God bless our men and women that protect and fight for the freedom of the world and from people like Kerry.
I was willing to call Kerry’s explanation plausible, though not particularly good. Although Bush got marginally better grades than Kerry in college, a malicious, condescending, and defeatist insult at Bush is about the level of class and patriotism I expect from John Kerry. I also think it’s plausible that Kerry really was saying that Iraq is the dumping ground of our society’s underachievers. So yesterday, I was really just not sure.
Today, however, I heard Kerry’s arrogant and insincere non-apology and (more importantly) a lot of Dems sent out to the networks to defend him. What a bunch of elitist fucks. If their point was that Kerry never really meant to refer to the troops, they certainly don’t make their case by condescending to the military, portraying them as victims, losers, and chumps, or in one case, actually claiming that the statement contained, and I quote “an element of truth.” It couldn’t be more obvious that these people don’t know the first thing about how to get promotion points or that the consequence of not earning them is the dreaded Retention Control Point. When I was a JAG attorney (by the way, the Army was my ticket from poverty to prosperity) I would read panel member questionnaires very carefully. I don’t think I had but more than one member without a college degree; most had master’s degrees, and a few had PhD’s or other advanced degrees.
There are dumb soldiers and smart soldiers, and everyone who has served knows that. But the idea is that the military is a loser’s last resort is as demonstrably false as it is infuriating. Unemployment is 4.5%, the military is all-volunteer, the pay gap is sky high, and signing up means a 100% chance of getting shot at. Nobody joins the military because of bad grades, and even giving Kerry the benefit of the doubt, his idiot defenders obviously don’t know that. People join the military, yes, because it gives them a paycheck and college money, and also for adventure, travel, pride, and patriotism.
I wonder how we find people who are willing to give up absolutely everything for the rest of us with scativores like John Kerry trying to crush their morale. But what do I know — I think John Kerry should have been court-martialed and sent to prison for being an unregistered North Vietnamese agent years ago, while he was still a Navy reserve officer.
Kerry … just a sorry-assed bastard (and I really don’t like to use foul language in public).
By the way, I am including below a website managed by Col. George (Bud) Day who is trying to do just that via the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation (VVLF). Details can be found at:
Kerry is obviously not the most suave politician, but I’m sure he’s not stupid enough to insult American troops deliberately. I think we can believe his explanation; he probably meant to say something like: “If you don’t study hard, you might get us stuck in Iraq.” which would be a direct jab at Bush. But he forgot to say “us”…
And wasn’t he a soldier? Why would he insult himself.
Kerry was not a soldier. He was a sailor, which at that time was considered a good way to avoid being drafted into the Army and Vietnam. Whether that was Kerry’s motive, I don’t know. I believe that by claiming purple hearts for some fairly superficial injuries — at least one of which was treated with a band-aid — he manipulated the rule that allowed you a ticket out of VN after three injuries. He ended up spending something like 3 months in combat. I don’t take that away from him, but I simply respond to your point that (1) Kerry wasn’t a soldier; (2) might not have joined the Navy if not for Vietnam and the draft; and (3) got out as quickly as he could.
I would also add (4) that Kerry has a record of insulting service members, such as his factually questionable testimony in Congress and his accusation that American soldiers were “terrorizing” Iraqi women and kids. You may disagree with some of the search tactics (I definitely see the downside to them) but there’s another way to make that point.
As you can see, I loathe John Kerry. In fact, there is no American politician I’ve ever loathed more, and that predates his run for the presidency for years. Now, as for what Kerry really meant, again, I’ve admitted that I’m really not certain, although a more sincere and prompt apology would have made it easier for me to see things his way.
Again, I emphasize that everyone who goes into combat in our military — including John Kerry — deserves great respect for having done so. My real beef with Kerry is how much of that respect he yielded back with his post-service conduct: medal-throwing, Madame Binh, “Jenjis Khan,” “terrorizing,” Christmas in Cambodia, etc. “Stuck in Iraq” seems a lot more damning in that context than outside of it, especially coming from a limousine liberal snob like Kerry.
