UrbanPancake said:
You have to respect his patriotism though! He went over there and saw the horror that happened. He knew that war was wrong then, and he spoke out about it. Good for him. He is a true patriot. That's why we live in a country with freedom of speech. Get over it.
Yeah, that's why he chose to serve in the Navy. By his own words, he did it to avoid combat. So he's not just a coward, but stupid.
His fellow Swift Boat vets testify they never saw these "horrors". Most of the testimony he gave from others (the "Winter Soldier Investigation" was proven fraudulent, wroguth with outright fabrications.
http://www.nationalreview.com/owens/owens200401270825.asp
"In fact, the entire Winter Soldiers Investigation was a lie. It was inspired by Mark Lane's 1970 book entitled Conversations with Americans, which claimed to recount atrocity stories by Vietnam veterans. This book was panned by James Reston Jr. and Neil Sheehan, not exactly known as supporters of the Vietnam War. Sheehan in particular demonstrated that many of Lane's "eye witnesses" either had never served in Vietnam or had not done so in the capacity they claimed.
Nonetheless, Sen. Mark Hatfield inserted the transcript of the Winter Soldier testimonies into the Congressional Record and asked the Commandant of the Marine Corps to investigate the war crimes allegedly committed by Marines. When the Naval Investigative Service attempted to interview the so-called witnesses, most refused to cooperate, even after assurances that they would not be questioned about atrocities they may have committed personally. Those that did cooperate never provided details of actual crimes to investigators. The NIS also discovered that some of the most grisly testimony was given by fake witnesses who had appropriated the names of real Vietnam veterans. Guenter Lewy tells the entire study in his book, America in Vietnam.
Kerry's 1971 testimony includes every left-wing cliché about Vietnam and the men who served there. It is part of the reason that even today, people who are too young to remember Vietnam are predisposed to believe the worst about the Vietnam War and those who fought it. This predisposition was driven home by the fraudulent "Tailwind" episode some months ago.
The first cliché is that atrocities were widespread in Vietnam. But this is nonsense. Atrocities did occur in Vietnam, but they were far from widespread. Between 1965 and 1973, 201 soldiers and 77 Marines were convicted of serious crimes against the Vietnamese. Of course, the fact that many crimes, either in war or peace, go unreported, combined with the particular difficulties encountered by Americans fighting in Vietnam, suggest that more such acts were committed than reported or tried. "
As far as I can tell, Kerry was a coward who gave himself medals - Purple Hearts - to get out of service so he could further his political career. He was already known at Yale for his opposition to the war. Why else would he bring a *camera crew* to Vietnam, to re-enact his heroics?
Thanks for pointing out that I'm a leftist liberal. I take great pride in my liberal beliefs.
