the protest of those who called us baby killers, or spat upon us...for John Kerry was one of us. He had been a very aggressive swiftboat captain in Vietnam...he knew the score...he understood...he was pained by the memory of those left behind...he wanted to bring our boys home. His was not opportunism! He did not consider his protest "using vets" to further his personal and political gain...he was one of "us" still over there...he empathized with us...he revered us...and he didn't want to have Americans die in vain. He said as much, that he "didn't want one more American to be the last American to die a terrible death in vain."
I despise with a passion "those whose limited vision urges them to protest they know not what, for reasons they do not understand." But John Kerry was not one of these. Some say he used his protests for his own personal gain...be reasonable! Look around! What has his protest wrought in his career? What good has his protest done him? What gain did he achieve? John Kerry simply tried to do the right thing, and he was pilloried for it.
Some who are throwing dirt say he received his purple hearts for what amounted to scratches...I will agree some of them were slight...but the were wounds inflicted by the enemy. He still carries shrapnel in his leg. I have seen many officers get more awards for less...much less...imaginary almost. They too often hand awards out to the men like cracker jacks, often they're earned, but too often without rhyme or reason...to men who did no more or no less than I did, standing right beside them...but they were singled out because officers had to give them to somebody...because it made the Colonels look better in the eyes of superiors if his men were good fighters, getting awards, and getting a high body count. Those were the parameters officers were judged by, and they wanted to look good for their superiors.
John Kerry did not lie about his wounds...Kerry's were earned...according to the man who credits John Kerry with saving his life...Former Special Forces Green Beret officer Jim Rassmann, telling the nation at the Democratic Convention how Kerry saved his life in 1969, and thus earned a Bronze Star for valor, and earning one of his Purple Hearts...
Fellow GIs Tout Kerry Courage Under Fire
by ANDREW KRAMER, Associated Press Writer
BOSTON - Standing with a dozen of his Vietnam crewmates, all fiercely loyal to John Kerry. Former Special Forces officer Jim Rassmann is telling the nation how Kerry saved his life in 1969, and thus earned a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart. Rassmann's story of his dramatic brush with death was scheduled just before the presidential nominee's acceptance speech on the final night of the Democratic convention, designed to accentuate Kerry's leadership in wartime.
"Compartments that I have closed long ago are being pried open by all of this," the 56-year-old said. "I think that the catharsis it has provided has been very beneficial. To one degree or another, the same is true of all the
crewmates and John himself." Kerry's service in Vietnam as commander of a Navy swiftboat in the Mekong
Delta has been a main theme of the convention, and so has Rassmann's role in those events 35 years ago. Rassmann, who was leading a group of Chinese mercenaries on special operations, was knocked from the deck of Kerry's 60-foot patrol boat during an ambush on March 13, 1969. He dived toward the river bottom to avoid the propellers, as bullets and rockets flew overhead. When he came up for air, the boat was gone and Viet Cong on the river banks were sniping at him.
Kerry, noticing the man alone in the water, turned the boat around and came back through heavy fire for Rassmann, who grabbed a rope net on the bow. He was not able to climb onto the deck, but Kerry pulled him over, for his actions earning a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart for being wounded that day.
"I'll be forever grateful to John for coming back to get me, and pulling me over that thing," Rassmann said.
Many speeches at the convention have touched on the episode, with everybody from vice presidential nominee John Edwards on down pointing to it as evidence of Kerry's decisiveness in crisis. It's a theme the swiftboat crew will take on the road over the next three months, as their jobs allow, according to John Hurley, director of Veterans for Kerry. All those who appeared in Boston have also volunteered to continue working for Kerry. Some have become active in their home states, others will travel nationally.
The campaign plans to assemble the swiftboat crew, or as many as can make it, for bus tours through the swing states where the election will be decided. Sometimes they will be joined by younger veterans from Iraq. "These guys in particular, their story is compelling, these guys are the perfect ones to validate his character to be president of the United States," Hurley said. Rassmann, a former Los Angeles sheriff deputy was concentrating more on his hobby of raising orchids in a greenhouse in Florence, Ore., when he stepped into national politics in January. Rassmann, who had previously voted Republican, called Kerry's lagging presidential primary campaign in Iowa and asked if he could help. He imagined working a phone bank or licking envelopes. Instead, he was asked to talk about Vietnam. His appearance in Iowa galvanized the campaign in that state, campaign aides have said. Rassmann has since flown around the country on Kerry's plane, talking to veterans' groups and rallies in many states.
He has recounted how Kerry and he retrieved the body of a soldier killed by a mine, placing the man's shattered frame in a rain poncho to carry to the boat. He has said he expected to die in the river before the boat turned around. He recalled being exposed as a target to Vietnamese gunners while dangling from the net on the bow. "I had buried these things. It took some precipitating event to bring them out," he said of the campaign's role in jarring loose the old memories, which once caused him to break down in tears before the traveling version of the Vietnam Memorial wall. "We did all sorts of things" in Vietnam, he said. "Most of the guys I worked with are dead."
Every single one of his crewmates who knew his valor, courage and honor better than anybody else...certainly more than a distant officer...every one, had glowing words of praise for John Kerry...except for one man I'll tell you about in a minute. They said things like: "I knew back then in Vietnam that the skipper, John Kerry, was bound for high places. Stand up for John Kerry the same way he stands up for veterans. He took care of all of us�he really did. He made good decisions, I believe proper decisions, and the fact that we all returned alive is a good indication that they were the right decisions. Always, when there's a new guy on the boat, you check him out�It only took me a few days�we knew we had somebody special that cared for us�we bonded! What I saw back then 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. I figured with the abilities he had, he was going to go high, but I didn't have any idea about him running for president. Humble seaman. The decisions that he made saved our lives. He never shot from the hip when it came to decisions�he'd always confront problems head on. I never saw John back down from anything. He wouldn't let you go randomly down the river shooting up everything in sight." Oh yes, I mentioned there was only one man missing that was from Kerry's swiftboat crews... Steve Gardner didn't like Kerry because Kerry didn't like him, allegedly cussing him out when he mowed down a little twelve year old boy who he said had a gun, upon which Kerry rushed out, looked up at Gardner in the boat tub operating the 50 caliber machine guns, called him a son of a bitch, and said, "I ought to court martial you." No, that didn't make for a fast friendship...especially when Kerry escorted him from the boat as soon as he had the chance, and Gardner was assigned elsewhere.
