The fact that you keep bringing up Bush shows your argument lacks any credibility.
It's commonly known that Kerry is despised by his fellow Vietnam vets....as well as all vets. I've read countless stories over the past few months online.....why are you pretending that you haven't? That's the real question.
Here's one.
http://www.newszap.com/articles/2004...ware/dsn04.txt
Veterans blast Kerry's stance: Anti-war activities draw criticism
By Joe Rogalsky, Delaware State News
DOVER - James Thompson, a 23-year Marine Corps veteran, remembers the insults hurled at him after he returned home from Vietnam.
One day, an elderly woman called him a "baby killer" as he strolled down the street.
"I kept walking," said Mr. Thompson, a Dover resident who is a member of the state Veterans Commission.
"What are you going to do to an 80-year-old woman?"
Memories of people calling him a "baby killer" and a "murderer" are why Mr. Thompson does not like Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator who is a decorated Vietnam War veteran.
After returning from Vietnam, Sen. Kerry became an anti-war activist and testified before Congress that U.S. troops had committed atrocities such as rape and murder of civilians.
Sen. Kerry's statements, Mr. Thompson said, caused all U.S. troops who served in Vietnam to be labeled as war criminals and become the target of abuse from anti-war Americans.
"That makes me a little unhappy," Mr. Thompson said of Sen. Kerry's anti-war activity.
"I saw some things I did not like, but they were few and far between. Just like with what is going on in Iraq now (with prisoners being abused), a few got carried away but you cannot say that everyone in the military is a sadist."
The military careers of Sen. Kerry and President Bush have become major issues in this campaign.
Sen. Kerry, a decorated veteran, highlights his military service as he tries to convince voters he is the best man to lead the country in the post-Sept. 11 era. Opponents, however, question his experience as a Swift boat skipper.
On Tuesday, a group of former Swift boat seamen held a news conference in Washington to accuse Sen. Kerry of dishonoring Vietnam veterans in 1971 with his accusations then that U.S. forces had committed atrocities, and by subsequently exploiting his military service to advance his political career.
The group, which included two of Sen. Kerry's commanding officers and several other Swift boat skippers, is the most organized challenge so far to Sen. Kerry's Vietnam-era activities. Sen. Kerry's aides quickly organized their own media event with the senator's crewmates and fellow seamen to attest to his heroism and antiwar efforts.
Democrats have questioned President Bush's time as a pilot in the Texas and Alabama National Guard during the Vietnam War, saying no documents exist to verify that he served as long as he should have.
Mr. Thompson, however, does not worry about the president's National Guard career. Mr. Thompson said he volunteered for Vietnam duty to get a promotion, but does not begrudge others who served in the Guard and avoided combat duty.
"Why should he volunteer?" Mr. Thompson asked.
"If he was lucky enough to beat it without having to go to Canada or Russia, I cannot hold that against him. He was just lucky."
Sen. Kerry's anti-war activity, which included publicly throwing away some of his ribbons, has turned off some Democrats.
Harold Lyles, who served in the Air Force during the Korean and Vietnam wars, said Sen. Kerry's actions disqualify him to be commander-in-chief. Even though Mr. Lyles is a Democrat, he said he will be voting for President Bush in November.
"I do not like how (Sen. Kerry) will lead the country," said Mr. Lyles, now a real estate agent living near Dover.
"I think he will take the country down the wrong path."
State Sen. George H. Bunting, D-Bethany Beach, who fought in Vietnam as a member of the Marine Corps, endorsed Sen. Kerry earlier this year.
Sen. Bunting has since rescinded his endorsement because of policy differences and what he feels is Sen. Kerry's negative attacks on President Bush.
"I have a lot of misgivings about Sen. Kerry," said Sen. Bunting, who was awarded a Purple Heart.
"My hang-up is not with his service or what he did once he got back."
Sen. Bunting said President Bush's disputed stint in the National Guard does not bother him.
"Both men served," he said. "They should be honored for their service."
The FBI, closely tracking the anti-war movement in the 1970s, concluded John Kerry was a glib, moderate figure in a Vietnam veterans group that took a radical turn around the time he left it, documents show.
The FBI file on Vietnam Veterans Against the War says the organization swung toward "militant and revolutionary-type activities" but accuses Sen. Kerry of little more than charisma.
