The Great Equivocator I, Speaking-up

Arguably, the most stupid U.S. Senator of all time, the Great Equivocator, John F. Kerry, was published in the Boston Globe today. You can go to boston.com/today's paper/opinion to read the whole mess, but trust me when I say the gist of it is that military personnel speaking-up (as he did against the Vietnam War and those fighting it) is a patriotic thing to do. Sen. Kerry supports and defends the six retired generals that are now criticizing the President of the United States. The hysterical part of his essay is that he condemns the "swift boat-style attacks" that he claims some have suffered. He uses "swift boat" as a pejorative! Two-hundred and fifty-five Vietnam-era veterans spoke up against Sen. Kerry's fitness to be commander-in-chief and in an essay defending military leaders standing up, he denigrates 255 Vets! And the Boston Globe printed it! And people think this idiot is brilliant.

Sen. Kerry is speaking in Boston today so I know there will be significant coverage by the Boston Globe tomorrow; that's why I can title today's post "I"; I know I'll have a "II" and possibly a "III" over the next few days.

Anyway, the two letters I submitted to the Boston Globe today:

Editor,

I could not agree more with Sen. John F. Kerry who writes, " . . . the most important way to support our troops is to tell the truth (Patriotism is truth, today as in Vietnam, April 22, A13)."

Except, that just above this quote, Sen. Kerry wrote, "In recent weeks, a number of retired high-ranking military leaders have publicly called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. And from the ranks of this Administration and conservative surrogates we've heard these calls dismissed as acts of disloyalty or as a threat to civilian control of the armed forces."

This second quote cannot be further from the truth. I have "googled" every combination of "Bush Rumsfeld Generals Criticism" and then some and there are simply no references anywhere of the Administration suggesting what Sen. Kerry claims. My letter is being published today because the letters to the editor fact-checker has also performed an internet search and cannot find any such reference.

On March 27, 1986, Sen. John Kerry issued the following statement on the Senate floor, "I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the President of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared - seared - in me."

And, from another local Boston newspaper in October of 1979, Mr. Kerry wrote, "I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."

As we all now know, Mr. Kerry's gunboat was 50 miles from the Cambodia border on Christmas Day 1968 and Mr. Nixon was most certainly not President.

Being lectured by Mr. Kerry on "truth" would be laughable if not for so many people believing his lies and distortions. (End of letter.)


Editor,

In the very essay where the Great Equivocator, Sen. John F. Kerry, champions six retired generals that disagree with Presidentnt Bush, he denigrates 255 Vietnam-era servicemen who also chose to speak-up by using "Swift Boat-style attacks" as a pejorative (Patriotism is truth, today as in Vietnam, April 22, A13)!? (End of letter.)