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

To: Wayners who wrote (38139)	7/27/2004 8:10:07 PM
From: redfish	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 81568

Okay here is the actual text: "MR. CROSBY NOYES (Washington Evening Star): Mr. Kerry, you said at one time or another that you think our policies in Vietnam are tantamount to genocide and that the responsibility lies at all chains of command over there. Do you consider that you personally as a Naval officer committed atrocities in Vietnam or crimes punishable by law in this country? SEN. KERRY: There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 calibre machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals." Note that Kerry didn't really answer the question, which was did he commit atrocities punishable by law in the US. In his answer it is pretty clear he was following orders. Also at the very start he qualifies his answer by saying "there are all kinds of atrocities." The way I read that, he is saying that even if an action is allowed and condoned by the US, it can still amount to an atrocity. When he describes the things he did, I don't see anything that I would consider an atrocity ... that was pretty much how the Vietnam War was fought. In any case 1972 was a long time ago ...