[LANMaster]

Last May the Globe recounted Sen. John Kerry's televised confession in 1971, delivered on the old "Dick Cavett Show," where the ambitious anti-war Democrat admitted to taking part in military action that was "contrary to the Hague and Geneva conventions."

The top Democrat said his wartime conduct would have rendered him "guilty" of violating the Nuremberg Principles.

John Kerry said,

"I did take part in free-fire zones, I did take part in harassment and interdiction fire, I did take part in search-and-destroy missions in which the houses of noncombatants were burned to the ground."

"And all of these acts, I find out later on, are contrary to the Hague and Geneva conventions and to the laws of warfare. So in that sense, anybody who took part in those, if you carry out the application of the Nuremberg Principles, is in fact guilty."

In reality, there's no reason to believe that any Vietnam veteran who engaged in the actions described by Sen. Kerry is a war criminal.

But the fact that the Democratic Party's current presidential front-runner couldn't see the greater good in what he and his colleagues were asked to do to in the name of America's long twilight struggle against murderous Communism is more than a little instructive.


The whole story

[Big-K]

do you have some sort of grudge against him?

[buddhafabio]

nah he is just listing Kerrys lack of morals. like the liberals here drum up what seem as bushes lack of morals, let the flame war begin.

[It Wasn't me]

You forgot this part ..

A widely circulated report yesterday implicating Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry in Vietnam war crimes turns out to be wrong, New York Daily News "Lowdown" columnist Lloyd Grove insists today.

But while the report in question did confuse John Kerry with former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, the Massachusetts Democrat did in fact once confess to committing war crimes - at least as he defined them - during his Vietnam War protest days.



Kerry cavorts with Communists. This is quite the accusation lanmaster why don't you write him personally and tell him he is a communist. This is a slap in the face of thousands of Veterans. I was in the military during Vietnam were you? It's hard to believe there are still people spewing this garbage 30 years later. Oh and You forgot to call them baby killers. Kerry was awarded 3 purple hearts a Silver Star and a Bronze Star and you say things like that about him you should be thanking him. Next time you meet a Vietnam war veteran go up to him and call him a communist and I am sure you will get what you deserve.

[bassetman]

Apparently Lan thinfk what Kerry did under orders ir more culpable than what G W did as commander and chief

I consider Lan a friend, but lately his feeble attempts to slander anybody but Bush is disappointing!

[Wino]

All modern major wars (I, II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf I & II, Afghanistan) have had atrocities of some degree committed by all sides involved. I would like to think that 'Our Side' (America & its allies) committed the least. Frankly, IMHO, there has not been a just or a necessary war fought since WWII. I never subscribed to the "Domino Theory" in SEA, so Korea, which was a stalemate, and for sure the loss in Vietnam was a waste of human life, should never have been fought, and was based on LIES! I fully supported Gulf I and Afghanistan. Gulf II, was/is an unnecessary war created by LIES! However, since we are committed in Iraq, we have to stay the course - I don't care who is elected in 2004, they will have to stay determined to complete our stupidity - we cannot cut and run, but we do have to cut our human and financial losses, and the sooner the better. I just wish we had not been placed in this situation by the idiots running this country. Our magnificent military personnel and might is being wrongly used to force our way of life on a people that wouldn't know democracy if it hit them in the face and no more want to join the 21st century than I want to revert to the 17th century.

While I detest any type of atrocity being committed - it's going to happen, and I will hold no one responsible in the field, but do hold those that made the decision to fight a needless war responsible, i.e. Truman, Ike, JFK, Johnson, Nixon and GWB.

From other threads in CivDeb, the question of whether GWB lied or not is moot. He and all the others before him may have been fed bad intel, but GWB is the only one to have embellished the intel to make his war stance better and appear more imperative than it really was(same as Johnson in Vietnam) - thus GWB is the biggest liar of all IMHO, even if he didn't know better (I think he did know better). GWB is so vacuous and shallow, it's truly, truly frightening to even think we may be saddled with this moron for four more years - and this is based on his foreign policies alone - not mentioning the damage to our economy, the divisiveness foisted on this country by the entire morally corrupt platoon of neocon testosterone spewing zealots in his administration - nor mentioning the sicko John "Curtains" Ashcroft and his demented mind.

[Chris A]

GWB is so vacuous and shallow, it's truly, truly frightening to even think we may be saddled with this moron for four more years - and this is based on his foreign policies alone -

Wino, I have one question though is why or how did the democratic party get so hijacked to the left that it too has became unvotable.

Kerry wants to let our military be run by the UN. He waffels more then any person I have ever seen. He lies about getting special intrest money. Is this the best the democratic party can come up with??

Trust me there are lots of reasons that Kerry scares me to the point that I could never vote for him... Bush is no saint but at least I know where he is heading..

[Wino]

Originally posted by Chris A:
Wino, I have one question though is why or how did the democratic party get so hijacked to the left that it too has became unvotable.

Kerry wants to let our military be run by the UN. He waffels more then any person I have ever seen. He lies about getting special intrest money. Is this the best the democratic party can come up with??

Trust me there are lots of reasons that Kerry scares me to the point that I could never vote for him... Bush is no saint but at least I know where he is heading..

Chris - can't argue with the truth regarding the quality of people we will be voting for this November. Held my nose in 2000 and voted for Gore (had had enough of GWB as Govenor).

Kerry no different than the rest - left or right, regarding special interest - that's just a fact of politics - and no finance reform will ever resolve it. Bush has taken waffling to new heights (where no man has gone before) - he is pollited - whichever way the winds blow GWB will follow - and now, the politcal season is on, he will look like a cat on a hot tin roof, bowing to the polls.