My article in the washington Dispatch concerning the Swiftees...
www.washingtondispatch.com...
Also, I've read the disparaging remarks from the so called, �Swift Boat Veterans for Truth� Officers remembrances thirty+ years later, with memory skewed by political expediency and �dirty trick� chicanery pressures. But to find out what they felt...really felt, you must go back to what they said back then, when the memories were fresh...and you will find a completely different story way back then...and wonder as I have, just why did they change their tune to so completely to do an about face???? From John Kerry's entire chain of command...every single officer Kerry served under in Vietnam, here is what they said back then:
From Kerry�s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander George Elliott, who recommended Kerry for the Silver Star. NOVEMBER 28, 1969, he wrote in his annual fitness report, "In a combat environment often requiring independent, decisive action, LTJG Kerry was unsurpassed. He constantly reviewed tactics and lessons learned in river operations and applied his experience at every opportunity. On one occasion, while in tactical command of a three boat operation, his units were taken under fire from ambush. LTJG Kerry rapidly assessed the situation and ordered his units to turn directly into the ambush. This decision resulted in routing the attackers with several enemy KIA. LTJG Kerry emerges as the acknowledged leader in his peer group. His bearing and appearance are above reproach. He has of his own volition learned the Vietnamese language and is instrumental in the successful Vietnamese training program. During the period of this report LTJG Kerry has been awarded the Silver Star medal, the Bronze Star medal and The Purple Heart (2nd and 3rd Awards)." George M. Elliot, LCDR USN
Lt. Commander Grant Hibbard: was only Kerry�s commander for two weeks, and stated he could not evaluate him properly, but noted for the record that Kerry's initiative, cooperation, and bearing ranked among the top few.
Captain Allen W. Slifer: evaluation, October 19, 1967,
"A top notch officer in every measurable trait. Intelligent, mature, and rich in educational background and experience, ENS Kerry is one of the finest young officers I have ever met and without question one of the most promising."
Admiral Walter F. Schlech - March 2, 1970: �one of the finest young officers with whom I have served in a long naval career."
Captain E.W. Harper, Jr - evaluation September 3, 1968, "LTJG KERRY is an intelligent and competent young naval officer who has performed his duties in an excellent to outstanding manner."
I am more against George Bush than I am for John Kerry though, for this country has been led to the brink of disaster, militarily, tactically and economically. I had thought our nation, the mightiest in the world, could not fall...but then, people thought that about the Holy Roman Empire, which fell with a mighty thud when it spread its forces too thin, and became corrupt at the core. Do you know the United States has troops in over 130 countries today...? If you read my website "Truth about Kerry," you have seen what General Anthony Zinni, the commander of all the middle East (including Iraq...the position now held by Gen Tommy franks) has to say about war in Iraq...you can see what many top military men have to say about the worthiness of war in Iraq.
Rassman is a Republican, by the way. And for your information, I too am a registered Republican, and have voted for mostly Rep[ublicans over the years, although I vote for the best man for the job. I voted for both Bushes, but George W has led us down the garden path, lied to us, and got us into another war with no end in sight. John Kerry came out with a proposed plan recently that would have us get out of Iraq in four years, responsibly taking care of rebuilding and establishing the Iraqi government...but you know what Bush said? He said that four years wasn't even enough time to think about beginning to get out of Iraw. HBush said that there would most likely need to be a US military presence in Iraq always, like in Korea, or Germany.
I'm not a pacifist! Neither is John Kerry a "peacenik." What I am, is against senseless war, and waste...especially when that waste is my blood, or the blood of my brothers-in-arms, my countrymen, my brothers and sisters, my children... I believe Kerry feels that way too. Do you know that Bush is planning to start the draft again right after the elections...all men and women between 18 and 26?
I was all for President Bush 100% in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan against the Taliban, Al Qaida and Osama Bin Laden, who were the sponsors and masterminds of the attack on America. But when he left Afghanistan with only a skeleton crew in his six, using millions of dollars allotted specifically for Afghanistan to go after Saddam, a man who was tightly contained by the UN sanctions. woth no WMD's, who had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11, who posed no terror threat outside of the region at all...I threw up my hands in anguish. There is no reason for us to be in Iraq, and if Bush had used even a modicum of patience this knowledge would have come to the fore. Even Bush's own anti-terrorism chief said immediately after 9/11 that Saddam had nothing whatsoever to do with it at all...that Saddam Hussein was not a world terrorist, and in no way responsible for 9/11...that he was nothing but a thug. This fact was corroborated by both the CIA and the FBI in extensive reports...but Bush wouldn't listen. He angered the world by thumbing his nose at them, our friends, allies and people of the world who looked up to America, when they asked him not to go to war in Iraq because it would be a waste of thousands of men killed and hundreds of Billions of dollars spent. Bush heard their sincere reservations, that Saddam was contained by the UN...he wasn't going anywhere...weapons inspection chief, Hans Blich, declared his inspection was not finished, but that it looked like there were no WMD's. The FBI, CIA and world intelligence bodies stated there were no Al Qaida in Iraq (they are there now though, killing Americans, thanks to Bush) What did Bush do in the face of world opinion...he called them cowards, just because they were not willing to rush to judgment with him. Saddam was a very bad man, I agree...a despicable man, but he was just a little tin-horn dictator, and there are dozens of dictators much, much worse than Saddam in the world, if we want to be the world's policemen, and lead a new crusade for right...as Bush feels a moral imperative to do..
