US Media is Kerry Propaganda Machine - Case: Unfit for Command
Mon August 16th, 2004 22:54 MSTJohn O’Neill, of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and Jerome Corsi have create a major problem for the main stream news media: what to do about their new book, “Unfit for Command,” and the accompanying very tough attack ad aimed at John Kerry’s truthfulness and bravery.
The issue is the allegations in the book by 60 of John Kerry’s “brothers in arms” from Vietnam that are extremely unflattering to Kerry. It also contains damaging information about Kerry’s subsequent anti-war activities. Even worse, it has been the Amazon #1 best seller for over a week.
It turns out that Kerry was a skunk. Every one of his commanding officers and their chain of command have question his ability to command. His awards, including a purple heart which allowed him to leave his comrades after only four months are also questioned. The press has ignored this information since it was presented on May 5, and now the problem has gotten larger.
Thus, if you are a member of the mainstream media, you have to figure out whether to ignore the book, or find enough problems with the book and authors to destroy its credibility, or maybe wait until your colleagues gin up a big, loud anti-Bush scandal, and during the din slip a little article about the book on page 39. TV anchors have more choices - find interviewees whose responses can be edited to your purposes (irregardless of their intended meaning) and put up a smear job on the whole thing with no facts at all. For an example, see how CBS handled the press coference of this group. But even this might increase sales of the book, from which the public would be able to read the charges and evidence without the helpful interpretation of the major news media.
No other possibilities, such as a straight news story, are acceptable, because they might damage your effort to push George Bush out of office.
Besides, Kerry’s only credentials are his abbreviated tour in Vietnam. Destroy those, and you destroy the Kerry candidacy.
Such a dilemma. No wonder the main stream news media is simply sitting on the story.
Fox News is so far the only major media outlet to explore the book at all.Since Kerry has made his Vietnam service the center of his campaign, and the book attacks it, the relevance is obvious.
Fred Barnes of Fox News, reacting to the lack of response by other major media, commented that this was the worst case of journalistic “dereliction of duty” he had ever seen.
No, Fred, It’s not dereliction of duty. It’s something far worse: intentional abuse of position of power and outright lying by omission.
Can the major press keep this secret until the election? Will the information only get out as samizdat?
The US press corps is a disgusting group of people. When there is a story that doesn’t match their ideological goals, they either distort it or simply not run it (spike it). US national journalists constitute a group of people less trustworthy than used car salesmen. They actually pretend to be objective, while they lie by omission or more frequently these day, by commission. There used to be a profession of journalism, people who let you know what was going on. No more - that profession is dead. We now have propaganda nomenklatura, responsible for producing pro-democrat and pro-internationalist pieces, who pretend to be objective. Shame on the bastards. The good news is that only 25% of the population believes these clowns. The bad news is that they are still subject to The Big Lie effect unless they actively seek other news outlets.
If you think Kerry is a war hero, get hold of this book. If you want to know of his dishonorable activities after the war, the book has them also.
I don’t know if this is part of The Revolt of The Elites, because I haven’t read the book (?) by that name, but the expression seems to apply.
This problem is traceable to the day, or year or period when politics was made respectable (the 1950’s) and at least one type of morality was murdered in its bed (honesty). That was when politics became indistinguishable from governing, and the practical art of governing was infected with the mechanistic idiocies and wishful thinking of all types of utopianism.
Politics is not a “process”, governing is. Politics is the distribution of power and influence, which can occur anywhere, especially with those who have the public’s ear and eye. We have more than one “government” now because we have more than one instrument of persuasion, coercion and power. The government school system is another, along with the media.
Throughout the early part of the last century, the middle and lower class political machines in the boss era excluded, for class reasons and reasons of good sense, the elites. That ended with John Kennedy, who invited them in in droves and the “thinkers” replaced “doers” like gangrene replaces sound flesh. They spread through every institution and organization where “government” could reach through law, finance or sympathy, or where cross breeding could take place.
Add to the rot the particular superstitions and prejudices and The Left, which is a type of thinking that emerges in times of excess prosperity, and you have what we have today. People for whom ideas, no matter how idiotic and unworkable have materiality because THEY think them to be true.
Our meritocracy enables them to acquire positions which can be corrupted by “politics”, and the race is on. In my opinion, this is the biggest battle of our time, because the enemy is in the gates already.
