quote:

Originally posted by DaveSZ Ya know, after what Bob Dole said the other day, I really don't know whether some of these guys have bled enough to deserve a purple heart: http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/wounded/gallery.htm I mean, only one freakin' eye blown out? C'mon.

Well I certainly think that some of these so-called "wounds" on these guys you depicted are certainly debateable. Take a limb being blown off, for example - IF that limb was cleanly blown off, and IF the shrapnel and explosive behind that shrapnel was hot enough, then technically speaking there MAY have possibly been NO blood spilled as the limb was seared right off.

And if that's the case, then technically speaking, and by the rhetoric the Smear Boaters and fellow conservative supporters are utilizing against Kerry, SOME of these boys and gals certainly don't deserve their Purple Hearts now, do they? I mean, no blood spilled, no Purple Heart, right?

But I think we shouldn't let them go unrewarded, however. We can certainly track down that GOP delegate in NY who was handing out band-aids with Purple Hearts on them, and we can certainly give these brave soldiers this gift instead. I'm sure they would appreciate the jesture.

I mean, it's only fair that they receive something, right?

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...

Kerry's penchant for embelishment should be without doubt when addressing his Vietnam war record. any sane person should realize that. and if that isn't an emotional plea, please sue me.

his first purple heart. an embelishment. it something you would want others to believe noble, but integrity not in the eye of the beholder in this case. again, an emotional plea but emotion is something one would consider when electing a president. so consider this. (this has been hashed here before)

quote:

Washington Post, regarding the MORNING of March 13th: 1. As they were heading back to the boat, Kerry and Rassmann decided to blow up a five-ton rice bin to deny food to the Vietcong. In an interview last week, Rassmann recalled that they climbed on top of the huge pile and dug a hole in the rice. On the count of three, they tossed their grenades into the hole and ran. Evidently, Kerry did not run fast enough. "He got some frags and pieces of rice in his rear end," Rassmann said with a laugh. "It was more embarrassing than painful." At the time, the incident did not seem significant, and Kerry did not mention it to anyone when he got back on the boat. An unsigned "personnel casualty report," however, erroneously implies that Kerry suffered "shrapnel wounds in his left buttocks" later in the day, following the mine explosion incident, when he also received "contusions to his right forearm." [ie, a BRUISE] From the navy's Spot Report of the AFTERNOON of March 13th; after the river mine explosion under Lt. Pees' PCF 3 boat: LTJG JOHN F. KERRY, USNR, HSHRAPNEL WOUND LEFT BUTTOCK AND CONTUSION RT. FOREARM (MINOR);

if Kerry had not made himself to be the Vietnam war hero nominee I would care even less about his first PH. we all know that after the DNC this will not be the case anymore.

Kerry's third PH was his ticket home. an inference that is obvious in its description that most of us would have probably embelished ourselves. i know i would. that is definately an emotional plea.
consider for yourselves because Kerry has already backpedaled on that one. here is one of the many proves.
http://www.massnews.com/2004_editio...urple_heart.htm

the next embelishment is more humorous than relevant within the scope of a war record, but is just as insightful to the mind of a man that enjoys making things more than they really are. the following is a Humane Society questionaire that Kerry filled out as a Senator back in '85 or something like that. before reading this remember there is no record of his boat hitting more than one mine. he clearly lied to the Humane Society. why? who knows and who cares right? well, if your looking for patterns of self serving embelishment to influence your vote for a "Vietnam war hero president" shit like this is invaluable.

quote:

Do you have any pets that have made an impact on you personally? 1. I have always had pets in my life and there are a few that I remember very fondly. When I was serving on a swiftboat in Vietnam, my crewmates and I had a dog we called VC. We all took care of him, and he stayed with us and loved riding on the swiftboat deck. I think he provided all of us with a link to home and a few moments of peace and tranquility during a dangerous time. One day as our swiftboat was heading up a river, a mine exploded hard under our boat. After picking ourselves up, we discovered VC was MIA. Several minutes of frantic search followed after which we thought we'd lost him. We were relieved when another boat called asking if we were missing a dog. It turns out VC was catapulted from the deck of our boat and landed confused, but unhurt, on the deck of another boat in our patrol.