Now, about John Kerry...he did not say what many vets gullibly acting on rumors say he said. No way did he call all vets baby killers, or war criminals. He was referring to a specified group of men who had been with him in a "Winter Soldiers Conference" who had confessed to these acts...no one else, and certainly not all vets. Remember when I said, "Today�s dirty trick�s campaign has two fronts to disparage John Kerry�s sterling Vietnam War record, bogging it down with a flotilla of rumored fabrications launched on two fronts, the so-called �Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,� and flooding the internet with falsehoods and out-of-context distortions of Kerry�s war views as given before Congress. This beguiling sleight-of-hand machination rammed down the throats of gullible vets and other patriotic Americans, with the dirty trick squad�s blatant deception, is carefully manipulated to appear as if the dirty tricks did not come from Republicans.That's why I gave his full address on my site, and you have only to look at the sentences and simply be able to tell what the noun and subject of the sentences are to know who he was talking about.
"Truth about Kerry," namtour.com...
And say what you want, John Kerry was a very forceful officer during the short time he served, facing bullets fired in anger and with his name on them. You say vets should not like him...why? He is one of us...he answered the call...he went into the jungles...he faced the demons...and he did not shoot a man in the back, as too many that should know better pass on rumors that he did. He did track down a fleeing VC with an armed rocket launcher, who boatmates say was trying to get into firing position, chasing him into a building and dispatching him before he could launch is rocket...but he did not shoot him in the back. Don't believe that just because someone told you he did.
And what is hardest to believe, is that many vets favor George Bush who ducked any Vietnam service by joining the national guard to keep away from Vietnam? Still, service in the NG wouldn't have been so bad, but Bush didn't even attend all of his guard duty...he was AWOL...but he was never called on it because he had connections. Like Chaney was quoted as saying when asked about why he didn't serve, he said, and this is a direct quote, "I had better things to do." Yet many favor that coward who can send men to die, but would not go there himself...who is profiting from the war effort, as a former CEO of Halliburton.
It is unbelievable how many good Americans are duped by the slanderous accusation of rumors...even from among those that should be John Kerry's constituency, the veteran community. Too many are too ready and incredibly too gullible, even the very elect, the intelligent, bowing before these ridiculously unfounded rumors, half-truths, innuendoes, and outright bald-faced lies planted by right-wing extremists whose job it is to sling mud in nefarious ways so that they do not appear to be the source of the mud slinging. This is the same "dirty tricks squad" who made the Watergate break-in, and they are alive and well today, and up to their old tricks of spreading rumors and falsehoods. It is unbelievable to me that too many veterans glibly and patriotically are so willing to take up the banner with fervor and zeal, in a campaign of hate and slander that is so blatantly and obviously false.
I do believe Americans should vote however they feel...but do so with the knowledge necessary to cast that vote through the clarity of truth, with full understanding of what forces are at work. The way you vote should not be determined by lies! If you don't like Kerry, fine, but don't like him for what he has done...not what others with agendas of their own say he's done. I am confident that if this is accomplished,...we should shortly have a new president, and begin the task of rebuilding our country's sorely tarnished image and stature worldwide.
Our founding fathers felt strongly about hearing differing points of view being of tantamount importance for this country to survive. In fact, they often stated there was no other way for a people and president to make wise choices in policy than by his looking at all opinions and angles, not only from his close circle, but throughout the nation, and throughout the world. Thus he would make his decisions from a base of knowledge, and not just by one narrow minded faction. A leader that does not do this..a people that does not do this...is bound to fail. It's called listening to diversity.
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the
American public." --Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
Bush's worst debacle is his economy. Our schools here in Idaho are really hurting because federal funding they counted on dried up when our "education president" spent over two hundred Billion dollars and still counting on a senseless war with Iraq, and bribed many nations further untold billions with massive new federal aid to join our joke of a coalition. We don't know how much this price tag was, but Turkey is an example: Bush offered Turkey 70 Billion dollars, and they turned him down. Think of it...if we hadn't waged a meaningless war with Iraq, the government could send each and every one of our fifty states 5 or 6 Billion dollars...oh what the states could do with that, and the people would have rejoiced. My daughter has Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy, a birth defect due to my Agent Orange exposure, and the programs that offered her a chance at a good life and education dried up and programs closed their doors because of the economy, and no more Federal funding they counted on. Our cities are hurting financially for the same reason, and people here are out of work because the jobs disappeared, or like a friend whose large company folded due to the economy, and he had to take a minimum wage job to keep the wolves from the door.
Too many see Kerry's war votes as flip-flops...they're not! Yes, Kerry voted for giving our president the power to go to war, but he did not think George Bush would rush so to judgment in a preemptive strike without precedent. He gave the president the affirmative ability to go to war when the time was reasonable, thinking the president would act reasonably, exploring all other options before taking that terrible step to war that would cost thousands of lives and extreme heartbreak, and cost hundreds of Billions of dollars. He hoped Bush would wait to see the sanctions and weapons inspectors finish their assignments, as the chief inspector, Hans Blich, said they were close to finishing. Kerry thought surely Bush would surely not go to war alone, without the force of the UN backing us with a mandate so we wouldn't have to go it virtually alone, and Kery thought Bush would get the regional Arab countries supporting us as they did before. But when this didn't happen, because Bush couldn't wait, Kerry voted against Bush's senseless rush to judgment pre-emptive war...war without reason, without anybody in real terms backing us but England...and they only have a piddling one tenth of our US troops...and Australia's hundreds, and Japan and mighty Bulgaria, Uganda and Peru and others of lesser ilk make up a trivial joke of a coalition...and all Arab countries are now united in hating us. Even our friends and allies now are calling Bush an "Arrogant warmonger..." Notice the quotation marks...these are their words, gleaned from their newspapers.
By our very presence in Iraq, in the face of no WMD's , and without a link between Saddam and Al Qaida, and no link whatsoever with 9/11, Bush has made the USA the greatest recruiting tool Al Qaida has. War on terrorism, balderdash...Bush isn't winning the war on terrorism...the terrorists are stronger now than they ever were before. This is what prompted General Wesley Clark to say, "I am not attacking our president for attacking terrorists, I am attacking him for not attacking terrorists." If Bush was serious about wanting to combat terrorism, he should have stayed in Afghanistan where the terrorists were. He should be hunting down Osama Bin Laden right this minute...not some petty dictator cowering in a rat hole. Why did Bush leave real terrorists in his six, and head for Iraq????
