Reply #4: from an email I wrote in response to some Ann Coulter slams against Kerry

[orthogonal]

(The Coulter slam invloved a bunch of weapons systems Kerry allegedly voted against.)

Why not ask, instead, why the Bush Administration is strongly advocating cutting veterans' medical benefits even as his ill-conceived war creates thousands more veterans who will be crippled the rest of their lives?

So did Kerry make these votes? Probably. Do they reflect his actual priorities? Probably not: John Kerry has seen the elephant, he has been to war, he knows, from personal experience, what it means to fight for his country. (This was while Bush snagged a cushy National Guard berth.)

Is our military better off than it was four years ago?

Maybe we should ask some Generals, and some Republicans?

* Retired officers like former Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki:
http://www.the-hamster.com/mtype/archives/000844.html
* Marine General Anthony Zinni ("I've been called a traitor and a turncoat for mentioning these things"):
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20040416-9999-7m16zinni.html
* Colonel David Hackworth (eight Purple Hearts, nine Silver Stars and eight Bronze Stars):
http://www.rense.com/general45/ahole.htm
* Lt. Col. Ralph Peters (a respected novelist and a columnist for the conservative New York Post):
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/20841.htm

all of these leaders say the military is worse off after four years of Bush.

* As does the private newspaper written by and for the soldiers, the Army Times ("a failure of leadership"):
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2903288.php

* Current Republican Senator (and Army sergeant in Vietnam) Chuck Hagel agrees:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/06/30/MNGTS7E5RK1.DTL&type=printable

* So does Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Navy (and Marine company commander in Vietnam) James Webb.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-02-18-veterans-edit_x.htm

* So do these twenty-seven retired foreign service and military officers, many of them Republicans, and including Admiral William Crowe, Chairman of the Joint Chief under President Reagan, and Admiral Stansfield Turner, Director of the CIA under President Carter, ("It is time for a change."):
http://www.diplomatsforchange.com/project/statement.shtml
(list of signatories: http://www.diplomatsforchange.com/signatories/signatories.shtml)

But you be the judge -- or I should say, you WILL be the judge, on November 2nd.