How many of you served?  Raise your hands.....

OK....good.  I assume you all are proud of your service?  I happen to be...yeah...I see it.  All of you are proud to have served. 

Now, to be honest, I was in locations and situations that made me HATE being in the Navy.  That’s the truth, and my pleasure in serving has increased over time.  I didn’t get to do a WestPac (you Navy guys and gals know what that is...it’s a Western Pacific tour that goes to Japan, Australia, the Phillipines, and several other places), and most of my shore leave occurred in places where looking at the women was highly discouraged.  However, I look back, and it makes me laugh, and glad I went through it. 

It is something I am proud of.  Through all the situations, I didn’t fare too badly.  It taught me teamwork, concern for your shipmates, and clear thinking in stressful times.  And, it raised my respect for those who served with me. 

Now, all things being considered, I had a fair amount of respect for the people in the military before.  My dad was in the 7th Army, serving in the Allied occupation forces in Europe in the mid-50’s.  My father-in-law was also in the Army...serving in Alaska in the late 40’s and early 50’s.  My uncles and cousins were also in the Service.....that fact probably lent itself to the fact that I joined up, but it most assuredly created a respect for the people in uniform.  Their job was the one that kept all of us safe.  They were the ultimate good guys. 

Who didn’t play ‘Army’ when they were a kid?  I sure did...we killed all sorts of Germans and Japs, without even knowing what the hell a “Jap” was.  The Americans were the good guys...every time.  We might have gotten bruised once or twice, but we won in the end.  Even when I was a little kid (early-mid 70’s), and all of the “intelligentsia” were wrapped up in all of the protests and the fury of their desires, we felt as if our side (the American side) was the side of truth, and good, and honor. 

We had never killed our own people because they didn’t agree with the President.  We never had camps, or shot at innocent people.  These are the thoughts of a simple kid, in a simple life.

Simple thoughts, because, for the most part, they were true. 

(And don’t start talking about “free-fire zones” and “shooting civilians”.....Vietnam was the first time that we had fought an enemy that used civilians as a strategic asset.  Viet Cong dressed as civilians, remember?  Who do you shoot?  How would you know?  Who has the gun that will be used to end your life later?  The thoughts going through the US infantryman in Vietnam must have been a nightmare....I can’t imagine it, nor do I desire to try at this point.)

Americans never ordered genocide in Vietnam, or WWII, or Korea.  We never institutionally made sport of innocents, or thought nothing of their lives as part of a policy.  We never made it a goal to dehumanize those who lived in the area where we fought.  We FED OUR PRISONERS.  We were moral and just. 

I believed all of that before I joined the military, and my time in the military reinforced my beliefs that I had as a kid. 

As it did John Kerry’s beliefs. 

I have talked a lot about the Baby-Boomers in my columns here, and said that one of the things that John Kerry shared with many Boomers (those that protested the Vietnam War) was that he had an easy upbringing. His mother inherited $40 million dollars....his first memories were of their return to the French estate where his mother spent her childhood.  They returned there DURING WWII....you think you aren’t important when you get to enter a theater of war to reclaim your estate?  Kerry was upper crust all the way. 

Instead of playing with middle-income American kids, he played with kids brought up in socialist countries.  One of his playmates was a future Socialist and Green Party leader in France.  What kind of ideology do you think he was faced with?  Do you think he respected his American heritage, especially while living in a country (FRANCE) where they had a deep cultural bias against Americans?  Do you think he ever lied and said that he was NOT an American, just to avoid heckling and getting grief, while he was a kid? 

Then, after these formative years, he comes back to the US in the late 50’s, and lands in a country that he is not a part of.  He is a loner, a progressive in a land of conservatives (paleoconservatives, to be sure), and he makes a name for himself in an era where people that spoke more than one language were considered cultured.  His political views....created and fostered in an area that readily embraced Marx and socialism, and mistrusted American capitalism.....started to show.  He supported the then-considered-liberal JFK, and, like all sorts of teenagers, decided to emulate his hero. 

