My respons to RW complaint about Kerry's testimony before the Senate

[mourningdove92]

I wish someone would explain to me why some people are so offended by John Kerry's testimony in front of the Senate way back then.

Let me just lay it out the way I see it. Keeping in mind that I am a part of the Vietnam generation and was almost as opposed to that war as I am to the war in Iraq.
John Kerry volunteered to join the military. He then volunteered to go to Vietnam, the very place that so many young men were doing everything in their power to avoid. Now, he could have avoided Vietnam and the military. He came from money, had excellent grades, and there were many ways for the monied folks to get out of it. But he chose to go.
So he goes, serves his time, sees a lot of things first hand. You know, the real things. Not the things that had been scrubbed and cleaned up by the media for public consumption. He received and carried out orders. He spoke with many others that were there. At some point, he came to a decision. He decided that he had been conned. He had been lied to. America had been conned. America had been lied to. His opinion, after having actually been there, was that we did not need to be in Vietnam. That Vietnam was not an honorable war. Vietnam was Lies, deceit, dishonor.

So he comes back to America. Now, many Vietnam Vets feel that way. Most of them just went home and tried to get on with their lives. John Kerry decided to speak out. He chose to speak out against an Administration that was vicious and corrupt. He did not go before the Senate to tear down the soldiers serving in Vietnam. He went there to speak out against the government policies that perpetuated the horror of Vietnam.

Why would you deride him for that? What did he do that was wrong? I really and truly do not understand. Of course, neither do I understand the mind set of a year and a half ago, when anyone that spoke out against the war in Iraq was immediately called a traitor and Unamerican.

Please explain this to me. Many soldiers have died defending our freedoms, one of which, is the freedom of speech. Why would someone, who loved his country enough to put himself in harms way to defend her, be called a traitor for execising his right to speak out?

[A_Possum]

1. Here's some ammo:

Kerry, the Congressional Record, 1971:

"Mr. Kerry: Well, Senator, frankly it does not appeal to me if American men have to continue to die when they don't have to, particularly when it seems the Government of this country is more concerned with the legality of where men sleep than it is with the legality of where they drop bombs. (Applause.)...

...But at the present moment that is not going to happen, so we are talking about men continuing to die for nothing and I think there is a tremendous moral question here which the Congress of the United States is ignoring...

...But I think if we can talk in this legislative body about filibustering for porkbarrel programs, then we should start now to talk about filibustering for the saving of lives and of our country. (Applause.)

And this, Mr. Chairman, is what we are trying to convey."


**********

Hand that to these RW's and ask why he should be ashamed of one single word of it?

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. This testimony is what the some of the SBV's

are really upset about. They ran it on C-SPAN tonight but I only caught parts of it.

It seemed that Kerry was very pro Vets, he was placing the blame squarely on Nixon and the Military leadership.

He was really trying to bring the Vets home and was pissing Nixon off royally by going up against him. Everyone on both sides of the aisle were applauding him at the end of the hearing.

[blm]

3. Is their position REALLY that they wanted the war to continue so

their YOUNGER brothers and cousins had the opportunity to be killed or maimed or watch their friends blown to pieces?

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. No, but O'Neill and Nixon

managed to convince enough of them, that Kerry had slandered them and blamed them for the atrocities.

[Inland]

4. The belief is that you shouldn't criticize wars, either

in the decision to have them or in how they are being prosecuted. It isn't about Vietnam. It is about Iraq and the continuing attempt to make telling the truth during wartime an act of treason.

[Massacure]

5. It's wrong to lie about a blow job but it is correct to lie about

little girls getting raped, villages getting burned, and people being thrown out of helicopters? Sure . . .

Hipocrits.

[olddem43]

7. It's about a lot of things:

Many people can't differentiate between love of country and belief in the country's leaders.

Regarding Viet Nam and the 'Nam vets against Kerry:

The war was lost so, in their minds, they don't get as much honor as they deserve. There were no victory parades like after WWII.

The war was unnecessary, so their sacrifices were for nothing.

While the war was going on, the country was divided just as it is now. You were either for the war or against it. Right Wingers favored it and lefties didn't.

They are not smart enough to understand that Kerry only opposed the politicians (the Government) that got us into and kept us in that quagmire.

Jealousy over the fact that, since then, Kerry has succeeded better than any others.

They really hate him and they will say or do anything to keep him from being president.

In the case of Gardner and O'Neill, it is very personal. Kerry chewed out Gardner for killing innocent civilians and he has hated him ever since. Kerry debated O'Neill and even if he didn't get the better of him then, history has proved him correct. All of the Swift boat liars have diminished themselves and they probably know it. John Edwards put it best - These ads tell more about Bush (and the Swift boat liars) than they do about Kerry.