So Kerry knew what he was doing...Bush didn't. Don't take my word for it...read General Zinni's report...and I believe he, like me, is a registered Republican.
****************
Below are a few of my more than sixty poems online, my memories of that time when,
"I FELT I'D DIED," namtour.com...
"A Combat Soldier's Prayer," namtour.com... featured by the American Legion.
"It Don�t Mean Nuthin�," namtour.com...
"My Thousand Yard Stare," namtour.com...
"PTSD," namtour.com...
"Welcome Home," namtour.com...
"War�s so different, yet, somehow still the same," namtour.com... wars.html
I have since written a special poem, a prayer, for those now in harm's way in Iraq: "Prayer for the Warriors," namtour.com...
"i�m no hero," namtour.com...
"Soldiers Of The Wall," namtour.com...
"Feel their spirits lingering in the wind," namtour.com...
"Agent orange," and "Feral Stalking Night," namtour.com...
"Wife of the Man, From Vietnam," namtour.com...
"Sharon Ann Lane," namtour.com...
"Airborne, Hill 875," namtour.com...
"Song Of Napalm," namtour.com...
"Just Before The Battle Mother," namtour.com...
"Just Marchin� Through The Nam," namtour.com...
"A Shau Ripcord," namtour.com...
"Rockets Of Tet," namtour.com...
"LZ Snoopy And The Red Baron," namtour.com...
"Airborne, Hill 875," namtour.com...
"Dawn Patrol," namtour.com...
"Once We Were Young," namtour.com...
"How Can I Keep From Singing," namtour.com...
"War�s Carousel," and "War And Peace," namtour.com...
"A Mother Lost Her Son To War," namtour.com...
"Just Before The Battle Mother," namtour.com...
"We Were Soldiers," and "Eye of the Tiger," and "Combat," namtour.com...
***********
Poems of peace
"Somewhere Out there," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"The Peacemaker Cometh," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
War, What is it Good For?" namtour.com...
"The Sound Of Guns," namtour.com...
Special tributes to 9/11:
"Terrorism," and "A New Awareness," namtour.com...
"We The People," namtour.com...
"Roll Up Your Sleeves," namtour.com...
"Truth about Kerry," namtour.com...
Many think I am way too serious, but my site, "Realm of Poetry" predates my Vietnam writings. It deals with poems from the heart, of love and romance, spirituality and meditation, an Angel's Message, Golden Oldies, comedy, Quests of the regal knight Richard Lionheart to the crusades and seeking the Holy Grail, dueling dragons, frolicking fairies...tributes to my dear mother, including a treatise on that profane Alzheimer's disease which took her sweet life...and also links to my site when I rode that foul and bestial ogre called war...
dreamerzz.tripod.com...
Poetry Of Love ~~~
"Tender Love In Dreams Doth come," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Moon River," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Before The Next Teardrop Falls," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"If Tomorrow Never Comes," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Kissed By A Rose," themecca.tripod.com...
"Love�s good Vibrations," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Stardust," Knight..._and_LadyKaye.tripod.com/stardust.html
"An Affair to Remember," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"I�ll Love You Forever," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"For No One," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Sometimes I Cry," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"True Love Blooms, When A Man Loves A Woman," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"First Kiss," Knight..._and_LadyKaye.tripod.com/firstkiss.html
"Your Kiss," and "Some Say Love..." Knight..._and_LadyKaye.tripod.com/somesaylove.html
"Golden Oldies Tour," Knight..._and_LadyKaye.tripod.com/lava.html
"Drive In," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
SPIRITUAL AND MEDITATIVE
"Heavenly Message." dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"I�ll Walk With God," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"The Hand Of God," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Somewhere Over The Rainbow," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Just A Closer Walk With Thee," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Compassion," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Choose The Right," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"One Day At A Time," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Penneys From Heaven," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
"Day Dawn Is Breaking," dreamerzz.tripod.com...
And about two hundred more on my website. It's so hard to pick, for my poems are my children you know...so please treat them kindly. I would appreciate it if you would pass my site on to our veterans, and all those others that need to know...
Gary
Gary Jacobson
Originally posted by Affirmative Reaction
Originally posted by nanna_of_6
,Affirmitive Reaction, if you THINK my first post has been changed, ..... please do tell what was in my first post before I supposively changed it ?
You know exactly what the initial thread said, as you were the one who changed it after you were proven wrong. Go back and actually read my last post....you have no scruples...you have no honor...you are so afraid of being wrong that you edit your posts to change the questions you ask so that you can erroneously claim that you "never said that". Sorry, that's simply a lie, you know it, I know it, and fans around the world know it!
You said that Kerry never admitted to committing war crimes as the swiftvets proved in their spot by using Kerry's own words against him. You have now edited it, TWICE, because you were proven so utterly wrong by the video I posted. It's too bad that you don't have the integrity to admit when you have been proven wrong. But hey, you did a good job on the "bait and switch" there, since nobody quoted your entire post, there is no exact proof of what you REALLY posted. However, anyone with a lick of sense can read the resulting posts and clearly see what you did. And those that posted before you changed it know what it said as well. You aren't fooling anyone but yourself.....
[edit on 21-9-2004 by Affirmative Reaction]
It seems very strange that YOU, sir, are the only that has made such a statement.
I had explained how I do my posts (most of the time) and if you can not except my answer, ........... than thats too bad,...... for you, because it happened the way I said it did.
Originally posted by elaine
I know how you feel Marg. My only son is 20, and of course I love him dearly. That's one reason I feel so passionately about this war. Alot of those kids over in Iraq really did'nt know what they were in for just being out of highschool and all. Alot of them are just kids.
Of course you love your son, as do other mothers in this country.
But if mothers could keep their sons out of our other wars, we would either be subjects of the Queen, or be speaking German or Japanese.
Whatever the reasons, I don't think we are in Iraq for frivolous reasons.
Originally posted by nanna_of_6
It seems very strange that YOU, sir, are the only that has made such a statement.
