Anybody know if this is true about Kerry?

This was taken from a site Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry. Lots of info there, but this part is pertinent to the discussion as it describes actions following his anti-war activities.

Re-elected to the Senate in 1990 - Kerry, as co-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, proved himself to be a masterful chameleon at burying the POW/MIA issue.

In 1991, the United States Senate created the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs to examine the possibility that U.S. POW/MIAs might still be held by the Vietnamese.
As chairman of the Select Committee, Kerry proved himself to be a masterful chameleon portraying to the public at large what appeared to be an unbiased approach to resolving the POW/MIA issue.

But, in reality, no one in the United States Senate pushed harder to bury the POW/MIA issue, the last obstacle preventing normalization of relations with Hanoi, than John Forbes Kerry.
In fact, his first act as chairman was to travel to Southeast Asia, where during a stopover in Bangkok, Thailand, he lectured the U.S. Chamber of Commerce there on the importance of lifting the trade embargo and normalizing relations with Vietnam.

During the entire life of the Senate Select Committee, Kerry never missed a chance to propaganderize and distort the facts in favor of Hanoi.

In a Nov. 21, 1993 column, Sydney Schanberg wrote, "Highly credible information has been surfacing in recent days which indicates that the headlines you have been reading about a 'breakthrough' in Hanoi's cooperation on the POW/MIA issue are part of a carefully scripted performance. The apparent purpose is to move toward normalization of relations with Hanoi.
"Sen. John F. Kerry, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, is one of the key figures pushing for normalization. Kerry is currently on a visit to Vietnam where he has been doing two things: (1) praising the Vietnamese effusively for granting access to their war archives and (2) telling the press that there's no believable evidence to back up the stories of live POWs still being held. "Ironically, that very kind of live-POW evidence has been brought to Kerry's own committee on a regular basis over the past year, and he has repeatedly sought to impeach its value.

Moreover, Kerry and his allies on the committee - such as Sens. John McCain, Nancy Kassebaum and Tom Daschle - have worked to block much of this evidence from being made public."

In the Senate debate itself, Kerry, rather than embarass Vietnam by demanding the truth, launched a highly publicized diversionary investigation of the POW/MIA families and activists, who were demanding an honest accounting.

Kerry labeled them "professional malcontents, conspiracy mongers, con artists, and dime-store Rambos" who were only involved in the POW/MIA issue for money.

The Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs published in its January 1993 Final Report (page 6) that American servicemen were left behind alive and in captivity.

Kerry's Select Committee staff, in order to soft pedal this abandonment, added in the report "We acknowledge that there is no proof that U.S. POWs survived."

Kerry's "no proof" assertion, was an outright lie. It was an effort by Kerry's pro-Hanoi staff to bury our POW/MIA's and further open the doors to trade with Vietnam.

Kerry maintained there was "no proof U.S. POWs survived," but never produced evidence proving the left behind POWs were dead, or who was responsible for their deaths or where their remains were located.

Kerry never demanded that Vietnam explain.

I would have just posted a link, but this info is in the middle of a very long page.

Rodger, you might find this an interesting read. It's long, but it's in lawyer-speak, so you should like it.

 

GWB isn't going to go easy. Wait until he hits the campaign trail for real. I think he's just going to do a little shadow boxing with Russert tomorrow morning as a warmup.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040205-115113-7234r.htm

 

Re: dead Americans

I don't dispute the US total, I was estimating how many Americans died b/t 1968 and 1973 when the truce was signed. But I agree that Nixon and Kissenger may have been responsible for the unnecessary deaths of more than half of the 59,000.

And millions did dies in the Indochina conflcit - Vietnamese, cambodians, Laotians. What a mess. What a waste.

 

IYC,

That is very weird stuff. Those MIA guys have Kerry and Mccain in a conspiracy to hide evidence of MIAs (or something). Quite an odd couple to conspire, especially considring the claim raised above about McCain being so anti-Kerry.

 

Bush will lose by TKO 2 minutes into the first round, even though Russert is a softie. Bush has the public speaking skills of Gomer Pyle.

You right wingers shoud sleep in this AM. Its gonna be ugly.

 

Hopefully, people will pay more attention to what he has to say than to how great an orater he is (or isn't). He isn't supposed to be a public performer.

 

He wasn't bad this morning, actually.

 

Anti-Human rights Kerry.

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com/ker_beng_wt.htm

We know how JFKennedy died. He wanted to emulate him so much when he was younger, both Yale, both Navy, both boat commanders, both senators, etc. Keep going with this thought process and you get my point.

 

"You've heard me mention that John Kerry voted against most of the weapons programs that are being used by our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq today. Do you want a list? Of course you do. So ... here we go with a list of some of the weapons programs that John Kerry opposed while serving in the U.S. Senate: (Remember now ... John Kerry says that this review of his voting record in the Senate is "attacking his patriotism.")

The B-1 bomber.
The B-2 bomber.
The F-15 Eagle tactical fighter
The F-14D Tomcat fighter
The AH-64 Apache Helicopter
The AV-8B Harrier "jump" jet
The Patriot Missile
The Aegis air-defense system
The Trident missile

Kerry also sought to reduce the funding for procurement of the following:

The M1 Abrams tank
The Bradley Fighting Vehicle
The Tomahawk cruise missile
The F-16 Falcon fighter/attack jet


Now ... don't you wonder just how our military would have handled things in Kuwait, Bosnia, Afghanistan and now Iraq without these weapons programs? And you want this man to be our Commander in Chief? I sure hope not."