Kerry scares me, too, but like you, I know where Bush has gone, think he is heading, and I don't want anymore. As an aside, I'm glad you know where Bush is going, cause I don't think he does!

I'm outta here - gotta be up in 3 hrs.

[EdGreene]

QUOTE]Originally posted by LANMaster:
Last May the Globe recounted Sen. John Kerry's televised confession in 1971, delivered on the old "Dick Cavett Show," where the ambitious anti-war Democrat admitted to taking part in military action that was "contrary to the Hague and Geneva conventions."

The top Democrat said his wartime conduct would have rendered him "guilty" of violating the Nuremberg Principles.

John Kerry said,

In reality, there's no reason to believe that any Vietnam veteran who engaged in the actions described by Sen. Kerry is a war criminal.

But the fact that the Democratic Party's current presidential front-runner couldn't see the greater good in what he and his colleagues were asked to do to in the name of America's long twilight struggle against murderous Communism is more than a little instructive.

The whole story [/quote]

I spent 22 months in two tours of duty "breaking things and killing people." There is no "greater good" if what I did is any indication.
Would I do it again? Hell no.
Instead of my Army serial number starting out "RA" (For "Regular (volunteer) Army), it would have been "CR":
"Caught Running."
Had I known then what I have later discovered, that the "Vietnamese" had been in a running gun battle with China for nearly two thousand years, the Vietnamese holding off the most adventurous of Chinese Emporors, no way I do that second tour (or the first in retrospect). Why didn't the "brains" know and understand that simple fact?
That is, "Vietnam" is, as history has shown, (was) unwinnable.
As probably Iraq is, given the region's, (including Afghanistans) penchant for endless wars between the different factions.

Remember too, that "Iraq" = "Persia" = "Babylon."

The Biblical notation that “…there will be wars and rumors of wars” holds true for many parts of the world, including present day “Babylon.”

[oldie]

War is war. One does not carry with one a little book of right or wrong when one is under fire One protects one's own It's called human nature. War Is dirty. Vietnam was very very dirty indeed, and America is still suffering it's after affects

I only wish you Americans and we Brits would cease looking for skeletons in the cupboard of our politicians. Few of them are squeaky clean anyway. Clinton liked sex. So did Mr squeaky clean John Major. So what? It didn't affect their ability to do politics May have appeared to be a little tired at times however

Vietnam??? Is it not well documented that a favourite passtime amongst the Vietcong during the conflict was to behead American (POWs) GIs and play football with their severed heads Articles of war my foot

Oldie

[LANMaster]

Originally posted by bassetman:
Apparently Lan thinfk what Kerry did under orders ir more culpable than what G W did as commander and chief

I consider Lan a friend, but lately his feeble attempts to slander anybody but Bush is disappointing!

Amazing.

This after all the slanderous crap that even you have posted about Bush.

You sure have dished it out over the past year. I've been watching.
And now, Bush's opponent comes under scrutiny, and it is a feeble attempt at slander???


puleeeeze.

[LANMaster]

Originally posted by oldie:
I only wish you Americans and we Brits would cease looking for skeletons in the cupboard of our politicians.

Funny, everyone has been so silent about the slanderous criticism of Bush. Yet Kerry, the frontrunner, is off limits?

I'd say that with how Bush has been treated in this forum, over the past year especially, all bets are off and Kerry is fair game on any and every level.

[LANMaster]

Originally posted by It Wasn't me:
You forgot this part ..

A widely circulated report yesterday implicating Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry in Vietnam war crimes turns out to be wrong, New York Daily News "Lowdown" columnist Lloyd Grove insists today.

But while the report in question did confuse John Kerry with former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, the Massachusetts Democrat did in fact once confess to committing war crimes - at least as he defined them - during his Vietnam War protest days.



Kerry cavorts with Communists. This is quite the accusation lanmaster why don't you write him personally and tell him he is a communist. This is a slap in the face of thousands of Veterans. I was in the military during Vietnam were you? It's hard to believe there are still people spewing this garbage 30 years later. Oh and You forgot to call them baby killers. Kerry was awarded 3 purple hearts a Silver Star and a Bronze Star and you say things like that about him you should be thanking him. Next time you meet a Vietnam war veteran go up to him and call him a communist and I am sure you will get what you deserve.

1. You are incorrect. The quote that I show is from Senator John F. Kerry.

2. Kerry cavorts with Communists. That is a fact. I did not call him a Communist.

Here is a photo of Kerry and Harkin with Daniel Ortega. Going behind President Reagan's back and cutting deals with this Communist Dictator without the concent of the US State Dept. or the White house.
It is called cavorting.



3. I do not insult Vietnam Veterans. Kerry does.
Perhaps you should read up on John Kerry a bit.

4. A photo of Don Rumsfeld shaking the hand of Saddam Hussein circulated rampantly around here. About 97 more posts of Kerry and Ortega will bring it close to even.

[Stoner]

LAN, even if what you say is true about Kerry, the pictures are in no means of a similiar nature. As you say, perhaps Kerry was searching for solutions in an inappropriate mannor.
Rumy was there to sell death and probably benefit from it. Millions died on Rumy's handshake.

[oldie]

Presidents and Prime Ministers, politicians and cupboards filled to overflowing with skeletons

A subtle but important difference between American and British politics, is the fact that you tend to vote for a person and in Britain we tend to vote for a party. A British Prime Minister can be ousted from his position by his own elected party members. Might even happen with Blair before the next general election

Oldie