unlike any conservative i know, i actually *read through the kerry testimony in
the 1970s. much to your disappointment, i'm sure, a great deal of kerry's
prepared testimony is about how vietnam vets aren't treated with enough respect
and help in the u.s, how they are in pain and have been forgotten. For
example, "I understand 57 percent of all those entering the VA hospitals talk
about suicide. Some 27 percent have tried, and they try because they come back
to this country and they have to face what they did in Vietnam, and then they
come back and find the indifference of a country that doesn't really care, that
doesn't really care."
while he is certainly critical of the war and the role of soliders in vietnam
(and for a good reason!), he blames the chain of command and the leadership for
the problems in vietnam ... not the soldiers. when he talks about soldiers as
rapists and so on, he is telling what has been told to him by soldiers -- it is
not an accusation. "They [the soliders giving testimony to Kerry's
organization] relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense,
made them do."
his concluding comments are:
"... and so when, in 30 years from now, our brothers go down the street without
a leg, without an arm, or a face, and small boys ask why, we will be able to
say "Vietnam" and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory but mean
instead the place where America finally turned and where soldiers like us
helped it in the turning."
he was thanked numerous times by the committee for his testimony, which he only
had one night to prepare. an example from Senator Javits: "I couldnt [sic]
think of anybody whose testimony I would rather have and act on from the point
of view of what this is doing to our young men we are sending over there, how
they feel about it, what the impact is on the conscience of a country, what the
impact is on even the future of the military services from the point of view of
the men who served, than your own. Thank you very much."
while contentious, this was a graciously accepted and given statement from a
man whose "... sitting here is really symbolic.. [sic] I am not here as John Kerry. I
am here as one member of the group of 1,000, which is a small representation of
a very much larger group of veterans in this country, and were it possible for
all of them to sit at this table they would be here and have the same kind of
testimony."
So after one reads the testimony, one finds that when Kerry salutes those who
served in Vietnam today, he is not "flip flopping"... he is continuing a major
theme of his testimony, of his foundational political message. The theme of
the testimony is the following:
vietnam is terrible and must be stopped (although kerry explicitly leaves the
details of the stoppage congress), but the soliders are not to blame. they
should be supported for their service and hopefully one day they'll be able to
look back and say 'i went through hell for my country, and i helped make it a
better place.'
conversely, cnn recently posted this article about bush's "missing" war
records:
www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/06/bush.records.ap/index.html
and in february of this year, a probable explanation was published:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/12/elec04.prez.bush.texas.records/
index.html
on top of that, the speaker of the texas house in the 1970s (who is a democrat,
for what that's worth) admitted that he got bush into the national guard when
he shouldn't have. he said "I got a lot of other people in the National Guard
because I thought that's what people should do when you're in office: You help
a lot of rich people." In 1995 "...Barnes' lawyer issued a statement saying
Barnes had been contacted by the now-deceased Sidney Adger, a Houston oilman
and friend of Mr. Bush's father, who was then a congressman. Adger asked Barnes
to recommend Mr. Bush for a pilot position with the Air National Guard and he
did..."
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/09/politics/main628437.shtml
as for drug use:
"Gov. George W. Bush, dogged by criticism for refusing to say whether he has
used illegal drugs, answered part of the question Wednesday and said he had not
done so in the last seven years. Mr. Bush's statement came in response to a
question from The Dallas Morning News about whether, as president, he would
insist that his appointees answer drug-use questions contained in the standard
FBI background check. 'As I understand it, the current form asks the question,
'Did somebody use drugs within the last seven years?' and I will be glad to
answer that question, and the answer is 'No,' Mr. Bush told The News....The
Questionnaire for National Security Decisions, part of the background check,
asks about illegal drug use going back seven years. Applicants also are asked
if they have ever used illegal drugs while employed as a law officer,
prosecutor or court official....FBI applicants can have used so-called hard
drugs, such as cocaine and heroin five times in their lives, but not during the
10 years immediately before their applications, (according to FBI Agent Rene
Salinas). Applicants take lie-detector tests to verify their answers to drug-
use questions....'You are required to answer the questions fully and
truthfully, the questionnaire says.... Mr. Bush, the GOP presidential front-
runner, would not elaborate about drug use beyond seven years ago." Dallas
Morning News, 8/19/99 this type of strategy was pursued over and over, with
him only going back as far as the question required. there are multiple
sources claiming that bush used and was even arrested for cocaine possession,
not to mention drunk driving.
as for his flip flopping, he's for stricter drug laws and even prison for first
time offenses. talk about flip flopping on issues central to his life!!!