I have no qualms about saying that John Kerry did not want to go to Vietnam.  Anyone that says otherwise is either blind, a Kerryophille, or lacks true understanding of this world we live in.  He spoke against the country, conservatism, and the war for YEARS before he joined....YEARS!  He said this:  “It is the specter of Western imperialism that causes more fear among Africans and Asians than communism, and thus it is self-defeating.” He said that in 1965, a year before he went into the Service.  He tried to get a deferrment (ala Clinton) to go overseas, but was rejected.  However, there was no-one that could keep Clinton in the US, and Kerry was surrounded by blue-bloods that were expected to serve in the Officer Corps.  Add to that his hero, JFK, who was a Naval Officer, and you see why Kerry joined up....to serve a a Navy Officer. 

He tried (his own admission) to get duty that would place him away from combat.  He succeeded.  Swift-boats were not originally specified for hard combat operations, but the Navy changed it’s mind.  So, Kerry spent 4 months in on-again, off-again combat situations.  He had a few close scrapes, but managed to get out of Vietnam early, and intact. 

But, he wasn’t respected, especially by the other captains of the Swiftboat task force and by the people in his chain of command.  He was aloof, a “know-it-all”, and probably told people that he deserved better.  His time there was bad, dirty, smelly, dangerous....all those things that he distained while in civilian life.  However, this military thing was something that he HAD to do.  His hero had done it, and had used it to get elected, and he could, too. 

So, Kerry comes home, sees the environment, senses that it is more in agreement with his anti-American core, and knows he has an opportunity. 

See, it really doesn’t matter if Kerry committed atrocities....what he wanted was to tell of them being done.  It proved his core beliefs, that American ideals were bad for the rest of the world.  His beliefs, fostered in socialist, softly anti-American nations, were that America needed to be taken down a notch....and, as an added bonus, he could strike back at those closed-minded conservative officers he served with.  If you don’t think that this whole act in 1971 wasn’t based on personal animosity and political calculations, you have another thing coming.  He got shots in at everything he hated.....the military, Nixon, conservatism.....everything that was disliked about America by Europe. 

That is the real John Kerry.  And, that is why he is in a bit of a spot now. 

For the most part, we had shaken Vietnam off.  Sure, the Baby-Boomers identified that as their pivotal point, but the 80’s ushered in and out the Platoon-ish boom of Vietnam hand-wringing.  The Persian Gulf War was a great blow against that viewpoint.......and John Kerry opposed it. 

In fact, John Kerry opposes the same things he did in 1955, ‘65, ‘75, ‘85, ‘90, ‘95, and now.  He opposes the employment of American military might.  He supports leftist governments, and actually gives them moral equivalence to our federal republic.  He supported the leftists in Central America, opposed building back the American Military under Reagan, and never, ever apologized for his comments in 1971, where he called soldiers murders and monsters.  He even worked to bury the work done on POW’s in the 90’s, so as to not insult the communists in power in Vietnam.  Getting trade agreements with the Vietnamese must have been a great triumph in Kerry’s eyes...it proved that the soldiers that killed Vietnamese were wrong, and that his ideas were right. 

However, 9-11 ended Kerry’s ability to favor foreign regimes that dislike ours, and do it without scrutiny.  It is clear that he favors the way France handled Iraq.....however, voting against the Iraq resolution in Congress would have labeled him as anti-American.  He needed something.....something.....to use in his Presidential Campaign that would set him above the others, and would make him favorable in the eyes of an America at War. 

His Vietnam service...that’s right!  Just like JFK.....

However, those people that he pissed off with his behavior during and after his service remember.  It just wasn’t important enough for them to expend the energy to fight the battle.  The environment under Clinton wouldn’t have helped them (people wouldn’t have cared a whit...what did they do to punish Clinton for his service, and actions in the 60’s and in the White House?).  However, now, with the Presidency at stake, Kerry’s obvious puffery of his 4-month-long war record (less than a third of mine, BTW), and his viable distain for the military and the traditional institutions of America, his peers decided to speak up. 