I had explained how I do my posts (most of the time) and if you can not except my answer, ........... than thats too bad,...... for you, because it happened the way I said it did.
Right...you keep sticking to that story if it makes you feel good. Of course, why would the first five or six posts say what they do if that were true? Sorry, doesn't match. But hey, I'm not going to argue with you any longer. I'll just remember from now on to quote you first. You can't edit the content of MY posts.....
Nanna; thank you for the letter. What an incredible man Gary is.
Its chilling to see something in black and white and written with brutal honesty like this. No doubt Kerry's name is part of the smear campaign ran by Bush, and since he's the sitting president and has so much money backing him up, its really a no win situation for Kerry. Too bad. I do blame Kerry on some points. Knowing every word he states is twisted and broadcasted all over the nation he should be very consistent in what he says, and not reword things that will be twisted and mangled the next day.
Also, his wife is a disadvantage to him. Yes, she should have the right to say stuff, but when you're in center stage like this and hoping for the presidency of the United States, you cant go around saying the stuff she says KNOWING it'll be all over the news like a cheap suit. He'd be better off if she DIDNT speak at all. Sorry, Teresa, but its true. Better leave the swearing and hand gestures to the cowboys now in DC. They're HE men, they can get away with it.
All this having been said, Kerry would be the best choice for president since he's not the warmongering candidate. I hope people can see past the Bush's smear campaign, can overlook Teresas' manners and realize that inspite of some called flip-floping he would be the best man to get the country turned around. It would be nice to have some kind of a future.
Its chilling to see something in black and white and written with brutal honesty like this. No doubt Kerry's name is part of the smear campaign ran by Bush, and since he's the sitting president and has so much money backing him up, its really a no win situation for Kerry. Too bad. I do blame Kerry on some points. Knowing every word he states is twisted and broadcasted all over the nation he should be very consistent in what he says, and not reword things that will be twisted and mangled the next day.
Also, his wife is a disadvantage to him. Yes, she should have the right to say stuff, but when you're in center stage like this and hoping for the presidency of the United States, you cant go around saying the stuff she says KNOWING it'll be all over the news like a cheap suit. He'd be better off if she DIDNT speak at all. Sorry, Teresa, but its true. Better leave the swearing and hand gestures to the cowboys now in DC. They're HE men, they can get away with it.
All this having been said, Kerry would be the best choice for president since he's not the warmongering candidate. I hope people can see past the Bush's smear campaign, can overlook Teresas' manners and realize that inspite of some called flip-floping he would be the best man to get the country turned around. It would be nice to have some kind of a future.
Originally posted by Affirmative Reaction
Right...you keep sticking to that story if it makes you feel good. Of course, why would the first five or six posts say what they do if that were true? Sorry, doesn't match. But hey, I'm not going to argue with you any longer. I'll just remember from now on to quote you first. You can't edit the content of MY posts.....
I'd suggest you look at the top of your screen that explains the "RULES" in the Mud Pit. You have been personally attacking and insulting me on two of my threads,.... specially this thread .
NOW BACK OFF !
[edit on 21-9-2004 by nanna_of_6]
Um_Gazz took care of it in the other thread so I guess I'll echo his words here. Any personal attacks will warrent "warnings." Not a direct
translation but the meaning remains the same.
Originally posted by nanna_of_6
I'd suggest you look at the top of your screen that explains the "RULES" in the Mud Pit. You have been personally attacking and insulting me on two of my threads,.... specially this thread .
NOW BACK OFF !
[edit on 21-9-2004 by nanna_of_6]
Oh, ok, I see...it's ok for you to post questionable content, but heaven forbid anybody does something YOU don't like....Right....
And I fail to see how pointing out that you changed the meaning of the thread in the first post is a personal attack? it's simple the truth. Are we now not allowed to post the truth?
[edit on 21-9-2004 by Affirmative Reaction]
Originally posted by nanna_of_6
Let me introduce myself: My name is Gary Jacobson. I served with B Co 2nd/7th 1st Air Cavalry '66 - '67, as a combat infantryman. We called ourselves "Grunts," operating out of LZ Betty near beautiful downtown Phan Thiet, Vietnam. Mine was the same unit as depicted in the movie, "We Were Soldiers," only one year later. Vietnam changed us all indelibly and forever. I'm now on 100% disability rating with an extra hole in my head, covered by a 3X4 inch plate, shrapnel the size of a quarter imbedded three inches into my brain...this all compliments of a trip wire booby trap that triggered a grenade, that in turn detonated an artillery round...and in the process completely ruined my whole day...in April '67.
Yes, I too remember being met by protesters when I was offloaded on a stretcher at Travis AFB...and many sickened me because of the ignorance and where they were coming from in their diatribe.
There are many reasons to doubt the veracity of this email. One, is that it is just too full of needless details to arouse emotion. It reads like the thousands of other bleeding heart letters that populate the internet. Two, this statement in impossible:
Yes, I too remember being met by protesters when I was offloaded on a stretcher at Travis AFB
I, too, was offloaded on as stretcher at Travis AFB. The flight line was completely inaccessible to protesters or anyone else for that matter. This could not have been his experience. Can you imagine the Air Force allowing civilian protesters on the base? Maybe he meant something else, I don't know, but this could not have happened.
I was offloaded from the plane that brought me from Japan and transferred to one that took me to San Antonio. I'm pretty sure this soldier who had, by his own admission a very severe head wound was also tranferred to a plane to take him to a military hospital near his home, which was the custom at the time, unless he was treated at Travis, which would have been highly unlikely, though not impossible, his being in the Army.
Even if he only went down to Fort Ord, he would more than likely have been tranferred by chopper as I was from my hosptial in Japan to the air basem where my flight originated. I wonder if the head wound might have affected his memory?
I nearly died on my flight back and had some bizarre fever related delusions, before the fever was controlled. The combination of poor health and heavy meds can do some funny things.
You see, nanna, when you have a given experience it is hard to be convinced of certain things because you have been there. John Kerry knew this when he returned. He knew he could exaggerate and outright lie and the eager media would eat it up and the mass of the people who had no such experience could not know the difference.
