Kerry is suffering from the early stages of Altzheimers. Didn't Reagan once confuse his war record with a movie? I have seen several Veit Nam based movies that mirror Kerry's recollections. ![]()
From my In-box:
Because it was not my lot to serve in Vietnam, I have no qualifications
to criticize those who did. But John Kerry has been running on his war
record in a vastly more blatant way than previous candidates have done
(George Bush the Elder, for example, or Bob Dole), he has opened the
door for those who are qualified to express their views on his Vietnam
record - both while he was there and after he returned.
One man with exceptional qualifications in that regard is retired Army
Col. Glenn Lackey, who also knows something about life in the verbal
combat zone known as Capitol Hill, where he served a stint as Chief of
Staff for a Member of Congress.
Before that Lackey not only spent combat time in Vietnam, but also in
Somalia and the Gulf War.
Recently, Lackey decided to express his thoughts on Kerry's public
record, and being a very direct kind of guy, did it directly, by writing
the following letter to Kerry, which I thought might interest readers of
this space:
Dear Mr. Kerry;
After spending only four months in the country of Vietnam, you testified
before Congress in 1971 with these exact words about incidents you say
you witnessed: "They personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads,
taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the
power, cut off limbs, blew up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed
villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and
generally ravaged the countryside of South Viet Nam."
Spread that on a farmer's field where it will do some good. I spent a
year there in 1968-69 in a combat arms unit. I was a Field Artillery
Forward Observer in an Infantry company and I saw combat every day until
I was wounded. When I returned from the hospital, I was assigned to an
artillery battery. I saw brave men fight and die; I saw brave, good men
pass out all their rations to hungry kids, build churches and schools,
donate to orphanages, cry silently at the sight of villagers slaughtered
by North Vietnamese, but I never saw anything approaching the war crimes
that you happened to witness as your boat sped by villages on the river
bank. If you witnessed atrocities and did not report them, you are
guilty of aiding and abetting. If you lied, you are simply unfit for
leadership at any level. The most serious incident I witnessed was a
young sergeant who grabbed the arm of a Vietnamese woman during a
village search. An older, more experienced noncommissioned officer
knocked the sergeant to the ground and told him, somewhat forcefully,
that that woman was someone's mother and would be treated with respect.
That's it, Kerry, that's my confession - I didn't report the incident.
I have children, and my children have children. They will, perhaps,
stumble upon your words, much as one might stumble upon a pile of dog
droppings. I do not relish the thought of having to explain that your
"experiences" are either a bald-faced lie, or you belong to that
less-than-1% of Viet Nam veterans who committed war crimes/atrocities.
Either way, your words do great harm to the institution of the Senate,
my home state of Massachusetts, the Armed Services in which I proudly
served for 27 years, and the very country that you aspire to lead.
Is it true that you single-handedly prevented a vote on a Senate version
of H.R. 2833, the Viet Nam Human Rights Act of 2001 - a bill that passed
the House by a vote of 410-1? There are many who believe that our
failure to speak decisively on that issue cost the lives of thousands of
Montagnard tribesman in Viet Nam. Where do you stand on H.R. 1587, the
Viet Nam Human Rights Act of 2003? Will you support a parallel bill in
the Senate? Is it true that you served as Chairman of the Senate Select
Committee on MIA/POW Affairs and in that role you fought hard to limit
the expenditure of funds to investigate sightings or search for remains?
You have, I believe, been a steadfast, staunch and vocal advocate for
normalizing relations with Viet Nam. Could it be that your beloved first
cousin, Mr. Forbes, CEO of Colliers International, recently signed a
contract with Hanoi worth billions of dollars? Any truth to the rumor
that you didn't really fling your "hard-earned" military medals over the
White House fence in a juvenile fit of pique as you say you did, but
rather, you threw your roommate's medals instead?
I know dozens of retired military professionals. None of them support
you - there is a reason for that. They all served honorably and well,
and they all believe that you did not. I know war heroes, and your, sir,
are no war hero.
-- Glenn Lackey

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