do i have to produce hard evidence refuting the now, world famous, "Christmas in Cambodia" statements on the Senate floor and in the Boston Globe? man, i hope some of you guys aren't ingnorant to that fact seeing how the Kerry campaign has backpedaled on that one too.

as far as his second PH, his Bronze Star and Silver Star...well, i gonna leave it up to you. the eyewitnesses the crewmates, the right and the left are still hashing it out. thats too bad because i really want to get at the bottom of them before November so John Kerry can can present himself as a Senator worthy of the highest office, as opposed to a Vietnam veteran worthy of the highest office.

Vietnam veterans are not misguided in their opinion of John Kerry.

we are misguided in our opinion of John Kerry.


P.S. Halliburton paid me to say this

Well leave it to a a bunch of "misguided" Vietnam veterans to to take it up a notch.

the following letter will now challenge John Kerry to confront his misrepresentations about his bid for the presidency. in return the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth will pull their ads for good.

quote:

The following letter was delivered to the Kerry Campaign today by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. 1. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth P.O. Box 26184 Alexandria, Virginia 22313 August 31, 2004 Senator John Kerry 901 15th Street NW Washington, DC 20005 Dear Senator Kerry: As you prepare for your address before the American Legion in Nashville, Tennessee, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth encourages you to use this opportunity to clarify your actions in Vietnam and your statements about your fellow Veterans and shipmates when you returned home. Since you have made your four-month tour in Vietnam the centerpiece of your campaign, we respectfully insist that you be truthful. The public is owed a full and honest accounting of your actions. Veterans are owed an apology from you and an acknowledgement that there was no basis in fact for the accusations you made against them. We urge you to: 1. Apologize for your conduct once you returned from Vietnam. Your exaggerated testimony before the US Senate; the blanket indictment of your fellow veterans; throwing away medals and ribbons; all of these actions dishonored America and the armed forces. Your rhetoric and actions were not only wrong, they aided the enemy and brought great pain to POW's, veterans and their families. 2. Clarify the conflicting accounts involving the Bay Hap River incident of March 13, 1969 (Bronze Star and 3rd Purple Heart). You have now described three different versions of this incident. In the first version of this incident presented during the Democrat National Convention, you stated: "No man left behind," suggesting to the American people that you alone stayed on the river to rescue Mr. Rassmann. Later, when forced to acknowledge conflicting eyewitness testimony from fellow swift boat veterans, you said that your boat left the scene to return moments later to retrieve Jim Rassmann from the water. Yet, in another version of the same incident discovered in the Congressional Record, you reported that your boat struck a mine and Rassmann fell off the boat. Mr. Kerry, please explain to your fellow veterans and the American people which version is the truth. 3. Affirm that the injuries for which you received your purple hearts never required any medical treatment beyond perhaps a bandage and that, in all instances, these injuries were self-inflicted and came from your own weapon. Further, that if any of these purple hearts were falsely awarded, that you would not have been eligible to leave Vietnam after serving only four months. 4. Acknowledge what your own biographer is now saying, that the Christmas in Cambodia claim is "obviously wrong," that you were never in Cambodia over Christmas or any other time during your brief, four-month tour in Vietnam and that your statements before the United States Senate in 1986 were false. If you undertake these steps we will be satisfied that the American public has been sufficiently apprised as to these aspects of your career, and we will discontinue the media advertisements you have sought so fervently to silence. Please know that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are eager to close our own personal chapters on Vietnam and instead focus on the war we're currently fighting — the ongoing war on terrorism. In the absence of full public disclosure and a public apology, we will continue efforts to carry our message to an ever-expanding base of grassroots supporters. Senator Kerry, we want to get Vietnam behind us. But, we can only do so if the truth is told. We respectfully await your reply. Sincerely, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

so to answer this threads statement of "Swift Boat Change of Heart", this just put a big sock in it

http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527....asp?cycle=2004

quote:

Swift Boats vs. the Media 1. When the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth first got started, they probably thought they were taking on John Kerry. Boy, where they wrong! The press has made every attempt to tie the veterans to Republicans, repeatedly noting that it got started with a generous gift from Republican donor Bob Perry: Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is registered with the Federal Election Commission as a so-called 527 organization, not affiliated with any party. It got off the ground with a $100,000 donation from Texas homebuilder Bob J. Perry, a prominent Republican donor. A search of Perry's donations for the last three election cycles shows that he is indeed generous, giving a total of $188,000 to various Republican candidates and causes. And yet I never seem to read that MoveOn.org is a Democrat organization. I wonder why. And calling Perry a "generous donor" is really a matter of perspective. Take a look at the 1. top 25 contributors to 527s for the 2004 election cycle. Who do you think tops the list? George Soros? No, Soros is second with a measely $12.6 million, well behind Peter Lewis who has thrown out over $14 million. How far down the list must you go to find a conservative? Carl Lindner is tied for tenth place just a little over one million dollars. Paul Singer is tied for 22nd with half that. Together, they account for just 2.6% of the $57,713,283 donated to 527s by the top 25 donors. Liberals account for 97.4% of the top donations to 527s, giving over $56 million. Yet they myth continues that it is the Republican Party that is the party of the rich. Roy F. Hoffman, a retired admiral and chairman of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said the first TV ad, which ran for one week in Ohio, Wisconsin and West Virginia at a cost of $550,000, got so much national news attention that it generated an additional $400,000 from 8,000 donors around the country.

"Liberals account for 97.4% of the top donations to 527s, giving over $56 million"

i just don't understand the game? your right, it baffles me. how can such a small group of "misguided" Vietnam vets with so little money cause such a ruckus in a world dominated by millions in liberal handouts? not to mention the liberal media. i'm truly vexxed

i got an idea why. maybe its 'cause the TRUTH has been and always will be a bargain!

sounds corny doen't it?

quote:

Originally posted by Q5echo Kerry's penchant for embelishment should be without doubt when addressing his Vietnam war record. any sane person should realize that. and if that isn't an emotional plea, please sue me. his first purple heart. an embelishment. it something you would want others to believe noble, but integrity not in the eye of the beholder in this case. again, an emotional plea but emotion is something one would consider when electing a president. so consider this. (this has been hashed here before) quote: quote: Washington Post, regarding the MORNING of March 13th: 1. As they were heading back to the boat, Kerry and Rassmann decided to blow up a five-ton rice bin to deny food to the Vietcong. In an interview last week, Rassmann recalled that they climbed on top of the huge pile and dug a hole in the rice. On the count of three, they tossed their grenades into the hole and ran. Evidently, Kerry did not run fast enough. "He got some frags and pieces of rice in his rear end," Rassmann said with a laugh. "It was more embarrassing than painful." At the time, the incident did not seem significant, and Kerry did not mention it to anyone when he got back on the boat. An unsigned "personnel casualty report," however, erroneously implies that Kerry suffered "shrapnel wounds in his left buttocks" later in the day, following the mine explosion incident, when he also received "contusions to his right forearm." [ie, a BRUISE] From the navy's Spot Report of the AFTERNOON of March 13th; after the river mine explosion under Lt. Pees' PCF 3 boat: LTJG JOHN F. KERRY, USNR, HSHRAPNEL WOUND LEFT BUTTOCK AND CONTUSION RT. FOREARM (MINOR); if Kerry had not made himself to be the Vietnam war hero nominee I would care even less about his first PH. we all know that after the DNC this will not be the case anymore.

