John Kerry: Unfit For Command

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Well, the Kerry campaign has now all but admitted that his decades of claims that he was sent on an illegal mission to Cambodia are bull****. Thanks to the Swiftboat Veterans for pointing it out. Now let's see if any more of their accusations are true...

SwiftVets 1 - 0 Kerry

Kerry will be more and more exposed for the pathelogical liar that he is in the coming months. This may just mark the beginning of the end for him.

What is the count? Something like 40+ out of 60 of Kerry's unit are calling him a liar? It may or may not be true...I wasn't there and can't say. BUT, I have seen enough political sh*t hit the fan in my life to tell you that where there is smoke, there is fire.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat


CONUS

Wasn't CONUS just started during Gulf War I??

[Drake Tungsten]

Kerry 'invented Christmas in Cambodia claim'
By David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 12/08/2004)


For the first time, Sen John Kerry, the Democratic presidential challenger, has been left floundering by allegations that he invented a key episode of his decorated wartime service in Vietnam - a central plank of his election platform.

Mr Kerry has fought off charges for several years that he did not deserve all the medals he won in Vietnam, which included a Bronze Star and Silver Star for gallantry, and three Purple Hearts for combat wounds.

Crewmates from the small patrol boats in which he served in the Mekong Delta have always rallied to his support, contradicting allegations from other, hostile veterans.

Yesterday, however, the Kerry campaign was left in verbal knots after a new book accused the senator of inventing stories about being sent, illegally, over the border into neutral Cambodia.

The Kerry campaign responded, initially, that Mr Kerry had always said he was "near" Cambodia. Then a campaign aide said Mr Kerry had been in the Mekong Delta "between" Vietnam and next-door Cambodia - a geographical zone not found on maps, which show the Mekong river running from Cambodia to Vietnam.

The book, Unfit for Command, is based on recollections from dozens of veterans who served in the same naval unit as Mr Kerry, including crewmen on small patrol craft under his direct command.

In newspaper articles, interviews and at least one Senate speech, Mr Kerry has claimed that he spent Christmas 1968 inside Cambodia, at a time when even the US president was publicly denying that American forces were inside that country.

He has cited the missions as a psychological turning point, when he realised that American leaders were not telling the truth to the world about the war in south-east Asia.

Michael Meehan, a Kerry campaign adviser, told ABC Television: "The Mekong Delta consists of the border between Cambodia and Vietnam, so on Christmas Eve in 1968, he was in fact on patrol . . . in the Mekong Delta between Cambodia and Vietnam. He was ambushed, they fired back, he was fired upon from both sides, from the Cambodian side of the border and the Vietnam side during that day in 1968."

It remains to be seen how serious an impact the row has on the Kerry campaign.

Vietnam has been central to Mr Kerry's election bid, with his four and a bit months in combat receiving infinitely more attention during last month's Democratic national convention than his 20 years in the US senate.

However, his campaign was able to counter attack the accusing veterans. It seized on the revelation that the co-author of Unfit for Command, Jerry Corsi, recently posted a string of remarks on a conservative website accusing Muslims and Catholics of paedophilia, and calling the Pope "senile".

In a March posting, Mr Corsi also suggested Mr Kerry and his wife Teresa, both Catholics, might be secretly Jewish.

Mr Corsi said this week that the remarks were meant to be a "joke".

Democrats also noted that the supposedly independent group linked to the new book, Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, has hired Republican public relations consultants, and is largely funded by a wealthy Republican property developer from Texas.

The to and fro may lead undecided voters to turn away from the whole row as an unseemly partisan squabble.

The Bush campaign has a standing policy of not commenting on Mr Kerry's Vietnam service, a stance partly explained by their desire not to focus attention on Mr Bush's wartime service in the United States, using family connections to secure a coveted slot in the Texas Air National Guard.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/12/wus12.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/12/ixnewstop.html

1 - 0

[MichaeltheGreat]

So a Brit columnist looking for some colourful language decides to use the term "floundering" and that's what you hang your hat on?

It remains to be seen how serious an impact the row has on the Kerry campaign.

A row, aka a pissing match. Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my.

The to and fro may lead undecided voters to turn away from the whole row as an unseemly partisan squabble.

Ooh, that hurts.

Sorry, I don't see any score here.

Oh, I almost forgot:

The Bush campaign has a standing policy of not commenting on Mr Kerry's Vietnam service, a stance partly explained by their desire not to focus attention on Mr Bush's wartime service in the United States, using family connections to secure a coveted slot in the Texas Air National Guard.

Definitely not a goal for Bushy.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by PLATO


Wasn't CONUS just started during Gulf War I??

The acronym for Continental US predates the gulf war, but I don't know when it started.

[Drake Tungsten]

So a Brit columnist looking for some colourful language decides to use the term "floundering" and that's what you hang your hat on?

You really haven't been following the news, have you MtG? The only reason this blatant lie hasn't blown up in Kerry's face is that the Big Media refuses to report on it.

Head on over to InstaPundit and get yourself up to speed...

[MRT144]

Drake, youre an idiot. why hasnt faux news picked it up? they are not "pro kerry". maybe because it hasnt been confirmed

[Drake Tungsten]

Fox News has picked it up, numbnuts. Their influence doesn't compare to that of the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, etc. who refuse to deal with this, though.

Jesus, if you're going to call people idiots, you should at least get your ****ing facts straight first...

[DRoseDARs]

^^^ That is so going in my sig.

[MRT144]

oh so, only right wing rags have picked it up. because no legitimate news source will do something without confirmation. no apolytical source will do something to cast a candidate in a bad light without facts.

biatch. see how i just played you there

[PLATO]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat


The acronym for Continental US predates the gulf war, but I don't know when it started.

Ahh...I thought you were refering to the CONUS troop replacement centers. My Bad.

[Drake Tungsten]

oh so, only right wing rags have picked it up. because no legitimate news source will do something without confirmation. no apolytical source will do something to cast a candidate in a bad light without facts.

biatch. see how i just played you there

[PLATO]

Originally posted by MRT144
oh so, only right wing rags have picked it up. because no legitimate news source will do something without confirmation. no apolytical source will do something to cast a candidate in a bad light without facts.

biatch. see how i just played you there

Well the Times (Both coasts) do have some credability problems of late...

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Face it, the Kerry lied about his involvement in Combodia piece will get about as much play in the 'unbiased' media as the Jamie Gorelick strengthening the wall between CIA and FBI or the Sandy Berger thefts. Much better news stories to be had by attempting to find links in the Abu Ghraib scandal to missives by the admin, how wrong it is for the C-in-C to land on an Aircraft carrier to signal the end of 'official' hositilities in Iraq, or give credence to conspiracy theories centering around how the adminis playing the security alert game in order to drum up support for the war against terror (when in reality its all overblown).

[Drake Tungsten]

It's sickening, isn't it? The media should be disgracing itself, but the majority of the population will never know about any of this because the same biased media is their only source of information...