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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (549229)	3/7/2004 11:58:39 AM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 769670

A record to regret Kerry's positions are consistently depressing Sunday, March 07, 2004 Sen. John F. Kerry opposed -- famously -- the Vietnam War. His opposition to that conflict was so intense that he marched in demonstrations under the flag of the enemy, and falsely accused his fellow Vietnam veterans of routinely committing grisly war crimes. Kerry also opposed aid to El Salvador when that country was being attacked by Marxist guerrillas, and aid to the Contras, who -- with U.S. help -- ultimately freed Nicaragua from a communist dictatorship. Kerry denounced the liberation of Grenada after a bloody Marxist coup there as "a bully's show of force," though he says now he didn't oppose the U.S. intervention. Kerry voted against the liberation of Kuwait after Saddam Hussein invaded that country in 1990. Kerry also voted against lifting the arms embargo on Bosnia when that country was being attacked by Serbs allied with Yugoslav dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Though Kerry voted for the 2002 resolution authorizing the United States to go to war with Iraq, he now says Operation Iraqi Freedom was a mistake. In his youth, Kerry said U.S. armed forces should be placed under the control of the United Nations. More recently, he has said the United States should not have gone to war without U.N. permission. This record has caused some to wonder if there could ever be a circumstance where a President Kerry would use American military power without seeking Kofi Annan's permission first. We now have an answer. In a meeting with the New York Daily News on Feb. 28, Kerry said he would have sent troops to Haiti even without international support to quell a popular uprising against (now deposed) President Jean Bertrand Aristide. "I would intervene with the international community, and absent an international force, I'd do it unilaterally," Kerry said. A U.S. intervention to protect Aristide would have had to be unilateral, because even the French recognized that the wildly unpopular president was the principal cause of Haitian unrest. "He does not belong in office. He has no legitimacy," an official in the French foreign ministry told NewsMax Feb. 28. A day earlier, French Foreign Minister Dominque de Villepin was pushing Aristide toward the door: "It is for President Aristide, who bears a heavy responsibility in the current situation, to draw the consequences of the impasse," de Villepin told a Haitian delegation on Feb. 27. The upsurge in violence in Haiti that prompted the U.S., French and Canadian intervention there had come mostly from thugs allied with Aristide, the French official said. "Aristide was trying to use [a U.S. proposed agreement to share power] to force a contingent of international police to come to Haiti and save him from the rebels. It would not work," the French official said. A renegade Catholic priest turned Marxist, Aristide was elected president in 1990 in the closest thing Haiti has ever had to a fair election, but deposed a year later in a coup led by his security chief. President Clinton sent 20,000 U.S. troops to Haiti in 1994 to restore Aristide to power. But Aristide proved to be typical of the "one man, one vote, one time" syndrome that has plagued the region. Re-elected in 2000 in elections considered fraudulent by the United Nations and the Organization of American States, Aristide put his thugs in charge of the police and used them to intimidate political opponents. Much of the aid provided by the United States and international organizations found its way into his pockets, and those of his cronies. Once bound by a vow of poverty, Aristide became Haiti's richest man. The wild celebrations throughout Haiti upon Aristide's departure indicate that had we intervened militarily to prop him up, we'd have had to fight most of the country. Yet this is the one instance where John Kerry would unilaterally use military force. Kerry would not intervene in Iraq to overthrow a tyrant who was a danger to the United States. But he would intervene in Haiti to prop up a tyrant who was an enemy of the United States. There is a depressing consistency in this. post-gazette.com

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (549229)	3/7/2004 12:48:26 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769670

ducdebrabant - 12:08 PM ET March 7, 2004 (#2675 of 2681) goodolboy - 12:01 PM ET March 7, 2004 (#2673 of 2673) The facts of Kerry's divorce are right there for anybody to study. She testified that over a period of years he called her obscene names and otherwise verbally abused her, took money from her accounts without her permission, used hard drugs regularly, spit on her, and smashed her in the face and body with his fists. For him to claim that's "ancient history" and "personal" is ridiculous. This is one nasty, vicious, cowardly, fortune-hunting bully. Obviously, the banned arthuradley is back under yet another name. Disregard. When Dean was the frontrunner, he was posting stuff about how Dean regularly beat Judy. forums.nytimes.com