God bless our men and women that protect and fight for the freedom of the world and from people like Kerry.
I was willing to call Kerry’s explanation plausible, though not particularly good. Although Bush got marginally better grades than Kerry in college, a malicious, condescending, and defeatist insult at Bush is about the level of class and patriotism I expect from John Kerry. I also think it’s plausible that Kerry really was saying that Iraq is the dumping ground of our society’s underachievers. So yesterday, I was really just not sure.
Today, however, I heard Kerry’s arrogant and insincere non-apology and (more importantly) a lot of Dems sent out to the networks to defend him. What a bunch of elitist fucks. If their point was that Kerry never really meant to refer to the troops, they certainly don’t make their case by condescending to the military, portraying them as victims, losers, and chumps, or in one case, actually claiming that the statement contained, and I quote “an element of truth.” It couldn’t be more obvious that these people don’t know the first thing about how to get promotion points or that the consequence of not earning them is the dreaded Retention Control Point. When I was a JAG attorney (by the way, the Army was my ticket from poverty to prosperity) I would read panel member questionnaires very carefully. I don’t think I had but more than one member without a college degree; most had master’s degrees, and a few had PhD’s or other advanced degrees.
There are dumb soldiers and smart soldiers, and everyone who has served knows that. But the idea is that the military is a loser’s last resort is as demonstrably false as it is infuriating. Unemployment is 4.5%, the military is all-volunteer, the pay gap is sky high, and signing up means a 100% chance of getting shot at. Nobody joins the military because of bad grades, and even giving Kerry the benefit of the doubt, his idiot defenders obviously don’t know that. People join the military, yes, because it gives them a paycheck and college money, and also for adventure, travel, pride, and patriotism.
I wonder how we find people who are willing to give up absolutely everything for the rest of us with scativores like John Kerry trying to crush their morale. But what do I know — I think John Kerry should have been court-martialed and sent to prison for being an unregistered North Vietnamese agent years ago, while he was still a Navy reserve officer.
Kerry … just a sorry-assed bastard (and I really don’t like to use foul language in public).
By the way, I am including below a website managed by Col. George (Bud) Day who is trying to do just that via the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation (VVLF). Details can be found at:
http://www.vvlf.org/default.php
Kerry is obviously not the most suave politician, but I’m sure he’s not stupid enough to insult American troops deliberately. I think we can believe his explanation; he probably meant to say something like: “If you don’t study hard, you might get us stuck in Iraq.” which would be a direct jab at Bush. But he forgot to say “us”…
And wasn’t he a soldier? Why would he insult himself.
Kerry was not a soldier. He was a sailor, which at that time was considered a good way to avoid being drafted into the Army and Vietnam. Whether that was Kerry’s motive, I don’t know. I believe that by claiming purple hearts for some fairly superficial injuries — at least one of which was treated with a band-aid — he manipulated the rule that allowed you a ticket out of VN after three injuries. He ended up spending something like 3 months in combat. I don’t take that away from him, but I simply respond to your point that (1) Kerry wasn’t a soldier; (2) might not have joined the Navy if not for Vietnam and the draft; and (3) got out as quickly as he could.
I would also add (4) that Kerry has a record of insulting service members, such as his factually questionable testimony in Congress and his accusation that American soldiers were “terrorizing” Iraqi women and kids. You may disagree with some of the search tactics (I definitely see the downside to them) but there’s another way to make that point.
As you can see, I loathe John Kerry. In fact, there is no American politician I’ve ever loathed more, and that predates his run for the presidency for years. Now, as for what Kerry really meant, again, I’ve admitted that I’m really not certain, although a more sincere and prompt apology would have made it easier for me to see things his way.
Again, I emphasize that everyone who goes into combat in our military — including John Kerry — deserves great respect for having done so. My real beef with Kerry is how much of that respect he yielded back with his post-service conduct: medal-throwing, Madame Binh, “Jenjis Khan,” “terrorizing,” Christmas in Cambodia, etc. “Stuck in Iraq” seems a lot more damning in that context than outside of it, especially coming from a limousine liberal snob like Kerry.