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A bit? That's all most bullies are... cowards who like to puff themselves up. Bunch of roosters struttin' around, pecking on the smaller peeps around them, thinking they're the baddest thing on earth.

Then they find out one of those peeps is a wolf in disguise. They never pick on that one again.

Squeaky Bunny wrote:
BTW Scaramouche is a stock character in Italian comedy. A boastful coward.

A bit like Rahan don't you think?

I was gonna say - the Italians have a John Kerry character?

Kerry Skydancer wrote:

Squeaky Bunny wrote:
BTW Scaramouche is a stock character in Italian comedy. A boastful coward.

A bit like Rahan don't you think?

I was gonna say - the Italians have a John Kerry character?

Hey the whole Italian navy was famous for running from a fight during WWII. Kind of sounds like Kerry in Vietnam doesn't it?

Kerry Skydancer wrote:

Squeaky Bunny wrote:
BTW Scaramouche is a stock character in Italian comedy. A boastful coward.

A bit like Rahan don't you think?

I was gonna say - the Italians have a John Kerry character?

Mussolini?

Jaydub wrote:

Kerry Skydancer wrote:

Squeaky Bunny wrote:
BTW Scaramouche is a stock character in Italian comedy. A boastful coward.

A bit like Rahan don't you think?

I was gonna say - the Italians have a John Kerry character?

Hey the whole Italian navy was famous for running from a fight during WWII. Kind of sounds like Kerry in Vietnam doesn't it?

I take it you missed the official pronouncement from the Navy Inspector General in 2004:

"Our examination found that existing documentation regarding the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals indicates the awards approval process was properly followed. In particular, the senior officers who awarded the medals were properly delegated authority to do so. In addition, we found that they correctly followed the procedures in place at the time for approving these awards.

Conducting any additional review regarding events that took place over 30 years ago would not be productive. The passage of time would make reconstruction of the facts and circumstances unreliable, and would not allow the information gathered to be considered in the context of the time in which the events took place.

Our review also considered the fact that Senator Kerry's post-active duty activities were public and that military and civilian officials were aware of his actions at the time. For these reasons, I have determined that Senator Kerry's awards were properly approved and will take no further action in this matter."

Please see the extensive article on Answers.com: http://www.answers.com/topic/john-kerry ... ontroversy

Fursonally, I lost all interest in the Swift Boat Vets when a Bush campaign lawyer was found to be directly advising the group... which is a direct violation of their status as a 527 political organization. (As a 527, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is allowed to raise any amount of campaign funds, but is forbidden from working directly with the campaign of a candidate. Ginsberg was actually the second Bush-Cheney campaign member to be caught working directly with the SBVFT; the first was Air Force Colonel Ken Cordier (Ret.), a member of the group who was an unpaid veterans'-affairs advisor to the campaign. Both resigned from the campaign.)

And, on a personal note:

What, having half the Bush voters convinced that a devout Catholic supported abortion wasn't enough? You have to hold on to every shred of anti-Kerry? Let Vietnam rest in peace, and pray we never have another.

Yours truly,

The born-in-1970,

Wanderer

Wanderwolf wrote:You have to hold on to every shred of anti-Kerry? Let Vietnam rest in peace, and pray we never have another.

Personally, I never questioned Kerry's medals. I was waiting for actual proof to surface; anyone can make allegations. If anything bothered me about his Vietnam service, it was how he was happy enough to throw away his medals when riding a political wave in one direction, and later on just as happy to declare the value of his medals when the political wave reversed. And don't anyone give me any malarkey about his throwing someone ELSE's medals; the picture that he wanted to portray at the time was that they were his.

Beyond that, I was actually hoping Kerry would turn out to be a decent candidate. He's a seasoned Senator, and I've seen him argue both articulately and sensibly without throwing around diatribes. I was willing to consider replacing Bush with someone of better qualifications.

But Kerry and Edwards both threw the "act presidential" strategy out the window in their efforts to constantly whip up their party base like Howard Dean had done. In the end, they both out-Deaned Dean with the sole exception of "the Scream" (which personally I thought was overhyped).

Bush does not much impress me. But Democrats these days SCARE me.

As to Kerry and his medals....

I'm more inclined to believe the testimony of people who were actually in the field with him, than the judgements made after the fact by a bunch of REMFOs. Boy howdy, he sure dotted them I's and crossed them t's right pretty on all the forms.... but that don't add up to a tinker's damn whether he actually earned those medals he wrote himself up for.

But the medals are irrelevant, because what he did after returning to America-- on a 3-bandaid loophole, no less--- marked him as a despicable man, medals or not.

He stood up in front of the United States Congress and testified that he had witnessed his fellow soldiers engaging in unspeakable war atrocities. No evidence, and in fact no way he could have personally witnessed the things he claimed to have seen. But he spun a tissue of lies--- of brutality and atrocity vivid enough that the Viet Cong used tapes of his testimony to break the will of American POWs.

His other favorite bedtime story--- of going on covert operations that were "Seared, SEARED I tell you" into his memory--- just established him as a self-serving gratuitous liar. Little inconsistencies, like, oh, the way the dates changed every time he told the story, little boners like "and the little peasant children were preparing to celebrate Christmas...."
and the fact this "black op" took place at a time when he was stationed hundreds of miles away from where it allegedly occurred, revealed it for the bullpuckey story it was.

He went to 'Nam because he thought it was politically advantageous, used a loophole to go home to mommy early, and then stabbed his "brothers in arms" in the back by accusing them of war atrocities in front of the world... not too coincidentally lending aid and comfort to enemies of the United States.

That, above and beyond all else should have damned him from ever holding any political office

RHJunior wrote:As to Kerry and his medals....

I'm more inclined to believe the testimony of people who were actually in the field with him, than the judgements made after the fact by a bunch of REMFOs. Boy howdy, he sure dotted them I's and crossed them t's right pretty on all the forms.... but that don't add up to a tinker's damn whether he actually earned those medals he wrote himself up for.

I am likewise more inclined to believe the testimony of people who were in the field with him, especially people who were on the same boat with him. But when Schachte says one thing in 2003 and another after joining SBVFT (including changing his story to being on the same skimmer); when Thurlow says Kerry shouldn't get a Bronze Star for the same incident that gave Thurlow his; when even the accounts of wounded Vietnamese soldiers are more in agreement with the initial report than the swift-boaters' sallies, I must question who is telling whose story.

Oh, and while I think Kerry has all the charisma of a popsicle stick, you need to study the military more. You can't put yourself in for the Purple Heart, no matter how much the swift-boaters say you can. According to the American War Library:

http://members.aol.com/warlibrary/theheart.htm

Common Myths About The Purple Heart Medal

...

8. A serviceperson can "put themself in" for the PH.

Not true. There is only one medal in the United States military inventory that allows a serviceperson to recommend him/herself. That medal is the Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal. No serviceperson can recommend themselves (now or at any time in the past) for the PH or any other medal.

(Fun fact: The after-action reports for the unit were handled by Droz... not Kerry.)

He's wooden, yes; but the military itself says he earned those medals. So unless you made Supreme Commander when we weren't looking, shall we drop the subject?

Yours truly,

The fact-checking,

Wanderer