And once again this isn’t his first purple heart. This incident concerned his third purple heart in enemy action that earned him the bronze star. While it is correct that Kerry’s injury to the buttocks were acquired earlier that day, the impression thatt Kerry did not legitimately earn the purple heart is still false. The purple heart was drawn up on injuries he sustained in the mine explosion:

http://www.factcheck.org/UploadedFi...ple%20Heart.pdf

And furthermore, the bronze star citation ONLY describes the injuries he sustained in the mine explosion. Furthermore, the bronze star citation elaborates on the wound:

quote:

Liutenant (jg) Kerry directed his gunners to provide suppressing fire, while from an exposed position on the bow, his arm bleeding and in pain and with disregard for his personal safety, he pulled the man aboard. http://www.factcheck.org/UploadedFi...onze%20Star.pdf

Therefore A) Kerry sustained wounds that would have qualified him for his third purple heart regardless of the wounds to his buttocks. B) This purple heart is not the one that is in contention.

quote:

Kerry's third PH was his ticket home. an inference that is obvious in its description that most of us would have probably embelished ourselves. i know i would. that is definately an emotional plea. consider for yourselves because Kerry has already backpedaled on that one. here is one of the many proves. http://www.massnews.com/2004_editio...urple_heart.htm

Again, this is his FIRST purple heart … his FIRST. If you are going to attempt the criticize the man on what you perceive to be falsehoods you might want to make sure you have an accurate grasp of the events yourself. And I addressed this purple heart issue before. Kerry has always asserted that he was unsure where the shrapnel came from:

quote:

"Kerry has said he was wounded by a piece of shrapnel as he and his crew engaged Vietcong fleeing on a beach. Kerry has said he was uncertain where the shrapnel came from." http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ht...veterans05.html

And furthermore, the possibility that the wound may have been afflicted by friendly fire, or whether it was self-afflicted does NOT disqualify Kerry from the purple heart. See my post on the first page of this thread:

http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...12&pagenumber=1

Look at the the purple heart regulations:

http://www.purpleheart.org/Awd_of_PH.htm

And lastly, take the issue up with how the military awards purple hearts, and start taking them away from a whole shitload of Vietnam vets:

quote:

The award came from the Naval Support Facility in Saigon — issued without any evident formal protest at the time from Hibbard, Letson or other commanders. Neither the slightness of Kerry's wound nor its murky origins would have likely disqualified him, said Shelby Jean Kirk, a retired civilian director of the Bureau of Naval Operations awards branch. The most critical element in an award decision was "action against the enemy." Conflicting battle accounts were not uncommon, and when Navy awards personnel could not make a clear determination, the serviceman often "got the benefit of the doubt," Kirk said. "The fog of war forced the system to bend to interpretation," said former Navy Cmdr. David L. Riley, author of "Uncommon Valor," a history of the Navy's awards. A review of injury reports from Kerry's boat units during his tour of duty confirms that pattern. Stacked in the Navy archives in Washington, the records show that in the last three months of Kerry's tour, 46 Swift boat personnel were wounded. Most were hurt by shrapnel, and all but five of the cases earned Purple Hearts. Injury reports are missing from Kerry's first month — including his contested Dec. 2 wound. But at least two dozen of the 46 men who were wounded later suffered "light" or "minor" shrapnel injuries. In a similar number of cases, wounds could not be clearly traced to enemy fire. http://www.latimes.com/news/printed...lines-frontpage

quote:

the next embelishment is more humorous than relevant within the scope of a war record, but is just as insightful to the mind of a man that enjoys making things more than they really are. the following is a Humane Society questionaire that Kerry filled out as a Senator back in '85 or something like that. before reading this remember there is no record of his boat hitting more than one mine. he clearly lied to the Humane Society. why? who knows and who cares right? well, if your looking for patterns of self serving embelishment to influence your vote for a "Vietnam war hero president" shit like this is invaluable. quote: Do you have any pets that have made an impact on you personally? 1. I have always had pets in my life and there are a few that I remember very fondly. When I was serving on a swiftboat in Vietnam, my crewmates and I had a dog we called VC. We all took care of him, and he stayed with us and loved riding on the swiftboat deck. I think he provided all of us with a link to home and a few moments of peace and tranquility during a dangerous time. One day as our swiftboat was heading up a river, a mine exploded hard under our boat. After picking ourselves up, we discovered VC was MIA. Several minutes of frantic search followed after which we thought we'd lost him. We were relieved when another boat called asking if we were missing a dog. It turns out VC was catapulted from the deck of our boat and landed confused, but unhurt, on the deck of another boat in our patrol.