This bit of color is added by the author just to make the distinction between the traitors who were cowards and the traitors who had combat experience, like Hanoi John Kerry.
Originally posted by nanna_of_6 Now, about John Kerry...he did not say what many vets gullibly acting on rumors say he said. No way did he call all vets baby killers, or war criminals. He was referring to a specified group of men who had been with him in a "Winter Soldiers Conference" who had confessed to these acts...no one else, and certainly not all vets.
This is what Kerry said:
I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.
It is impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit, the emotions in the room, the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam, but they did. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do.
They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.
We call this investigation the "Winter Soldier Investigation." The term "Winter Soldier" is a play on words of Thomas Paine in 1776 when he spoke of the Sunshine Patriot and summertime soldiers who deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough.
We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country; we could be quiet; we could hold our silence; we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, and not redcoats but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out.
ice.he.net...
It's hard to sugar coat this.
In our opinion and from our experience, there is nothing in South Vietnam which could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America. And to attempt to justify the loss of one American life in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom, which those misfits supposedly abuse, is to us the height of criminal hypocrisy.
209.157.64.200...
This statement is the height of criminal hypocracy. Because the continued slaughter of millions on Southeast Asia would have no direct impact on the US, it should be allowed to happen? Did the Mr. Kerry really believe that Vietnam was just a civil war and not one more front in the war against the globla expansion of communism?
Please refer to my post above for some of the details of this "civil war" carried out by Ho Chi Minh.
John Kerry is the lowest, two-faced, back-stabbing SOB to darken the face of the planet. He became an instrument of the enemy upon his return to the US. Where was the self-righteous Mr. Kerry when all these peasnats, ignorant of the nuances of economic systems, were being murdered wholesale by the communists? Why was he so silent over these atrocities. John Kerry would sell out grandmother for one minute of national media coverage.
Here is an example of the kinds of human right abuses and atrocities that have been the norm since the communists (Kerry's friends) took over S. Vietnam:
Vietnam: Independent Investigation of Easter Week Atrocities Needed Now
A Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper
Vietnamese officials and civilians acting on their behalf beat and killed dozens of Montagnards during Easter week demonstrations in the Central Highlands, when thousands of people gathered to protest confiscation of ancestral lands and religious repression, according to new eyewitness testimony obtained by Human Rights Watch.
In response to an international outcry, in late April and early May the Vietnamese government organized highly controlled visits to the highlands by international media, diplomats, and U.N. agencies. Montagnards interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that Vietnamese officials prevented them from providing an accurate picture of events.
Human Rights Watch called on the government of Vietnam to immediately allow full and unhindered access to independent human rights organizations and U.N. special rapporteurs to investigate the reports of extrajudicial killings, human rights abuses, and other violations of international humanitarian law in the Central Highland provinces of Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Gia Lai and Lam Dong. hrw.org...
Vietnam
REPRESSION OF MONTAGNARDS
Conflicts over Land and Religion in Vietnam's Central Highlands Vietnam should cease its persecution of indigenous Montagnards in the Central Highlands, and Cambodia should continue to offer sanctuary to
those fleeing across the border, Human Rights Watch said in this new report.
The 200-page
report, Repression of Montagnards: Conflicts over land and Religion
in Vietnam's Central Highlands, provides the most detailed account to date of the unrest that erupted in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in early 2001
and offers a rare glimpse into the mechanisms of Vietnamese political repression. Human Rights Watch provides an in-depth analysis of the
grievances that gave rise to the protests, and an analysis of the human rights violations that took place in response to them. It found that the
Vietnamese government violated fundamental human rights in the course of suppressing the protests, and that those violations-which range
from government infringement of religious freedom to torture by police-were continuing as of March 2002.
HRW Index No.: 2726
ISBN: 1-56432-2726, 04/02, 204pp., $15.00
Purchase online:
store.yahoo.com...
www.hrw.org...
Where is Mr. Kerry now?
www.montagnard-foundation.org...
www.vnsfvetakerry.com...
www.google.com...
www.gulag.hu...
www.mega.nu:8080...
www.mega.nu:8080...
www.bcaplan.com...
[edit on 04/9/23 by GradyPhilpott]
Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
Another thing is that since I started to research Kerry, the number of left-wing sites defending his actions after Vietnam have exploded and the VVAW is all over the place.
I don't get it Grady . If you know John Kerry as well as you have tried to make it seem as you do,......................... Then WHY are you RESEARCHING him ????????????? Anyone that REALLY knows John Kerry,..... up-front and personal, would not need to "research" John .
Of course the VVAW is all over the internet , syanding with John Kerry,....... they know him and know that John Kerry "DID" everything possible to help bring our "troops" home from Vietnam ..................
Think About it
Originally posted by nanna_of_6
........................
Of course the VVAW is all over the internet , syanding with John Kerry,....... they know him and know that John Kerry "DID" everything possible to help bring our "troops" home from Vietnam ..................
..............
didn't Kerry found the VVAW as a propaganda wing for him or something?
Originally posted by nanna_of_6
I don't get it Grady ...WHY are you RESEARCHING him [Kerry] ????????????? Anyone that REALLY knows John Kerry,..... up-front and personal, would not need to "research" John .
Think About it
I've been thinking about it for thirty years. I do the research to provide documentation, because those like you would otherwise call me a liar, which in essence you are.
You're really just a little too frivolous about this most serious of subjects and I find it offensive. Just because you have nothing invested in these matters doesn't mean some of us don't . It's not a joking matter.
What third world nation did you inhabit when these incidents were occurring. How much pillow-talk have you had Mr. Kerry?
[edit on 04/9/22 by GradyPhilpott]
Originally posted by keholmes
didn't Kerry found the VVAW as a propaganda wing for him or something?
Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW)
Viet Nam Veterans Against the War was founded in 1967 and, at the height of its effectiveness in the late 1960s, claimed over 40,000 members. VVAW participated in and organized antiwar demonstrations, public education efforts, militant actions, and public hearings. The full text of one public hearing, The Winter Soldier Investigation (1970), is made available by the Sixties Project. We hope to bring more 1960s VVAW material on-line in the near future.