WHAT WOULD ABRAHAM LINCOLN DO TO A UNION OFFICER WHO DID WHAT JOHN KERRY DID?
Well, we actually know exactly what he would have done. President Lincoln was so committed to reunifying the United States and ending slavery that Northerners who spoke out against his policy were jailed and sometimes hanged.
There can be no doubt that a Union officer, no matter how decorated, who spoke against the cause would have been totally disgraced and hanged.
What would Woodrow Wilson have done in the same circumstances? Again, we know from history that he was so committed to the destruction of German Totalitarian expansion that he disgraced and jailed those who publicly opposed his policies.
What would Franklin D. Roosevelt have done in the same circumstances? Again, we know from history that he was so committed to the destruction of the twin evils of Nazism and Japanese Imperial militarism that he disgraced and jailed those who publicly opposed his policies.
Harry Truman was more tolerant of dissent and Communist North Korea is still bedeviling the world with nuclear threats.
LBJ and Nixon also were overly tolerant of dissenters and over three million Southeast Asians were then murdered by Communists.
What does John Kerry’s candidacy say about the degeneration of American Civilization? In any wiser time he would have…
http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/08/what_would_abra.html
Maybe I missed the point but I cant recall Lincoln ever hanging someone for dissent. The copperheads,were the worse, not all but alot were arrested and jailed because Habeas Corpus had been suspended, but the biggest offender or dissenter who was a Union Officer, was George B. McClellan, who was fired twice finally for good after Antietam. But times were different then 23000 Union casualties in one day. But amazingly McClellan was the democrat candidate for President in 1864, when you think about it is this a case of history repeating itself. ???
A Confederate commander John B. Gordon, who was holding what became known as ‘Bloody Lane’ was wounded 5 times, that would have meant 5 purple hearts but yet after about a year in the hospitol he was back with his men. Yeah times sure were different.
But the question is this what would kerry have done with the 10,000 casualties on Normandy, or the 1200 Marines killed in the 76 hour battle for Tarawa.
The prospects of a kerry presidency is so scary that it is almost impossible to think about.
After the battle of Antietam, Lincoln said to an aid just after reading the battlefield report on casualties ,” My God what will the country say”.
Strange how some leaders always put themselves second to what others are doing or thinking.
Mark
“Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged.”
– President Abraham Lincoln
Adrain:
I am on your side, I said I couldn’t recall a time that Lincoln had had somebody hung for Sedition and I know he said that. But as commander-in-chief and the President he would then be exceeding his authority as President. The key word is President not king. And I also said those were different times. I also agree that these big mouth democrats bashing the The President during a time of War is also guilty of sedition and aiding the enemy. ie the kennedys, kerrys, harkins et al.
But I do know that General Buford, had hung spies and left a sign on the ‘hangee’, which said ,” this man shall hang for three days and if anyone cuts him down before, he will replace him”. But that was Military justice in the field, and as you say times were different.
Mark
Even more WHAT LIBERALS THINK…
“Regardless of what Abraham Lincoln or any other president did to dissenters, this is immaterial. All of the presidents you mentioned including Lincoln defiled the constitution by their acts.
The constitution does not give the power to disgrace or jail dissenters EVEN IN TIMES OF WAR. The threats you mentioned re: communism, nazism and Japanese imperial militarism are flawed in that only one was truly a threat. Hitler.
The so-called cold war data was hugely manipulated to scare the American public into arming to the teeth (and making the warmongers rich in the process). Now the new cash cow is the arabs and the “war on terror.” Just switch the bad guy.. Welcome to Oceania.
As for “bedeviling” the world with nuclear threats, the U.S. is the only power to use nuclear weapons on another country, and is still threatening the world with its WMD. War is the antithesis of civilization. War is what degrades our great country; adventures in foreign lands we have no business sticking our nose into. Dissent is what makes this country great. If you don’t like it, go live in China.
posted by smirkadocious”
SHEEEZ! THESE LIBERALS THINK HITLER WAS BAD BUT THE MURDERING RAPISTS OF IMPERIAL JAPAN AND THE VARIOUS COMMUNIST PRISON-NATIONS WERE OK.