So the swiftboat vet arguments have now denigrated to some vague human society questionnaire in an attempt to discredit Kerry? This is pretty invaluable. You know what else is invaluable? Navy records! From the Command History for Coastal Division 11 for 1969:

quote:

February 18 1969 PCFs 50,66,72, and 94 conducted operations in the Bay Hap River. PCFs 50 and 66 entered first to proceed to Cai Mac(?) and conduct a MIDCAP. An underwater mine exploded in front of PCF 66 and both units received small arms fire. Units returned fire and continued to Cai Mac for MIDCAP. PCFs 72 and 94 entered river about 4 hours later despite intelligence reports that more mines existed. Two more mines exploded as 72 and 94 proceeded up the river, several rockets were also fired at the 2 units resulting in 2 US WIA. PCFs accounted for 1 VC KIA (probable). http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmils..._chronology.pdf

Hmmm mines exploding … two boats … sounds vaguely familiar. Next time do the proper research before you come out with baseless accusations.

quote:

do i have to produce hard evidence refuting the now, world famous, "Christmas in Cambodia" statements on the Senate floor and in the Boston Globe? man, i hope some of you guys aren't ingnorant to that fact seeing how the Kerry campaign has backpedaled on that one too.

Sure provide whatever hard evidence you’ve got. It’s a slow day at the office today …

quote:

as far as his second PH, his Bronze Star and Silver Star...well, i gonna leave it up to you. the eyewitnesses the crewmates, the right and the left are still hashing it out. thats too bad because i really want to get at the bottom of them before November so John Kerry can can present himself as a Senator worthy of the highest office, as opposed to a Vietnam veteran worthy of the highest office.

Oh they’re pretty much hashed out. The silver star award is pretty much a slam dunk. The swiftboat vets haven’t a chance in refuting that evidence. Elliott came out of it looking like a boob because his accounts now are in stark contrast to what he wrote in the official navy records. As for the bronze star, Thurlow tried to say that there was no enemy fire that day … haha and then the Washington Post pulled HIS bronze star citation from the incident which stated that:

"All units began receiving enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire from the river banks," and after the first explosion. The citation describes Thurlow as leaping aboard the damaged PCF-3 and rendering aid "while still under enemy fire," and adds: "His actions and courage in the face of enemy fire . . . were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."

Then there’s Thurlow’s recommendation for the decoration which states that Thurlow's actions "took place under constant enemy small arms fire." Who was it signed by? Elliott! Hahaha what a bunch of clowns.

But hey don’t believe me … read the navy records:

http://www.factcheck.org/UploadedFi...%20Citation.pdf

http://www.factcheck.org/UploadedFi...ward%20Recc.pdf

quote:

Vietnam veterans are not misguided in their opinion of John Kerry. we are misguided in our opinion of John Kerry.

Yes and the Vietnam vets with any leftover credibility who were actually THERE fighting side by side with Kerry all side with him. That should tell you a thing or two.

___________________
Retro ...

Interesting insight into the creation of the Swiftboat group:

quote:

According to standard Swift Boat Narrations, this inspiring movement got its start when Retired Admiral Roy Hoffmann read Doug Brinkley’s Tour of Duty. Hoffmann’s shorts flew into a wad over the way his own Vietnam service was portrayed. “Interviews with various Swift boat veterans turned up descriptions of Hoffman [sic] as ‘hotheaded,’ ‘blood-thirsty,’ and ‘egomaniacal,’” Brinkley writes (page 105). A bit later, he describes his interviews with some of those vets. “Decades later, many Swift boat veterans under Hoffman’s command would compare him with the rough-hewn colonel in Apocalypse Now who boasted that he ‘loved the smell of napalm in the morning’” (page 177). But it isn’t Kerry who’s making these comments, although he’s taken the brunt of Hoffmann’s wrath. Who was trashing Hoffmann so? A bit later, Brinkley quoted a skipper by name. Brinkley describes the anger felt when Don Droz was killed in one of the reckless missions required by Hoffmann’s Operation Sealords: quote: BRINKLEY (page 333): The death of Droz created a wave of angry sentiments from the Swift boat community. Lieutenant Larry Thurlow, for example, summed up the feeling many Swift boat officers had to Captain Hoffman: “That man wanted in the worst way to be admiral—that’s what Sealords was about.” BRINKLEY (pages 333-334): Lieutenant Stephen Hayes, for example, wrote extensively about the accident in his diary. A few days after the ambush he had gone on a mission past the “charred remains of the 43 boat.” The only word he could find to describe it was “grisly.” Frustrated at the carelessness of Operation Sealords, he took aim at Captain Hoffman with his pen. “Latch had the gall to call it a victory!!!” he wrote. “Such a tragedy that these operations are run by bunglers and hard core military men who apparently get some strange sense of satisfaction out of playing around with other men’s lives.” By now, Kerry was already back in the States. According to Brinkley, “Kerry now felt duty-bound to denounce Operation Sealords raids like the ones in which Droz was killed and Galvin was wounded as ludicrous missions aimed at sacrificing the best Americans to satisfy a president’s geopolitical ambitions.” Last year, before Brinkley’s book appeared, Hoffmann was whistling a different tune. Kate Zernike dished the dope in the New York Times: quote: ZERNIKE (8/20/04): In an unpublished interview in March 2003 with Mr. Kerry's authorized biographer, Douglas Brinkley, provided by Mr. Brinkley to The New York Times, Roy F. Hoffmann, a retired rear admiral and a leader of the group, allowed that he had disagreed with Mr. Kerry's antiwar positions but said, ''I am not going to say anything negative about him.'' He added, ''He's a good man.'' In a profile of the candidate that ran in The Boston Globe in June 2003, Mr. Hoffmann approvingly recalled the actions that led to Mr. Kerry's Silver Star: ''It took guts, and I admire that.'' But that was then and this is now. Why did “Latch” change his tune? It seems to have been the smell of criticism coming off Tour of Duty: quote: ZERNIKE: Both Mr. Hoffmann and Mr. Lonsdale had publicly lauded Mr. Kerry in the past. But the book, Mr. Brinkley's ''Tour of Duty,'' while it burnished Mr. Kerry's reputation, portrayed the two men as reckless leaders whose military approach had led to the deaths of countless sailors and innocent civilians. Several Swift boat veterans compared Mr. Hoffmann to the bloodthirsty colonel in the film ''Apocalypse Now''—the one who loves the smell of Napalm in the morning. The two men were determined to set the record, as they saw it, straight. ''It was the admiral who started it and got the rest of us into it,'' Mr. Lonsdale said. Apparently, Hoffmann believed he could set the record straight by changing his story on Kerry. Here’s the Globe piece to which Zernike refers. Latch seemed to be whistling a merrier tune back in 2003: quote: KRANISH (6/16/03): Roy Hoffmann, who commanded the coastal division in which Kerry served, worried about Kerry, at least at the beginning. He said Kerry and some other skippers initially "had difficulty carrying out direct orders. You know, they were playing the cowboy a little bit. John Kerry was one of them. You don't go out on your own when you are given certain type of patrols, and we were having difficulty with that." Hoffmann said the problem was corrected and he supported the actions on the day Kerry won the Silver Star. "It took guts, and I admire that," Hoffman said. http://www.dailyhowler.com/index.shtml

I'm beginning to understand why there are huge discrepancies between what many of these men state 30 years ago in official navy records, what they said as recentely as a few years ago, and what they are saying today. It's not flip-flopping, it's calculated lying.