Neal Boortz

 

We could have done without the Trident... the Polaris worked fine. Trident submarine sailors are spoiled pussies.

 

I'm so glad there are others out there that don't like him too. You may not like the current administration (although I do), and yes government types all seem to have some sleezyness, but this guy gets my panties in a bunch.

There's a picture of an anti-war gathering at the "National Mall" featuring Honoi Jane. Guess who's sitting behind her in the picture? Honoi John. Kerry that is.

I'm all about free speech and protesting your opinion, but....GRRRRRR! I can't even think straight when I see or hear about J.Fonda!

 

Way behind him.

Gee, do ya think that it's possible that everyone in that anti-war gathering didn't know each other?

Nah. They must've been in cahoots.

Sheesh!

 

Silly Panther. He always forgets about the International Communist Conspiracy to Destroy America. Kerry is part of it you know. So was everyone who opposed the Viet Nam War.

Double SHEESH to you, fellow traveler.

 

Well, by that daffynition, I suppose I am a fellow traveler since I joined the VVAW when I get back from Viet Nam.

 

COMMIE!!!!!!!!!

 

Didn't you play Frank Burns on the M.A.S.H. TV series?

 

No, but i think sub-consciously that is who i was trying to sound like.

 

Wheeeeeeeeew! I didn't think you were THAT old...

 

Actually, he is that old.


Frank Burns eats worms

 

I think this letter says it the best!!


Open Letter to John Kerry:

My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year, and the recovery is
terribly painful. Then, she developed a staph-epi infection, and they had
to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just thinking about the
pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a second time in the same
wound, makes me cringe. That experience, however pales in comparison to
what I am going through right now, in my heart.

The old hurts are surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow
citizens, and their leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart again.
I am being cut in the same scar. How did we who served in Vietnam suddenly
become cold-blooded killers, torturers, and rapists, of the ilk of the Nazi
SS or the Taliban? Most of us were American soldiers who grew up idolizing
John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and all the other heroes. That was why I
volunteered. But for political expediency, John Kerry has rewritten
history, again. After spending only four months in the country of Vietnam,
John Kerry testified before Congress in 1971 with these exact words about
incidents he supposedly witnessed or heard about from other vets: "They
personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable
telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blew
up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs
for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of
South Vietnam."
I was a Green Beret officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and
fought in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces A-team on
the Ho Chi Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the elite. We saw the
most action. Everybody in the world knows that. But we did not just kill
people, we built a church, a school, treated illnesses, passed out soap,
food, and clothing, and had fun and loving interaction with the indigenous
people of Vietnam, just like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon, and
everywhere American soldiers ever served. We all gave away our candy bars
and rations to kids. Our hearts to oppressed people all over the globe.

My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those
horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced, unprincipled
liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and all my fellow Vietnam
veterans. Sure, there were a couple bad-apples, but I saw none, and I saw
it all, and if I did, as an army officer, it was my obligation to stop it,
or at the very least report it. Why is there not a single record anywhere
of you ever reporting any incidents like this or having the perpetrators
arrested? The answer is simple. You are a liar. Your medals and mine are
not a free pass for lifetime, Senator Kerry, to bypass character,
integrity, and morality. I earn my green beret over and over daily in all
aspects of my life.

Eight National Guard green berets, and other National Guard soldiers,
have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you totally dishonored their
widows and families by lumping National Guard service in with being a
draft-dodger, conscientious objector, and deserter, just so you can try to
sabotage the patriotism of our President who proudly served as an Air
National Guard jet pilot. I have a son earning his green beret at Fort
Bragg right now, and his wife serves honorably in the Air National Guard,
just like President Bush did, and I am as proud of her as I am my son. I
volunteered for Vietnam and have no problem whatsoever with President Bush
being our Commander-In-Chief. In fact, I am proud of him as our leader.

John Kerry, you personally derailed the Vietnam Human rights Bill,
HR2883, in 2001, after it had passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote, and
thousands of pro-American Montagnard tribes people in Vietnam died since
then who could have been saved, by you. Earlier, as Chair of the Senate
Select Committee on MIA/POW Affairs, you personally quashed the efforts of
any and all veterans to report sightings of living POW's, when you held
those reins in Congress. You have fought tooth and nail to push for the US
to normalize relations with Vietnam for years. Why, Mr. Kerry? Simple, your
first cousin C. Stewart Forbes, CEO, of Colliers International, recently
signed a contract with Hanoi, worth BILLIONS of dollars for Collier's
International to become the exclusive real estate representative for the
country of Vietnam.

"Hanoi John," now that it works for you, you beat your chest about your
Vietnam service, but to me, you are a phony, opportunistic, hypocrite. You
are one of those politicians that is like a fertilizer machine: all that
comes out of you is horse manure, and you are spreading it everywhere.

Medals do not make a man. Morals do.

Don Bendell
Canon City, Colorado

Don Bendell served as an officer in four Special Forces Groups, is a
best-selling author with over 1,500,000 books in print, a 1995 inductee
into the International Karate Hall of Fame, and owns karate schools in
southern Colorado.