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? LEFTY SIMPLETONS THINK ANY ATROCITY IN THE NAME OF THEIR PRECIOUS KARL MARX IS OK. THEY ARE SO IGNORANT OF HISTORY THAT THEY DON’T KNOW THAT NATIONAL SOCIALISM WAS A DIRECT OUTGROWTH OF MARX’S TEACHINGS AND WAS REALLY ANOTHER FORM OF COMMUNISM - A MARXIST HERESY IF YOU WILL.
DO ANY LEFTIES NO ANYTHING ABOUT HISTORY? I MEAN ALL HISTORY, NOT JUST THE
http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/08/even_more_what_.html
smirkadocious
If you read my post you would have seen the I said Lincoln was President and not King and regardless of his personal opinion, he did what had to be done to save the Union and that was the bottom line.
YOU seem to confuse the right to assemble and adress grieviences with a right that puts the country in danger just by virtue of the dissenters statements, ie Ted Kennedy .
There is a fine line between dissent and treason and Kerry crossed that line.
I dont know how old you are but most of us here remember Nikita Khruschev saying at the Mighty UN with banging his shoe on the podium that the Soviets will bury us. Well if that is not a threat then you are living in a fantasy world made up of all the do-gooders who wrrite the stupid rules of engagement for the Iraq war.
The new cash cow is the Arabs, you stupid fool, who the hell flew into the world trade center, Sven Johansen from Swedan ? NO it was 20 Arabs, who hate this country and they hate liberals too, so get used to it. They also hate the idea that we are the richest country in the world, and they even hate the idea that you are a liberal.
As far as bedeviling the world with Nuclear Weapons I cant recal a time where the United States has threatened any nation with these weapons.
You have the freedom to come here and insult everyone here. You are fee to leave this country any time you please, and dont let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.
So Hitler was the only real threat to the world, how typical. Ask the Chinese about the wonderful Japanese and how well the japs treated the people of china, and how the Japanese were not a threat to world peace. when they invaded China back in the 30’s.. and the ‘Rape of Nanking’ where the japs slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent Chinese.
Your damn right we dropped the A-bomb on those bastards, ever hear of Pearl Harbor ? The Japanese had a tendency to fight to the last man and the projected casualties if an invasion of the mainland was to take place would have been into the hundreds of thousands. So by dropping the two A-bombs we ended the war and actually were allowed to WIN it and saved a hell of a lot of lives. We didnt start that war but we damn well finished it.
Dissent is what makes this country great you have been listening to Hanoi John for too long, he is no hero, The North Vietnamese Communists have honored him as one of their own, gee dissent is terrific when you spit on your own soldiers, and go before congress and lie your ass off for political gain. and that is exactly what John F-ing kerry did.
Oh When in time of war the government has the right to suspend any right for the good of and the security nation. Lincoln did it, Wilson did it, Alien Sedition Act, Roosevelt did it, one by placing into camps Japanese citizens, this much is true and hindsight is 20-20 when you look at it from the jaundiced eye of a Liberal.
The reason this is a great nation is that we dont back down from any nation. We dip the flag to no one and pay no tribute.
Mark
Smirk Whatever has the standard Lefty understanding of American history and politics, which is to say he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Along the way, some Lefty professor or teaching instructor grumbled about Lincoln jailing people for sedition, hanging them without trial or some such nonsense, comparing Lincoln to Bush, and Smirk was on his way to semi-informed ignorance.
Mark’s correct. Lincoln suspended writs of habeus corpus. He also raided The Treasury to pay for an army, neither of which he could do legally (then) in the Executive Branch. In this sense, he should be a liberal’s favorite President, because Lincoln introduced us (forget Marbury vs. Madison for a moment) to Constitution battering. He was the first modern President.
I think Smirk is also Glasgow, because there is too much uniformity, or conformity, in this train of thought. Behind the curtain of concern, humanity and right thinking is a deep, lightless and cold abyss of stupidity.
His murderers were also pursued in ways that wouldn’t make sense today
The AWOL media
So let’s see now… John Kerry is basing his entire campaign on his service in Vietnam. And now a group of veterans who served with him are disputing some of his accounts of his service there. The book “Unfit for…
RHOD….
Smirk is Glasgow, is Thugge, is Tony, is McAuliffe, is Dean, is Harkin, is Hurley, is Rassmann, is Michael Moore, is Baldwin, is Streisand, is Asner, is Sheen, is Whoopie……well, you get the picture.
