John Kerry's Molehill Mountain
By Joseph Boudreau
Oct. 28, 2004
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil". Jeremiah 13:23
John Kerry continues to demonstrate his disdain for our military and civilian leadership, as he has done for over thirty years. What is remarkable about the man is his arrogance. He is convinced that he knows more than those whose responsibility it is to formulate and carry out American policy, despite the fact that history has repeatedly shown him wrong on stances he has advocated over the years.
Faced with an accusation that he is weak on defense, Kerry painted himself as a decorated veteran who fought for this country as a young man and will fight for it again. Audie Murphy was said to have been the most highly decorated soldier of World War II. That always seemed to embarass him, however, and he would quickly state that there were others who should have been given that title, but they were dead. He tried to downplay his personal achievements, he didn't run about tooting his own horn. And, unlike John Kerry, the people who were with him supported the accounts of his achievements. Murphy was twice wounded, spent time in the hospital, yet stayed the duration. Kerry bugged out four months into a twelve month tour because he had been wounded three times. Kerry did not lose a single duty day as a result of his wounds. Of 3,500 Swift boat veterans, John Kerry was the only one to bug out early on the three-wound policy.
Upon his return from Vietnam, the self-proclaimed war hero embarked upon an anti-war agenda. He accused U.S. service personnel of committing war crimes on a daily basis, on a par with the attrocities of Ghengis Khan, when he had no substantiation of his allegations. In thirty years he has not once provided factual evidence to support his accusations. He testified to the Senate that at the most 3,000 people would be impacted by a Communist takeover of the South. John Kerry's assessment of the situation was as wrong as one could get. Floods of refugees attempted to leave the country after the Communist takeover. Multitudes were either executed or sentenced to the Vietnamese prison system. For 29 years an entire nation has been living under the cruel oppression of a totalitarian government whose policies Kerry determined to be better than those of our government.
During the 1980s John Kerry opposed everything President Reagan was endeavoring to do. Reagan sought to strengthen the U.S. military, curtail Soviet expansionism, and boldly stated that the Soviet Union was an evil empire. Kerry thought he knew more than Reagan did. Kerry supported a nuclear freeze, although the nuclear freeze movement was Soviet engineered and funded. Had a nuclear freeze gone into effect, it would have left the Soviet Union militarily stronger than the U.S. and NATO. When the Soviets were trying to take over Central America, Reagan opposed them. John Kerry opposed Reagan. Kerry stated Reagan was leading us into a second Vietnam. Again, Kerry was wrong. Because of Reagan's stand, Nicaragua had free elections and the Sandanistas were voted out of office.
In 1991 John Kerry opposed intervention against Iraq after that nation overran Kuwait. He was amongst the naysayers that said it would be another Vietnam, and that Americans would die by the thousands. Once again, Kerry's analysis of the situation was wrong.
During the Clinton years Kerry acknowledged that Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, was attempting to stockpile Weapons of Mass Destruction, and was a threat that needed to be stopped. John Kerry had the opportunity to speak out against the war when a vote was taken in the U.S. senate to authorize the president to use force if necessary. Kerry voted to grant that authorization. After the president saw that Saddam Hussein was not going to comply with United Nations resolutions the president deemed it necessary to use force.
When it became apparent that Howard Dean's anti- war stance was making him the presidential front- runner, John Kerry adapted an anti-war stance. From that point on, his prior statements about Iraq being a threat were forgotten, or glossed over. Suddenly John Kerry the war guru emerged. John Kerry attended a four month curriculum at Navy Officer Candidate School. Kerry served a truncated division officer tour on the USS Gridley. Kerry served 4 months of a 12 month tour in Vietnam. Kerry then spent a few months as an admiral's aide before being released from active duty. Despite what Kerry thinks of himself, John Kerry is not a military expert. General Tommy Franks, Unified Commander of Central Command, spent an entire lifetime studying how to make war. It is the height of arrogance for John Kerry to think he knows more about how the war on terror should have been conducted. It is ignorant for Kerry to undermine Franks' decisions about troop strength and military capabilities regarding the war front in Afghanistan and whether we were capable of prosecuting a war against Iraq. Kerry keeps referring to things the Army Chief of Staff said, using that to back up his charges that President Bush has screwed up the war effort in Iraq. Army Chief of Staff is solely an administrative position, not a command position. The COS could offer his opinions all day long, but General Franks was the one with command power. What Franks recommended was what counted, and that was the course that was taken. Tommy Franks comes across as an intelligent, no- nonsense general. Had his recommendations been overridden, and the war effort been completely botched, as John Kerry charges, it is highly unlikely that Tommy Franks would have endorsed George W. Bush for re-election.
