August 21, 2004
YAHTZEE!!!!!:
Get to bottom of Kerry tale (Jim Wooten, 8/22/04, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Why does it matter?It matters immensely for two reasons. One is that an awful lot of Vietnam veterans think Kerry caused them and their comrades harm by helping to turn the country against them and creating the false impression that atrocities were commonplace and condoned. The other, more pertinent reason, is Iraq. A parallel exists.
There's no question, in my mind at least, that the delegates to the Democratic convention are the spiritual and intellectual descendants of the middle-class antiwar activists who grew to adulthood largely distrustful of the military and all projections of military power. A party that rejects the reasoned balance of a Sen. Joe Lieberman and no longer has its Sam Nunn bearings is not to be trusted with my security or the lives of men and women in uniform. This is the party of Michael Moore, Al Gore, Al Sharpton and Howard Dean.
The left -- commentators, politicians, interest groups -- has never acceptede that military intervention in Iraq is justified on any basis and, furthermore, believes that every dollar spent there is at the expense of a needed social program.
The left is now where it was during the Vietnam War. It is attempting to convince the country that the war is pointless, immoral and futile and that men and women in uniform engage in abuses, if not atrocities, with the full knowledge of officers.
That is deadening to those who serve. Men and women in service to their country absolutely must feel value in what they're doing. Otherwise, morale and discipline begin to erode. And when the country becomes conditioned to reject what they're doing -- as John Kerry helped to condition this country three decades ago -- the war is lost.
That is the Vietnam experience. It can, too, be the Iraq experience.
Mr. Wooten is a bit ahead of the GOP storyline, but that's exactly where this ends. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 21, 2004 12:05 AM
A deep insight: the left has been re-fighting Vietnam.
Posted by: pj at August 21, 2004 8:29 AMThe thought occurs to me: has Kerry based his campaign on a kind of patriotism -- thinking:
1. We need to withdraw from war and cease fighting terrorism.
2. Only a war hero Democrat can withdraw from the war, as only Nixon could go to China.
3. Therefore, I need to establish myself as a war hero in the campaign in order to gain the credibility to not fight terrorism later.
Or did he just think it was his best way to get elected?
Posted by: pj at August 21, 2004 8:46 AMpj:
What else does he have? His war service is the only part of his life where he actually did something.
Posted by: oj at August 21, 2004 8:54 AMOrrin,
Speaking of Vietnam, Sydney Schanberg (the "Killing Fields" guy) wrote two bombshell pieces in the Village Voice on what he calls Kerry's cover-ups, including shredding of intelligence documents, while he was chairing the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs:
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0408/schanberg.php
and
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0431/schanberg.php
These articles are particularly important because Schanberg is an open Kerry partisan, but he just can't let the P.O.W. matter slide. I particularly recommend the former article (from February of this year), which has all the goods.
Posted by: Joe at August 21, 2004 9:04 AMJoe:
They're in our archives, though Mr. Schaunberg has nothing to be much prouder of. we recommend them too.
Posted by: oj at August 21, 2004 9:11 AMoj - What did he do in those four months? Fabricate 5 medals? Surely he could have fashioned credentials out of the rest of his life as effectively.
It is eerie though how the left's charges against Iraq echo their charges against Vietnam - it's a quagmire, it's full of atrocities, it was groundless, it accomplished nothing.
Posted by: pj at August 21, 2004 12:00 PMpj:
But he didn't. He was Lt Governor, not governor, a junior senator with no important responsibilities. No legislation bears so much as his fingerprint, nevermind his imprint. His big congressional achievement was hounding the Contras who overthrew the Marxist regime in Nicaragua anyway and ushered in American victory in the Cold War, despite the Kerryite fifth column. He lives off a dead guy's money. He can't mention his role in destroying South Vietnam. So what does he have left but the four months?
Posted by: oj at August 21, 2004 12:33 PMMaybe it would help if Kerry started talking about the brothels he (might have) visited in SV. At least he would seem like more of a normal guy.
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