The Sixties Project also archives the following documents on VVAW:
A Veteran Speaks--Against the War, by Robert Muller
Statement by John Kerry, to the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations
VVAW still exists today. The VVAW of the 1990s is quite different from the VVAW of the 1960s, but still maintains an active presence as a veterans' peace organization. As the number of American soldiers in Vietnam decreased in the early 1970s, membership in the VVAW (along with antiwar activism in general) waned. In the mid-1970s the shrinking VVAW was riven by a struggle between radical and liberal members. After a contested election in 1978 and a lawsuit between feuding parties, the energies of both sides were diminished. The liberal wing won the right to use the VVAW name, and the much smaller radical Marxist wing was granted the appellation VVAW-AI (Anti-Imperialist). Both groups were quickly overshadowed by the newer Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) founded in 1978 by Robert Muller, which is currently the largest Vietnam veterans organization. Since the late 1980s, VVA has itself split into two organizations--the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation was started by Muller when he departed Vietnam Veterans of America.
Kerry in 1971: 'Our Democracy is a Farce'
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
April 22, 2004
(CNSNews.com) - John Kerry, the presumed Democratic nominee for president, was quoted by a student newspaper at West Virginia's Bethany College in 1971 as saying, "Our democracy is a farce; it is not the best in the world."
Kerry made the remarks on Nov. 2, 1971, according to the Bethany College student newspaper, The Tower . CNSNews.com has obtained a copy of the article written by John Majors, which details Kerry's visit to the college and appeared in the Nov. 11, 1971 issue of the newspaper. At the time, Kerry was still a leader of the anti-war group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW).
www.cnsnews.com...\SpecialReports\archive\200404\SPE20040422a.html
I beleive this artical will shed some light on George W Bush Guard service record .
Mr. Allison's widow, Linda, who volunteered in the Blount campaign, said she became curious about the young Mr. Bush's job after noticing his coming into the office late and leaving early.
"I asked Jimmy, 'What does Georgie do?' '' Mrs. Allison, 73, said in an interview, repeating the account she had given to Salon, the online publication. "He just said George had called him and told him that Georgie was having some difficulties in Houston. Big George thought it would be beneficial to the family and George Jr. for him to come to Alabama to work on the campaign with Jimmy."
Wandering Pleasure-Seeker
www.nytimes.com...
Here's some more from pg.2
Mr. Bush first tried to join the 9921 Air Reserve Squadron in Montgomery, which was classified as a "standby reserve unit." Unlike his unit in Texas, the Alabama unit had no planes and its members were neither paid nor required to attend monthly drills.
In July, though, senior Guard officials rejected Mr. Bush's transfer, saying he had to continue with a "ready reserve unit," which requires monthly attendance. In that same period - the precise timing is not clear - he did something that brought his dwindling flying ambitions to a close: he failed to take the annual physical exam required of all pilots.
In his 1999 book, "A Charge to Keep," Mr. Bush did not mention the missed physical or the suspension. "I was almost finished with my commitment in the Air National Guard," he wrote, "and was no longer flying because the F-102 jet I had trained in was being replaced by a different fighter." In fact, when he missed his physical he had almost two years left in the Guard.
Later, an aide to Mr. Bush explained that he had missed his physical because he was waiting to get examined by his personal physician. But pilots were required to be examined by military doctors.
a piece out of Pg 3
That September, grounded from flying but still obligated to his Guard service, he wrote to his Texas squadron commander, Colonel Killian, asking for permission to perform his monthly drills with the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Montgomery for September, October and November, according to documents released by the White House.
"We told him that was O.K. with us," said Bobby W. Hodges, then a commander in the Texas Guard. He was told he would have to do drills there, Mr. Hodges added. "He may or may not have done it. I don't know."
Payroll records released by the White House show that in addition to being paid for attending a drill in Alabama the last weekend in October, Mr. Bush was also paid for a weekend drill after the Blount election, on Nov. 11 and 12, and for meetings on Nov. 13 and 14.
But there are no records from the 187th indicating that Mr. Bush, in fact, appeared on those days in October and November, and more than a dozen members of the unit from that era say they never saw him. The White House said last week that there were no records from the Alabama unit because Mr. Bush was still officially part of the Texas Guard. But Mr. Hodges, the former Texas commander, said the 187th "should have a record of his drills."
some of pg. 4
A review of records raises questions about whether he was properly credited for his service. Documents released by the White House show that he was paid for drills in January, April and several days in early May 1973. These drills were in Alabama, the White House said, and his old friend Emily Marks, now Emily Marks Curtis, said she remembered Mr. Bush returning to Montgomery for Guard duty.
But Mr. Bush had been authorized to drill in Alabama only from September through November 1972.
By the summer of 1973, Mr. Bush had decided to go to Harvard Business School. According to documents released by the White House, he wanted an early discharge from the Guard but did not have enough service points for 1972 and 1973, since he had missed months of training. Guardsmen were required to earn 48 points each fiscal year, or four points for each weekend drill every month.
Although missed drills can be made up, regulations at the time said it had to be done within 30 days and in the same fiscal year. As the time for his early discharge neared, Mr. Bush was lacking enough points; according to records for July 1973, he attended drills on 18 days that month.
When questions arose about Mr. Bush's Guard service, the White House asked a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, Albert C. Lloyd Jr., to review his record. In a memorandum released by the White House in February, Mr. Lloyd wrote that from May 1973 through May 1974, Mr. Bush accumulated 35 training points and 15 points for being a Guard member "for a total of 56 points.'' It is not clear how Mr. Lloyd came up with 56, instead of 50. Another military document released by the White House indicates that Mr. Bush had earned only 38 points from May 1973 until his discharge that October.
A retired Army colonel, Gerald A. Lechliter, who has prepared an extensive analysis of Mr. Bush's National Guard record, described Mr. Lloyd's memorandum as "seemingly an attempt to whitewash Bush's record." Mr. Lloyd declined comment last week.
