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


To: Kevin Rose who wrote (612674)8/28/2004 5:52:05 PM
From: Math Junkie  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 769670
 
"There is some O'Neill story about how he was shocked and scared that he was going to go into combat. Don't know what that's about, given this document. Can anyone shed light on this one?"

I think I saw a quote from something Kerry had written that is consistent with that, and I have also heard that Swift boats didn't go inland when he was first assigned to them. Sorry I can't be more specific.



To: Kevin Rose who wrote (612674)8/28/2004 6:12:28 PM
From: Thomas A Watson  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 769670
 
There is the kevie rose making up statement by O'Neill.

O'NEILL: Yes, sir. Kerry said in over $50 million of advertising and at the Democratic convention, this was the famous story of March 13th entitled "No Man Left Behind." Actually that was the name of his ad that he ran: "No Man Left Behind." According to his story, a mine went off near another boat. There were five swift boats. They all began to take off. The mine went off near Kerry's boat. This knocked Rassmann in the water. There was intense fire, you know, small arms fire after these boats --

RUSH: Enemy fire?

O'NEILL: Enemy fire. The five boats cleared the kill zone, and then Kerry looked back and realized Rassmann was no longer there, and then single-handedly Kerry had been wounded by the water mine, both in the hip and had a bleeding arm. Nonetheless, despite his wounds, he led his boat back in and under terrible fire he crawled up to the bow, and I guess he dove in now, but in the old days, he pulled him out supposedly with his wounded arm. What this story is, is a total fabrication built around a small truth, and it's a very demonstrable fabrication. I might explain it if that's okay.

RUSH: Sure, go right ahead.

O'NEILL: There are three basic elements to the story that are a complete lie. The first element of the story is Kerry's wound. The Kerry camp has now admitted that although Kerry reported to the Navy that his hip wound came from an underwater mine, that his wound actually came from throwing a grenade into some rice earlier that morning when there was no enemy fire and no enemy around. He simply was playing around. He threw a grenade into some rice and got a tiny amount of rice and shrapnel in his fanny.

RUSH: Pardon me. Is there a strategic reason, like blowing up food stocks, blowing up rice, or is it just a thing to pass time?

O'NEILL: I think it was just horsing around. Nobody would ever throw a grenade into rice to try and destroy it. It doesn't destroy it, Rush, as far as I can tell. But be that as it may --

RUSH: Thought that.

O'NEILL: -- he had a tiny, I'm talking tweezer and Band-Aid deal.

RUSH: Yeah.

O'NEILL: What he did was report to the Navy that it came from a water mine. Now, that seemed to be very unlikely having seen a few water mines of my own in Vietnam.

RUSH: Were there witnesses to this that could contradict what he said?

O'NEILL: Yes. That was his first problem. There were at least two: Jim Rassmann, who had written about it earlier, and Larry Thurlow, who heard the grenade go off and was aware of it. But the biggest and most killing witness to Kerry was himself, because his own journal was quoted in the Brinkley book Tour of Duty and outlined exactly this incident. Brinkley apparently wasn't aware that he had lied to the Navy about it.
RUSH: That's another thing. All these people are coming out and you're debating them on TV. You're debating Lanny Davis and James Carville, and they stacked the deck against you. They weren't there. They're having to take somebody's word for what happened, and they're broadcasting it all over the place as though it's gospel. Nobody assumes that any of their sources are making anything up. It's gospel. They weren't there but yet they're noted authorities. You have eyewitnesses who were there and saw this, and you are still subject here to being impugned and discredited and laughed at, and you're bearing up under it rather well. But I can't help but think people are noticing this because you're out there so much doing this and you're keep your cool. You're not blowing up, and because you've got the facts on your side. I know you're a lawyer and you know how to do this and you know that facts speak volumes.

O'NEILL: It's exactly right. For example, on that, Rush, I have the false report. I have all the false accounts he filed on his website and all the false ads and then I have Kerry himself in his own book admitting that this rice deal was in the absence of enemy fire. He just threw a grenade in. There was no water mine.

RUSH: Well, now, wait. There has to have been a water mine. Something blew Rassmann in the water. Something blew up. Was there enemy fire or not?

O'NEILL: Well, we believe there was no enemy fire, but I think it's very important here to take this a step at a time.

RUSH: Okay.

O'NEILL: Step number 1 is, he wounded himself that morning, and also with respect to this wounded and bleeding arm, the records show that the was contusion minor, small bruise treated with cold cloth. There was no wounded, bleeding arm. So the third Purple Heart that he picked up to leave Vietnam in this incident was a complete fraud.

RUSH: Do you think he was trying to get out of Vietnam?

O'NEILL: Without question, Rush.

RUSH: Did not want to be there.

O'NEILL: He wanted out with medals, but he wanted out as fast as he could.

RUSH: But you all wanted out, right? Everybody wanted to get out.

O'NEILL: Oh, no, Rush. We were all volunteers. We were. Of course it was a hard time --

RUSH: I know, but I mean, you volunteered, but I mean, this is hell on earth over there. This is not something you get up to looking forward to every day.

O'NEILL: It was hard, but we all knew we were doing our duty. It was the honor of the thing. It may sound silly, but there aren't any 401(k)s for kids in the military. They're proud to be there. They just don't bail out. They're all there because they feel like they're doing the nation's work. It's honorable, and someday they hope to tell their kids about it. That's what motivates them, motivated all of us.
RUSH: But you believe he wanted out.

O'NEILL: He wanted out with some medals. The second big problem he's got in No Man Left Behind, remember he's got all five boats fleeing--

RUSH: Right.

O'NEILL: The physical evidence shows that PCF-3, not his boat, a boat captained by a man named Dick Pees in Cleveland, Ohio, was blown out of the water. That's how the whole action began. It was blown out of the water, and the guys on the boat, several of them, were blown into the water. The people left were unconscious or trapped in the boat, and so PCF-3 could go nowhere. The theory that all five boats escaped, they couldn't escape, Rush. PCF-3 couldn't go anywhere. What happened is all the boats, with one exception, went to the aid of PCF-3. That is, they closed on PCF-3 picking up swimmers, began trying to bring the boat under control and save it because it was sinking with people trapped on it. The one guy who was not there was John Kerry, exactly as he said, he fled. His boat took off and fled, and that was true. When he said he fled, that was right. He did.

RUSH: But none of the others did.

O'NEILL: They all stayed. Rush, we all drank out of the same cup. We would never flee a boat in those circumstances. We all would rather sit and die together.

RUSH: What did he do, mistake the mine for enemy fire?

O'NEILL: No, he simply bailed out. He's never explained why he bailed out. He tried to claim in some accounts, one account he claimed it was, or one of his crewmen, that it was just a turn. It was the longest turn, Rush, ever made by a PCF.

RUSH: I think guys like this, they drive me nuts.
rushlimbaugh.com