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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (17857)	4/25/2004 3:03:06 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

Editorial: Galling smears ___________________________ April 24, 2004 startribune.com Perhaps it should no longer surprise, but it does: the guiltless ease with which the Karl Rovian forces of the far right smear a perfectly fine person. They did it with former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland; they did it with Sen. John McCain, and now they are attempting to do it with Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic candidate for president this fall. A clandestine slime campaign against Kerry has been ongoing for many months on the Web. It surfaced this week when Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie demanded that Kerry open all his military records from his Vietnam-era service, as Kerry had pledged to do last Sunday in an appearance on "Meet the Press." Kerry complied by posting his record on the Web for all to see. What Gillespie was tapping into was an ugly rumor mill whispering that Kerry didn't deserve the three Purple Hearts, one Bronze Star and one Silver Star he earned while commanding a high-speed gunboat on the rivers of Vietnam in 1968-69. Kerry has been accused of seeking out the medals, of somehow planning his injuries and awards to plump up his résumé for political office, of war crimes, of receiving his awards under "fishy circumstances," of not deserving the Purple Hearts because his injuries were minor, of serving in Vietnam for only four months, and on and on. Here's what Kerry's commanding officer told the Boston Globe: "There were an awful lot of Purple Hearts -- from shrapnel, some of those might have been M-40 grenades," said George Elliott. "The Purple Hearts were coming down in boxes. Kerry, he had three Purple Hearts. None of them took him off duty. Not to belittle it, that was more the rule than the exception." Besides, Kerry didn't award himself the Purple Hearts; they were awarded to him by the Navy because he deserved them. Once Kerry had the three awards, he was entitled to go home. Who's to begrudge him the return to the United States? Certainly not anyone who didn't also serve in that war theater. And here's what he lived through while he was there, taken from the citation for Kerry's Silver Star: On Feb. 28, 1969, Kerry was serving as tactical commander for a three-boat unit on the Dong Cung River. "As the force approached the target area ... all units came under intense automatic weapons and small arms fire from an entrenched enemy force less than 50 feet away. Unhesitatingly, Lt. (jg) Kerry ordered his boat to attack as all units opened fire and beached directly in front of the enemy ambushers. This daring and courageous tactic surprised the enemy and succeeded in routing a score of enemy soldiers. ... On a request upon U.S. Army advisors ashore, (Kerry) ordered (boats) 94 and 23 further up river to suppress enemy sniper fire. After proceeding approximately 800 yards, the boats were again taken under fire from a heavily foliated area and a B-40 rocket exploded close aboard (boat) 94. With utter disregard for his own safety and the enemy rockets, he again ordered a charge on the enemy, beached his boat only 10 feet from the VC rocket position, and personally led a landing party ashore in pursuit of the enemy." The citation goes on to laud Kerry for his "brave action, bold initiative and unwavering devotion to duty." The words are the Navy's, not Kerry's. Moreover, he was in Vietnam, risking his life, risking death, with his fellow Americans -- and receiving consistently outstanding ratings from his superior officers. The first sentence of his Feb. 10, 1968, letter to the chief of naval personnel says it all: "I request duty in Vietnam." It is particularly galling to have this smear campaign thrown up on behalf of people who didn't have the guts to serve in a war they supported. President Bush didn't serve; nor did Vice President Dick Cheney, or Karl Rove, or Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz or many other high-ranking officials in the Bush administration. In the broader right-wing community, the so-called chickenhawks also include Rush Limbaugh, Bill Bennett, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, to name a few. Not one day did they serve in Vietnam; not one bit of shrapnel came within thousands of miles of them; not one enemy aimed a B-40 or an AK-47 at them and pulled the trigger; not one of them bore the enormous responsibility of keeping other sailors safe in combat. These sorts of smears have worked before, those against McCain and Cleland being two good examples. The American people should be resolute in ensuring the smears won't work this time.