___________________
Retro ...

Hehe, let's keep with the Smear Boat spirit and rationale on the "true" attainment of Purple Hearts:

quote:

Tuesday, August 31, 2004: BAND-AID GATE: Why do Republicans hate our soldiers serving in Iraq? "SGT Darrell Kindle was given a Purple Heart after he was injured during a mortar attack in Iraq. “I'm somewhat amazed. I still feel bad for the other soldiers who got wounded in the attack. There were a lot who were wounded seriously, more seriously than I was." Kindle's right hand was injured by the shrapnel. He said it was minor compared to what fellow soldiers suffered." According to the Republican party, you are a liar and a fraud, Sgt. Kindle. UPDATE: Yet more "phonies and frauds" who don't deserve a Purple Heart according to the Republican Party. "Pvt. Kevin Gropp, 26, of Littleton, Colo., was hit by shrapnel. His partner, Sgt. Luis Lazzara, 22, of Tampa, Fla., was grazed by a bullet and also had shrapnel wounds. Both received Purple Hearts on Friday. But they're back on the job already. Gropp still had a piece of shrapnel about the size of a dime in his body from the attack "I am not done yet," Gropp said. "I have mixed feelings about going back in. I am a little nervous, a little more on edge now. Everyone else wants me to go home." According to Megan Fox, a Defense Department spokeswoman, it's fairly common for injured soldiers to go back with their units as soon as they are physically able. The practice became legendary during World War II. "Men don't want to leave their friends in combat," she said. "We've heard reports from the field where people are being treated and their first question is, 'When can I get back with my unit?' It's a great tribute to our men and women that they can be in a situation and think of their unit first." So, apparently the fact that John kerry immediately reported back to his unit after being wounded is actually a sign of comraderie and guts? UPDATE AGAIN: And another one! "Staff Sgt. Toy Reed of Dierks hesitated to raise his hand when asked who in the room had been awarded a Purple Heart. He thought of his buddies who won’t return to Iraq and seemed embarrassed to wear the same purple medal because he’s alive and well. Several of his fellow Charlie Company soldiers tugged at him, telling him to acknowledge his sacrifice. "Me, I got a nick in the leg and a Band-Aid," he said. "I’ve got a guy hit in the eye who may lose his sight." How many soldiers serving in Iraq will the GOP dishonor and mock to make a stupid and pathetic argument? SING IT WITH ME NOW: "I am stuck on Band-aid, 'cause band-aid's stuck on GOP." http://counterspin.blogspot.com/200...d-aid-gate.html

Oh who am I kidding, it's not just the Smear Boaters, it's the willful GOPers as well!

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...

Opus you're still missing the best one. According to the swiftboat vets we need to strip away Pat Tillman's purple heart because it was a freindly fire incident. Hmmm perhaps that silver star is suspect as well.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/05/29/tillman.report/

"Cpl. Tillman was shot and killed while responding to enemy fire without regard to his personal safety."

Without regard for his personal safety? WHy that sounds like incompetance to me!

___________________
Retro ...

Well I think it goes without saying that this Swifty crap sure has played itself around the media/blog horn quite extensively.

Let's see just how far the situation with Bush and the Texas Air Nat'l Guard will go. Anyone wanna take bets as to how long this will get carried? My guess is it will receive about a 1/3 as much attention:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2...s/index_np.html

quote:

The campaign battle over Vietnam War records is still raging, but President Bush may soon be the one answering uncomfortable questions about his past service. Ben Barnes, the former lieutenant governor of Texas, will finally break his silence and talk to the press about what role he played in helping Bush get a coveted slot in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968. Sources say Barnes has already sat down for a "60 Minutes" interview that will air a week from Sunday. A "60 Minutes" spokesperson declined to comment, saying the program does not discuss reports that are in progress. Barnes made headlines last week when his videotaped comments that he was "very ashamed" of getting Bush into the National Guard began circulating on the Web. He said the remorse was prompted by a recent visit to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, where he saw the names of thousands of other young men who did not enjoy the connections of the Bush family. Barnes made his comments in May and the video was posted on a pro-Kerry Web site in June, but word of it only began to spread widely last Friday.

Keep in mind that Bush is on record for saying that he received absolutely no help in getting into the Texas Guard.

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...