They mouth the same claptrap because it gives some sort of authenticity to a stance or to each other. Facts? F**k the facts!! They are so far removed from real life and facts that the truth would blind them forever.
These are the same carrion that purport to champion minority causes but when cornered by facts, resort to namecalling, gay-baiting and labelling you with every “anti-” in the book. These are old Leftist tactics, around since 1917 that have served them, but not the country, well ever since. They’ve used them in union halls to shout down the dissidents in the rank and file, in the 50’s to cover their commie asses from being exposed, in every political campaign of import to damage their opponents, in violent demonstrations against anything and everything they disagree with.
They truly are the Eloi…..
This should make your day, John!
Congratulations–it looks like all the work you did on this story is finally paying off.
I guess you’re right Frank. There’s no evidence of change in the fossil record.
Qucik question:
Kerry’s citation and news accounts of the Rassman incident state that he received an arm shrapnel wound.
In Kerry’s wild “Bring It On” speech to the VFW, where he accused the Bush campaign of arranging the Swiftvet’s claims, he states that he has a piece of shrapnel in his leg from the Rassman incident.
You don’t forget shrapnel wounds or their location.
Did he just misspeak? I’m sure the media will jump on this right away.
NEWS FLASH!
The New York Times Reports today that Texas Republicans contributed to the Swiftvets (and I thought it was Massachusetts Democrats), and the Swiftvets are therefore discredited. “What, Where, When and How” have been discarded by The Times, and only “Who” remains.
In the weird Orwellian propaganda factory called the NYT, Texas Republicans are more sinister than a psycho Strangelovian Hunagarian-born billionaire (George Soros, an authentic nutcase), who has pledged $14 million to defeat Bush. Soros good, Texas bad…You can almost hear this moaning coming from Times Square.
The Times condemnation of Texas Republicans reflects its structural need to elect Kerry, but
also The Times value as a delivery-system for Northeastern snobbery and arrogance. Howard Dean being the perfect bloated Eastside tick, gives you an idea of the Times constipated ideologies.
This rag is something lower than a fishwrapper. Everyone around here knows it but we like to be seen carrying it.
September 12th in Washington, DC must be THE GREAT PAYBACK for all Vietnam Vets.
Atrios shows us why September 12th in Washington, DC must be THE GREAT PAYBACK for all Vietnam Vets.
The NY Times and the Boston globe are calling our brothers liars. Now read this post on Atrios blog ESCHATON which spreads the idea that The Swifties are all liars:
“Shrapnel
What can you say about someone like Michelle “Little LuLu” Malkin suggesting that the shrapnel in Kerry’s leg might come from a self-inflicted wound. While it is true that some Swift Boat Liars have suggested that the shrapnel could have come from Kerry’s own weapon, it’s a bit bizarre that Malkin would suggest that it was deliberately inflicted. The shrapnel is from a grenade. While it is true that people have wounded themselves in an attempt to get out of combat, it’s hard to comprehend that very many of them have chosen to wound themselves with grenades.
The loathing these people have for everything America stands for is astounding. -Atrios”
http://atrios.blogspot.com/
John Kerry first declared war on Vietnam Vets thirty some years ago with his lies and:
KERRY LIED AND GOOD MEN DIED.
Kerry has declared war again today when he and his minions called the Swift Boat Vets, and by extension, ALL VIETNAM VETS, liars, so, again today,
KERRY LIES AND GOOD MEN ARE AGAIN DISHONORED.
I will use more posts from Atrios’ top rated blog, 80,000 visitors a day, to illustrate the effect of the KERRY KOOL-AID (it causes imbibers to see the truth as lies and lies as the truth) on the proto hominid brains of his most enthusiastic acolytes.
Firstly, a courageous conservative, bravely using her real name, restates an historic truth:
“Kerry on veterans: (they/he)”personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human general tassle, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, poisoned food stocks and ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam” John Kerry addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing April 22, 1971. Karen Schell”
A Kerry Kool-Aid drinker then intelligently responds:
“… and to extend my metaphor, karen schell and adrian spindle, et al., would be the drug dealers, gang leaders, and pimps we are saving them from. Cole the Younger” Here are some more cogent Kerry Kool-Aid comments:
“I JOINED THIS HAPPY FAMILY OF PROUD ATREIDES HOPING TO ENGAGE IN POLITE DEBATE OR PERHAPS ENQUIRY INTO THE IMPORTANT POLITICAL ISSUES OF THE DAY.