The bureau's more than four-year investigation of the organization - everything from its plots to pot luck suppers - is detailed in more than 9,000 pages released Wednesday under a Freedom of Information Act request from The Associated Press.
An FBI summary of the anti-war protests Sen. Kerry helped organize in April 1971 says the decorated war hero "overshadowed" many of the organization's other leaders and was "a more popular and eloquent figure" than the rest.
"Kerry was glib, cool, and displayed just what the moderate elements wanted to reflect," the summary says.
The Associated Press and the Knight-Ridder News Service contributed to this article.
Staff writer Joe Rogalsky can be reached at 741-8226 or
jrogalsky@newszap.com
**********************
It's commonly known that he lied about attrocities he said he saw in Vietnam commited by his fellow vets.
IN FACT HE EVEN SAID THAT HE TOOK PART IN THEM THEREBY CALLING HIMSELF A WAR CRIMINAL.
http://www.nationalreview.com/kob/kob200405050843.asp
May 05, 2004, 8:43 a.m.
Kate’s Take: Brothers Against Kerry
By Kate O'Beirne
On Tuesday morning, John Kerry's other, bigger, band of brothers visited Washington to announce that their Vietnam sibling is unfit to be commander-in-chief. According to its organizers, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth represents "the large majority" of those who served with Lieutenant Kerry on the Navy's Patrol Craft-Fast (PCF) vessels. Older, grayer, reluctant but determined, they remain a formidable force.
A huge photograph of Lt.j.g. Kerry with 17 of his fellow officers stood to the side of the podium where about a dozen veterans spoke on behalf of the almost 200 who have signed a letter to Senator Kerry asking him to release his "complete and unaltered" military records. The newly organized group includes 12 of the officers who posed for that photograph 35 years ago. "We have been silent long enough," the letter declares. These Vietnam veterans have organized in 2004 to reclaim their reputations from the distortions and betrayal they believe they suffered at the hands their fellow swift-boat veteran in 1971.
But for that shot of those handsome young men in uniform, this gathering of middle-aged men might be a Lion's Club meeting of local community leaders. These are the kind of men who quietly returned to those communities, with their medals and memories of honorable service, to resume their civilian lives. They quietly watched John Kerry make his claims about widespread atrocities in the "obscene memory" that was Vietnam. In a veteran-to-veteran face-off, John O'Neill engaged John Kerry in 1971, but the rest of these men were content to let the politicians and historians argue over the war and its aftermath. Until now.
Capt. (Ret.) George Elliott explained that he hadn't "talked for 30 minutes in 25 years" about John Kerry's role in the antiwar movement. Andy Horne from Houston said that he was silent 35 years ago about John Kerry's allegations about atrocities, but vowed that he "won't be silent ever again." The passage of time has had little effect on the raw emotions of these gray-haired veterans. Former Lt. Robert Elder of Pennsylvania talked about the "deep sense of betrayal" he feels at the hands of a fellow naval officer. Cdr. (Ret.) Robert Brant from Michigan planned to head over to the Vietnam Memorial "to tell two of his old pals and the other 49 'Swifties' that they are still the best." Not a single one of these veterans witnessed any of the horrors John Kerry solemnly testified to before the Senate and assert that his oath obliged him to report alleged war crimes to his command.
Rear Admiral (Ret.) Roy Hoffman, the chairman of the group, bluntly stated that the John Kerry who served in his command is unfit to command himself. He states that after four months and 12 days, with his "specious medals secure," Kerry "bugged out of Vietnam." As far as the admiral is concerned, "the real band of brothers are those who honorably and reliably stayed the course."
Since their activities have hit the news, these Navy veterans are again taking incoming fire. Predictably, they are being accused of being partisan shills. In an ironic echo of the past, they're being dismissed as "bitter alcoholics." But, these men are determined to fight one more battle to salvage the reputations of the tens of thousands who served honorably. It's not about partisan politics they explain, it's a "veterans' issue." If the Democrats "had a fit choice for president we'd go home." They "do not want Senator Kerry to be commander-in-chief of our brave and honorable men."
What of George Bush's controversial record in the National Guard? John O'Neill says that if his fellow Guardsmen have a problem with the president's service they ought to come forward. This group of veterans is raising specific objections to one specific veteran with whom they served.