John Kerry - Hero or Zero?
JB Williams, 02/23/04
To hear John Kerry tell it, it sounds like Mr. Kerry was the only hero in Vietnam; all others were low down scoundrels, “war criminals” to use his words. He was a double hero, both decorated soldier and leader of the anti-war movement stateside after his return, rubbing elbows with Hanoi Jane and the Hollywood elite. Is it any wonder he later became a career politician? He’s done such a great job of sounding all Presidential that even Gen. Wes Clark is now dry humping his leg like a dog in heat, hoping to stay in the running for VP.
As a three time recipient of the Purple Heart, he never missed a day of duty. What ever his injuries were, they didn’t require any extensive medical attention or lengthy hospital stays. Not to take anything away from anyone who serves our country bravely, and not to wish serious harm on anyone in uniform, but we must have been handing out Purple Hearts like candy back then. What did he have, a bad hangnail?
Prior to Kerry’s pot shots at our National Guardsmen, and George W. Bush’s service to his country, I would have considered this issue off limits. However, since Kerry took the gloves off first, and GWB has too much class to fire back, it’s a perfectly reasonable question for me to ask. How did Kerry get not one, but three Purple Hearts and never spend a single night in the hospital?
On the Presidential campaign trail, he claims to be strong on defense, supportive of our men and women in uniform, but his Senate voting record paints quite a different picture. In 1991, Kerry voted to cut defense spending by 2% along with 21 other Senators, who I guess were also strong on defense. Since that effort failed, Kerry’s second attempt in 1991 along with 27 other Senators, strong on defense, voted to cut another $3 billion from defense, and redirect the funds into social programs. If you can do the math, with only 27 Senators supporting the measure, he once again failed to provide his type of “support” for the military.
In 1992, Kerry voted again to cut defense spending, this time by $6 billion, and even other Democrats came out of the woodwork to stop the measure. In 1993, he voted against a pay raise for men and women in uniform. Then in 1993, he sponsored a plan to reduce the number of Navy submarines and crews, reduce tactical fighter wings of the Air Force, terminate the Navy’s coast mine-sweeping ship program, force the retirement of 60,000 soldiers in one year, and cut the number of light infantry units in the Army to just one. The plan was fortunately DOA.
In 1995, Kerry voted to freeze defense spending for seven years, (past September 2001) cutting the military budget by over $34 billion. Again, only 27 Senators went along. In 1996, Kerry introduced another bill that would have cut defense spending by $6.5 billion, but this time, he couldn’t even find a co-sponsor for the bill, so it never made it to the floor.
Kerry again in 1996, voted “yes” on a Clinton fiscal budget resolution – a defense freeze that would have frozen defense spending for the next seven years (past 2003) and transferred the$34.8 billion in savings to education and job training. The effort was defeated 28 – 71.
There is more where this came from, but finally, after America was attacked in September of 2001, Kerry did something pro-defense when he voted in favor of using force to remove Saddam Hussein from power. However, since then he has stated that he didn’t mean that vote, and he proved it when in 2003, he voted against the $87 billion our military needed to continue its work in Iraq. The measure passed, and once again, Kerry was left standing in a small but distinguished “anti-defense” crowd.
Kerry and his handlers hope that “we the people” will stay focused on the three Purple Hearts he received over 33 years ago, and believe him when he say’s that he is a man we can count on to defend this nation. Many Bush haters will be more than happy to overlook his anti-defense record, while they make certain that we don’t overlook his three metals.
The only good thing to say about Kerry’s Senate career is that he has had only one vote. As the 2004 campaign season progresses, we will learn of other area’s where his Senate record is opposite his campaign rhetoric. Can Kerry be trusted? I wouldn’t trust him with the keys to my house, much less the keys to the Whitehouse. Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me!
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