Does that mean that you are taking your delusional and illiterally rantings and leaving?
Go, don’t let the door hit your considerable ass on the way out. Nancy Richardson”
“I wonder how long before the spitting, slobbering trolls appear.
This is likely to get a few of them really riled up.
Seeing as they don’t like to be called to the carpet with thier own words. David (Austin Tx)”
“”And I do believe that Adrian is not a good Christian boy, since he’s obviously lying here:
“Adrian Spidle Vietnam Era Vet” pie””
“…If I remember correctly folks in uniform were not loved much back then, so what. Patriotic if someone attacks me sure I’ll fight, but Iraq no way.
What I can’t comprehend now is this total worship of the military by some factions now. DOD budget 418 billion bucks. Why? little alex”
“Up the thread one “Adrian Spidle” gushes bibilo-sputum, and little else, then calls himself a “Viet Nam Era Vet.”
I was just laughing at that when I saw Atrios (or someone feigning Atriosness) slamming Spidle (Spittle) on the same point I saw: oh “era” is it, got one of those basings like Gomer Pyle, USMC, or George W. Bush, AWOL, eh?
Then I thought, Spittle could, for all we know folks (and his sentence structure and vocab weighs heavily in favor of my conjecture), be some 11 year-old (bless his heart) just making up shit. * * *”
So my friends, John Kerry, Atrios, and their minions are doing their best to again dishonor the service of that part of our generation that honorably donned the uniforms our nation asked us to.
Listen, September 12th in DC is YOUR opportunity to finally get that GREAT PAYBACK you’ve longed for lo these many decades. Let’s make the defeat the lying John Kerry the LAST HURRAH of our much maligned and abused generation.
John Kerry made the Vietnam War the center piece of the convention and thus his campaign. We were there and we know he lied. A couple slightly younger friends of mine recently expressed surprise when I told them that I and two thirds of Vietnam vets can’t stand Kerry, They both thought that he was a hero of our generation. I ask you:
IS JOHN KERRY YOUR HERO?
If not, then duty calls you to show up in Washington on 9/12 for THE GREAT PAYBACK. This is not the time for our generation to go off meekly into the good night.
THIS IS, PERHAPS, THE LAST GREAT BATTLE OF OUR GENERATION!
If we can get a 100,000 or so veterans (and supporters) to mass in our nations capital, in support of our Swift Boat Brothers and shout together, at the top of our voices, that:
KERRY LIED AND GOOD MEN DIED
Then, how can the NY Times, Boston Globe, Atrios et al, get away with the BIG LIE that the most honorable Swift Boat Veterans lied.
SUPPORT OUR BROTHERS!
Make your plans and reservations NOW. I’ll be there with my wife and daughter, and we hope to meet you. My daughter told me that her enthusiastic participation in the VIETNAM VETS AGAINST KERRY demonstrations at the DNC in Boston was THE MOST EXCITING DAYS OF HER LIFE.
Join me and your brothers. We can CHANGE HISTORY.
The following links describe our experiences those nights at the DNC and include a few pictures I took of the situation:
http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/07/report_from_the.html
http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/07/report_from_the_1.html
http://pep.typepad.com/photos/viet_vets_at_the_dnc/index.html
That’s the truth about John Kerry. Now as for Atrios, here is the truth:
http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/08/atrios_shows_us.html
Adrian -
Although I’m not the best person to be saying this, chill out.
ESCHATON is a cess pool, and Atrios is one of 80,000 leach fields. There are at least 80,000 friendly visitors in the universities, where excess, profanity and sophomorism have replaced anything otherwise of value in these losers. They’re jellfish, and jellyfish eventually dry out.
Sooner or later, they’ll take these pathologies along with them to their jobs and find out what life is all about…unless they work in certain state-funded sectors, in which case they will be promoted and work off-time for Public TV pledge drives.
As an undecorated (except for one of those Purple Heart thingies) combat infantryman who served in Vietnam, I have an observation. John Kerry’s combat record has proven to be open to extensive dispute, notwithstanding his official Navy records. You can believe whomever you choose.