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (549229)	3/7/2004 12:52:12 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769670

kittyhawkexpres - 6:28 AM ET March 7, 2004 (#2654 of 2681) Open Letter for Senator Kerry Part One I received this open letter to Senator Kerry and post it for review. Dear Senator Kerry: Since it has become clear that you will probably be the Democratic nominee for President, I have spent a great deal of time researching your war record and your record as a professional politician. The reason is simple, you aspire to be the Commander in Chief who would lead my sons and their fellow soldiers in time of war. I simply wanted to know if you possess the necessary qualifications to be trusted in that respect. You see I belong to a family of proud U.S. veterans. I was a Captain in the Army Reserve, my father was a decorated Lieutenant in World War II and I have four sons who have either served, or are currently serving in the military. The oldest is an Army Lieutenant still on active duty in Afghanistan after already being honored for his service in Iraq. The youngest is an E-4 with the military police. His National Guard unit just finished their second tour of active duty, including six months in Guantanamo Bay. My two other sons have served in the national guard and the navy. In looking at your record I found myself comparing it not only to that of my father and my sons, but to the people they served with. My father served with the 87th Chemical Mortar Battalion in Europe. They landed on Utah Beach and fought for 317 straight days including the Cherbourg Peninsula, Aachen, the Hurtgen Forest, and the Battle of the Bulge. You earned a Silver Star in Vietnam for chasing down and finishing off a wounded and retreating enemy soldier. My father won a Bronze Star for single handedly charging and knocking out a German machine gun nest that had his men pinned down. You received three purple hearts for what appears to be three minor scratches. In fact you only missed a combined total of two days of duty for these wounds. The men of my father's unit, the 87th, had to be admonished by there commanding officer because: It has been brought to our attention that some men are covering up wounds and refusing medical attention for fear of being evacuated and permanently separated from this organization... It was also a common problem for seriously wounded soldiers to go AWOL from hospitals in order to rejoin their units. You used your three purple hearts to leave Vietnam early. My oldest boy came home from Iraq with numerous commendations and then proceeded to volunteer to go to Afghanistan and from there back to Iraq again. My sons and father have never had anything but the highest regard and respect for their fellow soldiers. Yet, you came home to publicly charge your fellow fighting men with being war criminals and to urge their defeat by the enemy. You even wrote a book that had a cover which mocked the heroism of the US Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. kittyhawkexpres - 6:30 AM ET March 7, 2004 (#2655 of 2681) Open Letter for Senator Kerry Part Two: Open Letter for Senator Kerry Part Two: Our current crop of soldiers has a philosophy that no one gets left behind and they have practiced that from Somalia to the battlefields of the Middle East. Yet as chairman of a Senate committee looking into allegations that many of your fellow servicemen had been left behind as prisoners in Vietnam, you chose to defend the brutal Vietnamese regime. You even went so far as to refer to the families of the POWs and MIAs as Professional malcontents, conspiracy mongers, con artists, and dime-store Rambos. As a Senator you voted against the 1991 Gulf War, and have repeatedly voted against funds to supply our troops with the best equipment, and against money to improve our intelligence capability. I find this particularly ironic since as a Presidential candidate you are highly critical of our prewar intelligence in Iraq. However, you did vote to authorize the President to go to war, but have since proceeded to do everything you can to undermine the efforts of our government and our troops to win. Is this what our fighting men and women can expect of you if you are their Commander in Chief? Will you gladly send them to war, only to then aid the enemy by undermining the morale of our troops and cutting off the weapons they need to win? Our country is at war Senator, and as has been the case in every war since the American Revolution, a member of my family is serving their country during the war. Now you want me to trust you to lead my sons in this fight. Sorry Senator, but when I compare your record to those who have fought and died for this nation, and are currently fighting and dying, the answer is not just no, but Hell No! Sincerely, Michael Connelly February 14, 2004 Dallas, Texas forums.nytimes.com