Mr. Lechliter, who describes himself as a political independent, also said that Mr. Bush was not entitled to 20 credits he received from Nov. 13, 1972, until July 19, 1973, because the service was being made up improperly.
Mr. Lechliter also said that Mr. Bush should not have been paid for these sessions. "That would appear to be a fraud," he said in an interview last week.
However the points added up, on Oct. 1, 1973, Mr. Bush was awarded an honorable discharge. By that time he was already at Harvard.
Sara Rimer reported from Montgomery for this article, Ralph Blumenthal from Texas, and Raymond Bonner from Texas and Washington.
Mr. Allison's widow, Linda, who volunteered in the Blount campaign, said she became curious about the young Mr. Bush's job after noticing his coming into the office late and leaving early.
"I asked Jimmy, 'What does Georgie do?' '' Mrs. Allison, 73, said in an interview, repeating the account she had given to Salon, the online publication. "He just said George had called him and told him that Georgie was having some difficulties in Houston. Big George thought it would be beneficial to the family and George Jr. for him to come to Alabama to work on the campaign with Jimmy."
Wandering Pleasure-Seeker
www.nytimes.com...
Here's some more from pg.2
Mr. Bush first tried to join the 9921 Air Reserve Squadron in Montgomery, which was classified as a "standby reserve unit." Unlike his unit in Texas, the Alabama unit had no planes and its members were neither paid nor required to attend monthly drills.
In July, though, senior Guard officials rejected Mr. Bush's transfer, saying he had to continue with a "ready reserve unit," which requires monthly attendance. In that same period - the precise timing is not clear - he did something that brought his dwindling flying ambitions to a close: he failed to take the annual physical exam required of all pilots.
In his 1999 book, "A Charge to Keep," Mr. Bush did not mention the missed physical or the suspension. "I was almost finished with my commitment in the Air National Guard," he wrote, "and was no longer flying because the F-102 jet I had trained in was being replaced by a different fighter." In fact, when he missed his physical he had almost two years left in the Guard.
Later, an aide to Mr. Bush explained that he had missed his physical because he was waiting to get examined by his personal physician. But pilots were required to be examined by military doctors.
a piece out of Pg 3
That September, grounded from flying but still obligated to his Guard service, he wrote to his Texas squadron commander, Colonel Killian, asking for permission to perform his monthly drills with the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Montgomery for September, October and November, according to documents released by the White House.
"We told him that was O.K. with us," said Bobby W. Hodges, then a commander in the Texas Guard. He was told he would have to do drills there, Mr. Hodges added. "He may or may not have done it. I don't know."
Payroll records released by the White House show that in addition to being paid for attending a drill in Alabama the last weekend in October, Mr. Bush was also paid for a weekend drill after the Blount election, on Nov. 11 and 12, and for meetings on Nov. 13 and 14.
But there are no records from the 187th indicating that Mr. Bush, in fact, appeared on those days in October and November, and more than a dozen members of the unit from that era say they never saw him. The White House said last week that there were no records from the Alabama unit because Mr. Bush was still officially part of the Texas Guard. But Mr. Hodges, the former Texas commander, said the 187th "should have a record of his drills."
some of pg. 4
A review of records raises questions about whether he was properly credited for his service. Documents released by the White House show that he was paid for drills in January, April and several days in early May 1973. These drills were in Alabama, the White House said, and his old friend Emily Marks, now Emily Marks Curtis, said she remembered Mr. Bush returning to Montgomery for Guard duty.
But Mr. Bush had been authorized to drill in Alabama only from September through November 1972.
By the summer of 1973, Mr. Bush had decided to go to Harvard Business School. According to documents released by the White House, he wanted an early discharge from the Guard but did not have enough service points for 1972 and 1973, since he had missed months of training. Guardsmen were required to earn 48 points each fiscal year, or four points for each weekend drill every month.
Although missed drills can be made up, regulations at the time said it had to be done within 30 days and in the same fiscal year. As the time for his early discharge neared, Mr. Bush was lacking enough points; according to records for July 1973, he attended drills on 18 days that month.
When questions arose about Mr. Bush's Guard service, the White House asked a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, Albert C. Lloyd Jr., to review his record. In a memorandum released by the White House in February, Mr. Lloyd wrote that from May 1973 through May 1974, Mr. Bush accumulated 35 training points and 15 points for being a Guard member "for a total of 56 points.'' It is not clear how Mr. Lloyd came up with 56, instead of 50. Another military document released by the White House indicates that Mr. Bush had earned only 38 points from May 1973 until his discharge that October.
A retired Army colonel, Gerald A. Lechliter, who has prepared an extensive analysis of Mr. Bush's National Guard record, described Mr. Lloyd's memorandum as "seemingly an attempt to whitewash Bush's record." Mr. Lloyd declined comment last week.
Mr. Lechliter, who describes himself as a political independent, also said that Mr. Bush was not entitled to 20 credits he received from Nov. 13, 1972, until July 19, 1973, because the service was being made up improperly.
Mr. Lechliter also said that Mr. Bush should not have been paid for these sessions. "That would appear to be a fraud," he said in an interview last week.
However the points added up, on Oct. 1, 1973, Mr. Bush was awarded an honorable discharge. By that time he was already at Harvard.
Sara Rimer reported from Montgomery for this article, Ralph Blumenthal from Texas, and Raymond Bonner from Texas and Washington.
Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
How much pillow-talk have you had Mr. Kerry?
[edit on 04/9/22 by GradyPhilpott]
For your information Grady, I work as a volunteer in my home, thru one of John Kerry's campaign office's here in Iowa, I am a Democrat Prec ., captain in my city.
As for your vulgarity implication as to what kind of connection I have with John Kerry ,......... That could get you a slander-suit ,
If you had paid attention to one of my "post", you'd noticed that I had stated, that I had been to college, I never did state what I was going for , so I will let you know now,................... LAW !!!!!!!!!!!
So, my advice to you, Sir,............ keep your vulgar remarks to your self.
[edit on 22-9-2004 by nanna_of_6]
[edit on 22-9-2004 by nanna_of_6]
[edit on 22-9-2004 by nanna_of_6]
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