What is not open to dispute is his testimony before Congress as a member of VVAW and his voting record while a member of that body.
His efforts to defame the collective character of the US military during the Vietnam war are beneath contempt. His congressional voting record demonstrates that he is clearly in favor of weakening our military & intelligence capabilities in any way possible.
I believe, if elected president, he would make every effort to degrade the sovereignty of the United States of America and subordinate us to the UN. We cannot depend on this man to defend either our constitution or our way of life.
“The Case of the Wandering Shrapnel” (or “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, ha! ha!”)
This is my humble theory: Lt (JG) Kerry was actually hit in the head by a piece of shrapnel during that fierce firefight, which immediately migrated to his arm before the doctor saw him, then migrated down to his leg. This accounts for his confusion about the “rice in the butt” incident. It could be that Kerry has been suffering for the past 35 years from a heretofore undiagnosed, serious and terminal case of Dinkydow, caused by the aforementioned shrapnel. This could explain why he doesn’t know his arm from his leg (thigh? butt?) also his confusion over “was I in Cambodia or Vietnam?”, and why he always takes both sides of every issue.
You call this a desert?:
Undoubtedly the best tag of all, and my guess it came from a VA hospital somewhere, sometime, and took on a meaning everyone laughed at all the time. You’re too modest about the PH, BTW.
This blog tried for a long time to be neutral on Kerry’s in-country performance, but he never left the issue alone. But I agree, his testimony afterwards is what rankles all the vets here.
Sharon raises an interesting point, too. The Rassman incident involved shrapnel in the arm, the VFW speech said the shrapnel was in the leg, which should be easy enough to prove. This has a very Dallas in November Mystery Bullet sound to it. We’ve been accused of being Grassy Knoll types, but just how did that shrapnel make its way from limb to limb?
RHOD….
This is an account of the treatment for Kerry’s PH for the “owie” he got during the non-action when he pulled Rassmann out of the water.
13 March 1969, 1900 hours, United States Coast Guard Cutter Spencer. “John Kerry, LTJG, USNR- In firefight approx 3 hours ago, pt was a) thrown against bulkhead sustaining injury (contusion) to R forearm. b) sustained small piece of shrapnel in L upper buttock.”
Mr. Kerry was treated for injuries sustained when he was thrown against a bulkhead resulting in a contusion to his right forearm, as well as a shrapnel injury in his left upper buttock. His exam at that time revealed localized bruising of his right medial forearm and of his buttock from the shrapnel with some localized bruising. An x-ray of his forearm did not reveal evidence of fracture. He was treated with a tetanus shot, topical dressing and an ace bandage and advised to apply warm soaks to his right forearm.
The official Bronze Star citation for that non-action on 13 Mar 69, says Kerry was wounded in the right arm when the mine went off, which implies it was a shrapnel wound. Elsewhere in the citation it states it was a “painful wound.” The citation said nothing about a wound to the butt-ocks.
The Swift Vets have all of this in their sights.
Frank:
As you know, contusions aren’t PH material; if so they couldn’t make the medals fast enough to satisfy the demand.
You know which side I’m on, but this incident is a tricky case. Kerry was wounded by the mine explosion, no doubt about that. A right arm hit seems more likely aboard a boat when the source is an underwater mine. It was also “painful”. Shrapnel is painful. The old newspaper accounts said he was wounded when he reached for Rassman, which would explain the right arm legend and not intentional misreporting. It just made sense.
The standard media accounts, up until a month or so back, said that Kerry was wounded in his right arm, under fire, saving a Beret, during Kerry’s THIRD tour of duty in Vietnam. Each version traded on a previous version, and Kerry never corrected it.
One of the arguments here is that there was no hostile fire when Kerry picked up Rassman, which throws into question the valor quotient of of “saving” Rassman, but not the Purple Heart. It hurts to say this, but Rassman could have mistaken suppression fire from the other three boats as hostile fire, which supports Rassman’s view. We can argue about whether Kerry should have grabbed a PH for a small wound, but he did get hit.
