[Homestead] Kerry was: ...'political attack' on girlfriend

Lee Flier lflier at mindspring.com
Tue Nov 2 11:01:54 EST 2004


DSanner106 at aol.com wrote:

>I don't deny that portions of his speech would seem that way, but his 
>statements
>about the crimes he had supposedly witnessed (he now claims this was second
>hand info and he did not witness any of it), were horrible, and the focus of 
>Viet cong attention. 
>  
>
Kerry was far from the only veteran making such statements and it is the 
truth that war crimes were committed.  However Kerry didn't blame the 
soldiers for this, he blamed the leadership.  He was outraged that 
soldiers joined the service in good faith and then were asked to commit 
atrocities for a cause that was not clear.  Most of his address was not 
concerned with war crimes but the uselessness of the war itself and the 
lack of good leadership, and a good deal of it is spent in talking about 
the returning veterans and how they can't get the services they need in 
hospitals, they have addiction problems and need help that they aren't 
getting, they can't find jobs, they're being spit up and chewed out by 
our government and by the public for having served their country.  
Hardly a Jane Fonda.  His position has been twisted around from the 
get-go by anyone who wished to downplay his pretty much inarguable 
points about the war and the errors in judgement that were made by U.S. 
leadership.  Now, of course, the Bush campaign is twisting his position 
AGAIN in order to make him look like a traitor and discredit his service.

As for the Viet Cong... Kerry put his money where his mouth is and 
actually did something about that situation.  Once elected to the Senate 
he joined the very Foreign Relations Committee that he had addressed, 
and he and John McCain went to Vietnam personally five times.  They 
conducted an exhaustive investigation there aimed at proving or 
disproving claims by families of veterans that American MIA and POW were 
still being held there.  That investigation did much to pave the way for 
normalizing relations betwen the U.S. and Vietnam.  This is hardly a guy 
who doesn't care about America or its soldiers.

My original intent was to vote for Kerry simply because I'd do anything 
to get Bush out, it was a "lesser of evils" choice and I figured a 
Republican House would keep Kerry from doing anything too outlandish.  
However I started to do some more careful research on him in order to 
see just what I was getting into and, unlike with most politicians, the 
more I dug for dirt the more I found reasons to actually support him.  
What I see is a guy who has for the most part quietly served the public 
interest, even if the issues he pursues are not well publicized and even 
in many cases if it got him into hot water amongst his fellow 
politicians.  I like the fact that he's willing to go where the action 
is - if he doesn't know what's going on with a particular situation he 
will go there and see for himself, not rely on minions to do it.  He's 
*extremely* astute in foreign policy and I think has the kind of 
knowledge and qualifications we desperately need right now in order to 
set the country back on track.

Sorry but I'm tired of all the rhetoric and character assassination.  
I'm going right now to cast my vote, and no matter who you are voting 
for I hope this time we have a peaceful and dignified election worthy of 
the ideals of this country.

Lee




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