unfit for command?

by chance have you been following this on drudge's site knight?

pittiful absolutly pittiful. the VC kerry shot which is part of his claim to fame :

"Kerry's boat moved slightly downstream and was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. . . .A young Viet Cong in a loincloth popped out of a hole, clutching a grenade launcher, which may or may not have been loaded. . . Tom Belodeau, a forward gunner, shot the Viet Cong with an M-60 machine gun in the leg as he fled. . . . Kerry and Medeiros (who had many troops in their boat) took off, perhaps with others, and followed the young Viet Cong and shot him in the back, behind a lean to."

O'Neill concludes "Whether Kerry's dispatching of a fleeing, wounded, armed or unarmed teenage enemy was in accordance with the customs of war, it is very clear that many Vietnam veterans and most Swiftees do not consider this action to be the stuff of which medals of any kind are awarded; nor would it even be a good story if told in the cold details of reality. There is no indication that Kerry ever reported that the Viet Cong was wounded and fleeing when dispatched. Likewise, the citation simply ignores the presence of the soldiers and advisors who actually 'captured the enemy weapons' and routed the Viet Cong. . . . [and] that Kerry attacked a 'numerically superior force in the face of intense fire' is simply false. There was little or no fire after Kerry followed the plan. . . . The lone, wounded, fleeing young Viet Cong in a loincloth was hardly a force superior to the heavily armed Swift Boat and its crew and the soldiers carried aboard."

Even John McCain (Republican, and leader of Bush's campaign in Arizona) is calling this a bunch of crap.

Quote:

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WASHINGTON (Aug. 5) -- Republican Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, called an ad criticizing John Kerry's military service ''dishonest and dishonorable'' and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well.


Asked if the White House knew about the ad or helped find financing for it, McCain said, ''I hope not, but I don't know. But I think the Bush campaign should specifically condemn the ad.''

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The men who are behind these ads weren't even on Kerry's swiftboat, the ones who are in his previous ads talking about his loyalty and leadership capabilities were.

Link.

those who are talking about it are other swift boat commanders that were there

Quote:

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Originally posted here by debwalin
Even John McCain (Republican, and leader of Bush's campaign in Arizona) is calling this a bunch of crap.

The men who are behind these ads weren't even on Kerry's swiftboat, the ones who are in his previous ads talking about his loyalty and leadership capabilities were.

Link.

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John McCain is going to criticize anyone who faults any military record. Make any sense?
I’m waiting for (D)Zell Miller to make his speech!
High-profile Dem Miller to address GOP

"It is unacceptable to nominate yourself for an award. It compromises the basic military principle that we survive together."

I don’t think you need a book to figure out why Kerry wanted three Purple Hearts. PDF’s on Kerry’s site leave out details about his Purple Heart awards.

Quote:

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!mitationRust's quoted article

The speech by Miller, a former two-term governor, comes 12 years after he delivered the keynote address for Bill Clinton at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, also held in New York.
...
In 2001, Miller had told a Georgia Democratic Party gathering that Kerry, the four-term Massachusetts senator and decorated Vietnam War veterans, was “an authentic” American hero who had worked to strengthen the military.

Miller’s recent book, “A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat,” is now a national best-seller. In it, he assails members of his own party, including Clinton.

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Flip-flopper?

"Commander Geoge Elliott, who wrote up the initial draft of Kerry's Silver Star citation, confirms that neither he, nor anyone else in the Silver Star process that he knows, realized before 1996 that Kerry was facing a single, wounded young Viet Cong fleeing in a loincloth.

http://www.drudgereport.com/ufd1.htm

if kerry hadn't tried to run for president he would have gotten away with this farce some already knew but it didn't directly affect them enough to take action until now.

Unfortunately one of the veterans for truth had a change of heart on his opinion about Kerry and apologized for saying Kerry did not deserve the silver star - The Boston Globe Reported.

Why unfortunately? The truth is coming out, I've never thought that to be a bad thing. The fact of the matter is that the majority of the 13 men involved in this smear campaign were other soldiers (not commanders) on other swiftboats who don't know what happened that day. The men who were on Kerry's swiftboat do. Under scrutiny, this is going to fall apart, because it's too easy to disprove his story if Kerry is lying. Whether any of you want to admit it or not, Kerry is intelligent, and anyone with intelligence is going to tell you that if you start claiming things happened that didn't happen, it's going to come out, and do more damage than it did good in the first place. John McCain has stood against it, and now one of the men supporting the ad is standing against it. It's just going to continue to unravel now.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by debwalin
Why unfortunately? The truth is coming out, I've never thought that to be a bad thing. The fact of the matter is that the majority of the 13 men involved in this smear campaign were other soldiers (not commanders) on other swiftboats who don't know what happened that day. The men who were on Kerry's swiftboat do. Under scrutiny, this is going to fall apart, because it's too easy to disprove his story if Kerry is lying. Whether any of you want to admit it or not, Kerry is intelligent, and anyone with intelligence is going to tell you that if you start claiming things happened that didn't happen, it's going to come out, and do more damage than it did good in the first place. John McCain has stood against it, and now one of the men supporting the ad is standing against it. It's just going to continue to unravel now.

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"start claiming things" Like who he calls his "band of brothers."

George Bates
Thomas Heritage
Terrance Costello
Robert "Rocky" Hildreath
Robert Elder
William Houle
George Elliott
William Schumadine
Al French
Larry Thurlow
Jim Galvin

"These officers demand that Senator Kerry's campaign cease and desist from all uses of that photograph"


Haha, http://swift1.he.net/~swiftvet/index.php is back up!

"It is unacceptable to nominate yourself for an award. It compromises the basic military principle that we survive together."

Quote:

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Republican Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, called an ad criticizing John Kerry's military service ''dishonest and dishonorable'' and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well. .

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Why would the white house condemn the thoughts of private citizens who served with Kerry, some in the boat, some along the side his boat in their own craft? These aren't democrats and republicans looking "outside in", these are guys who were there and have their own version of what transpired. Even if these items were true it's not a big deal in one sense: He STILL came back after loving his war hero self, teamed up with people who condemned and vilified veterans doing the best they could, they didn't just speak out the made veterans feel unwanted and abandoned, then he threw his medals away, then said they weren't his, then said the WERE his, but ribbons, then entered the senate and continued to hold the flag and the military in contempt, then later decided the only way he could possibly win is to drape himself in the American flag and suddenly love the military. Bah.