The right-wing attack machine vs. John Kerry

[scottcsmith]

Right-wingers are playing a game with all of us. They're counting on our collective ignorance as they deliver their attacks against John Kerry and Kerry's war record as a Vietnam veteran.

Right-wing pundits and critics have zeroed in on the matter of Kerry's first Purple Heart. Last month Newsmax.com trotted out one of Kerry's commanding officers, Grant Hibbard, who stated that the wound Kerry received his first Purple Heart for was not "serious" enough for the medal. "I've had thorns from a rose that were worse (than Kerry's injury)," Hibbard told Newsmax.

What should come as no surprise to anyone is that the severity of an injury is NOT the criteria for awarding someone a Purple Heart. Since the pundits are counting on our ignorance, it's best to arm ourselves with knowledge. Here is the regulation governing the awarding of a Purple Heart.

The criteria states that a physical lesion is not required.

In other words, if Kerry was hit by a small piece of enemy shrapnel, he qualifies for the Purple Heart. End of discussion, as long as he sought medical attention. And getting medical attention doesn't mean you're in a hospital for several days. It means an injured soldier visits a doctor and the doctor examines the patient and makes a notation in the patient's medical record. That's it. But right-wingers want to distract us from the truth. A group of Vietnam veterans are out in force against Kerry, many of them questioning his first Purple Heart. And if a lot of vets state that Kerry's wound wasn't "severe" enough to get a Purple Heart, people who do not know better will believe them.

Remember, no matter who the right-wingers trot out to dispute Kerry's first Purple Heart, know that someone in Kerry's chain of command felt he deserved it. Someone higher up than Kerry, who was a very junior officer, signed off on the medal.

These same attack dogs claim that Kerry used an "obscure regulation" to leave Vietnam early due to his being awarded three purple hearts. Yet George W. Bush left the National Guard several months early. What "obscure regulation" did Bush use? None! He just asked to be discharged. No Purple Hearts for young George. Just a desire to end his enlistment, since he had much more pressing matters at hand, like helping out a political campaign and going to Harvard.

I think it speaks volumes when a military man's former commander comes out 35 years later to criticize one of the men his commanded.

Republicans love veterans. Just not liberal veterans.