Don’t expect his crewmates to depart from his side.  There is a devotion to your captain, even if you know he is a son of a bitch (Indiana and Bob Knight....any questions?).  However, the objective opinions....from Kerry’s true peers and those above them in the chain of command....are pretty negative.  They think he’s an opportunistic dick, who stepped all over them and their beliefs to get political points, and to prove himself as superior to them.  They think that a guy with his traits should not be President. 

I agree, but I have my own spin on Kerry’s wartime service:

It doesn’t matter. 

What matters is what he said upon his return, his actions with the Vietnam Communists in Paris in 1970-71, and his voting record.  He is a leftist elitist, and more European Socialist than American Capitalist.  Attacking his war record is pointless, because it’s too subjective.  Even the Navy records are debatable.  However, everything he has done since then is fair game, and I am glad that the SBVT’s have moved from his war record to his military-smearing.  It means more to the present day. 

And, Bush has been asture in this situation.  He will debate Kerry’s record with him, and Kerry can’t win that.  All Kerry has is.....what? 

His service in Vietnam, which Bush won’t name as an issue, and.....the fact that he isn’t Bush. 

Kerry can’t win with that.  He knows it.  And that is why we have the current situation, because his Vietnam credentials have been seared....seared....by the Swift Boat Vets.  He has to restore his “soldierness” by the middle of September, or he is toast.

The letter in response, signed by two winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor (which outranks even a Silver Star, for you Kerry apologists out there, and which requires more than a scratch and a bruise to earn), is equally devastating, as it honors Kerry for his service in Vietnam, while castigating him for his treacherous activities after he got back.

In its entirety:

“Dear Senator Kerry,

We are pleased to welcome your campaign representatives to Texas today. We honor all our veterans, all whom have worn the uniform and served our country. We also honor the military and National Guard troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today. We are very proud of all of them and believe they deserve our full support.

That’s why so many veterans are troubled by your vote AGAINST funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, after you voted FOR sending them into battle. And that’s why we are so concerned about the comments you made AFTER you came home from Vietnam. You accused your fellow veterans of terrible atrocities – and, to this day, you have never apologized. Even last night, you claimed to be proud of your post-war condemnation of our actions.

We’re proud of our service in Vietnam. We served honorably in Vietnam and we were deeply hurt and offended by your comments when you came home.

You can’t have it both ways. You can’t build your convention and much of your campaign around your service in Vietnam, and then try to say that only those veterans who agree with you have a right to speak up. There is no double standard for our right to free speech. We all earned it.

You said in 1992 “we do not need to divide America over who served and how.” Yet you and your surrogates continue to criticize President Bush for his service as a fighter pilot in the National Guard.

We are veterans too – and proud to support President Bush. He’s been a strong leader, with a record of outstanding support for our veterans and for our troops in combat. He’s made sure that our troops in combat have the equipment and support they need to accomplish their mission.

He has increased the VA health care budget more than 40% since 2001 – in fact, during his four years in office, President Bush has increased veterans funding twice as much as the previous administration did in eight years ($22 billion over 4 years compared to $10 billion over 8.) And he’s praised the service of all who served our country, including your service in Vietnam.

We urge you to condemn the double standard that you and your campaign have enforced regarding a veteran’s right to openly express their feelings about your activities on return from Vietnam.

Sincerely,

Texas State Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson
Rep. Duke Cunningham
Rep. Duncan Hunter
Rep. Sam Johnson
Lt. General David Palmer
Robert O’Malley, Medal of Honor Recipient
James Fleming, Medal of Honor Recipient
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Castle (Ret.)”

And the best is still to come…

Hold on to your hats, folks, it’s going to get exciting for the Republicans, and interesting* for Kerry.

* - In the sense of the Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.”