The latest Kerry attempt to discredit President Bush's handling of the war on terror involves 380 tons of explosives that were at the Al QaQa compound. In 1995 the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Administraton inspection teams identified Al QaQa as a site having these explosives. The bunkers containing the explosives were locked and sealed with IAEA tags. The 380 tons of explosives are no longer at Al QaQa. This past week Kerry charged President Bush with dereliction that enabled these explosives to be stolen. He states that had he been in charge, that site would have been protected and the explosives would not have fallen into the hands of insurgents.
First off, Mr. Kerry, you were not in charge. Second, after CBS and the New York Times ran with this story, a U.N. report was found that stated a U.N. team in January 2003 found only 130 tons of explosives at Al QaQa. No explanation has been given as to what happened to the other 250 tons.
In March, 2003, U.S. troops overran that area and entered the compound. The troops did not have orders to secure the bunkers. However, soldiers have testified that they checked the bunkers anyway. When one's butt is on the line, one does that sort of thing. It could mean the difference between life and death. The bunkers were said to contain nothing but Rocket Propelled Grenades and other conventional small arms. Embedded reporters from Reuters were with the first group of U.S. soldiers to arrive at Al QaQa. The Reuters reporters did not see the large cache of explosives. When the 101st Airmobile Division arrived a few days later they too checked out the bunkers, although not specifically ordered to. They also had embedded reporters with them. Those reporters snooped around the bunkers and did not spot any IAEA tags. Consider this: everybody was looking for WMDs. If a reporter happened to find them it would be the scoop of the war. You'd better believe those reporters checked out those bunkers fairly well.
It is estimated that 380 tons worth of explosives would require at least 40 trucks to transport them out of there. From the time when the first American troops arrived at At QaQa until today there has been an American presence in the area. It would not have been possible for a 40-truck procession to pass through that area unobserved.
There is no proof that the explosives were at Al QaQa when the Americans arrived there. There is no proof that the explosives were taken out subsequent to the arrival of American troops due to negligence on the part of the troops or the administration. Furthermore, Bill Gertz, of the Washington Post, is supposed to be coming out with a story that Russian Special Forces troops removed those explosives to Syria prior to the outbreak of war. We'll have to wait on substantiation whether Gertz's story is true.
It is estimated that over 600 thousand tons of weapons were scattered across Iraq when the invasion began. Coalition forces have seized over 400 thousand tons of munitions and weapons.
Let's put this into perspective. 400,000 tons of seized weapons is 67 percent of the total estimated weapons Iraq had prior to the outbreak of hostilities. 380 tons is 63 thousandths of one percent of the total weaponry Iraq had, and 93 thousandths of one percent of the seized weaponry. Instead of speaking of what a good job has been done in securing 67 percent of estimated pre-invasion weaponry in Iraq, John Kerry has emphasized the possible loss of less than one percent of estimated weapons. Since nobody has yet proved that the explosives were at Al QaQa when the U.S. troops arrived, one can not definitively state that said explosives were actually lost.
For John Kerry and John Edwards to malign the President and the military for not protecting the Al QaQa compound is ludicrous. It is misleading the American public and blowing the situation in Iraq totally out of proportion. Running with this story and accusing the President of bungling things in Iraq, without getting all the facts behind the missing explosives, is irresponsible. Yet, it is the same behavior Kerry exhibited in 1971 when he accused his fellow service personnel of committing attrocities on a daily basis. Once again, Kerry's analysis of the situation is wrong, and his rhetoric serves only his own interests, not the interests of this nation.
Despite what Kerry says about fighting for this country, his actions over the past 30 years say otherwise. It is not wise to think that should he be elected his faulty judgment seen over the past 30 years will improve, or that his disdain for the military will suddenly change. To be a leader, one must first learn to be a follower. John Kerry has been neither. Come election day, Caveat emptor - buyer beware!
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About the author Joseph Boudreau: I spent just under 24 years in the Navy, 9 on active duty, the rest in the Naval Reserves. From paygrade E-1 I advanced to paygrade O-4, and retired as a Lieutenant Commander.
Email: bunnyboggins@aol.com |