Bronze Stars were dropped like confetti for anyone over E-5 over there, although the V-device was a little harder to obtain. That is to say, there had to be some noise, yelling and chaos when you qualified for it. The whole medal-inflation system is lousy. It doesn’t surprise me that after an engagement, when everyone is coming down, and Rassman is alive but shaken, that little attention is paid to the action itself in awarding citations. I don’t blame Kerry for that because there are worse things in his past.
The first issue for me in this engagement is that Kerry split the scene as fast as he could, which tipped Rassman overboard, and it was a full five minutes before Mad John came back to pick up his cargo. Rassman wouldn’t have been IN the water if Kerry hadn’t run like a water rabbit.
The second issue, and the most damaging in my opinion, is that the buttocks wound almost certainly came from Kerry’s misuse of a grenade in destroying food stocks (rice). This is the Form 180 crisis for Kerry, not the Rassman incident. Kerry can’t escape this one if it is ever exposed. Rice imbedded in an open wound is not a wedding celebration gone wrong.
Kerry will continue to argue the Rassman incident, and avoid the deadly rice case AND the B-40 Silver Star engagement, because this is where his problems lie.
RHOD….
Here are Rassmann’s Bronze Star stories in brief, two of at least three variations I’ve read:
Former Lieutenant John Kerry was reunited today with fellow Vietnam veteran Jim Rassman, who says Kerry saved his life during combat.
On March 13, 1969, Rassman, a Green Beret, was traveling down the Bay Hap river in a boat behind Kerry’s when both were ambushed by exploding land mines and enemy fire coming from the shore. Kerry was hit in the arm, while a mine blew Rassman’s boat out of the water. With enemy fire coming from both sides of the river and swift boats evacuating from the area, Kerry’s crew chose to turn their boat toward the ambush to save Rassman.
“Story 2, [yesterday’s] WSJ — Rassman was on Kerry’s boat:?
While returning from a SEA LORDS operation along the Bay Hap River, a mine detonated under another swift boat. Machine-gun fire erupted from both banks of the river, and a second explosion followed moments later. The second blast blew me off John’s swift boat, PCF-94, throwing me into the river. Fearing that the other boats would run me over, I swam to the bottom of the river and stayed there as long as I could hold my breath.
Exploding “land” mines?? Two mines?? No damage to Kerry’s boat?? Machine gun fire from both banks?? The other Swifties who were present on other boats that day have signed affidavits saying, 1. There was no hostile fire. The boat gunners were only laying down protective fire to minimize any potential enemy fire, which never occurred. 2. There was only one mine that went off, damaging PCF-3. I suppose Kerry’s boat could have been affected by the blast, but blowing it two feet out of the water with no damage?? 3. There was no hostile fire as Kerry hightailed out of the area.
Based on what I have been reading at Swift Vets, Rassmann was on Kerry’s boat, was thrown off when Del Sandusky made a sharp turn away from the blast, a maneuver that got Kerry the arm contusion when he was thrown against part of the boat structure. The buttocks wound was from his own stupidity, therefore it wasn’t mentioned in the Bronze Star citation. BTW, Sandusky, one of the most vocal Kerry supporters, was the only witness noted on the initial BS paperwork.
I realize these are just some of the many discrepancies in an ocean of discrepancies that are headscratchers but Rassmann is considered the most credible of Kerry’s associates and needs to be confronted by others on the scene that day. He is a pawn, no doubt, but the media doesn’t know that.
An interesting observation…….
The COMMAND HISTORY of Coastal Division 11 on Kerry’s website states that on March 13 “A mine detonated under PCF 3 and units were taken under small arms fire several times during the operation”. Nowhere does it state they RECEIVED fire, or CAME under fire. Also, nowhere does it state that also PCF 94 (Kerry’s boat) was hit by a mine. Only in Kerry’s after-action report does it state that his boat was hit (simultaneously) with a mine, or that they encountered “heavy fire from both sides of the bank”. I might add that Kerry’s after-action reports were taken directly from the Boston Globe and his book, “Tour of Duty”.
“Nuff said”
Sharon
John, all thinkers SHOULD be enraged at the press, my point #2 below. This is the begining of explicit recognition that we are in a Moral Superiority War (not a culture war)
The 3 big issues the Kerry Lie brings up:
1) Kerry’s Lies mean he is unfit to be commander in chief; he will be sunk by the Swifties.
2) The press & academia has been enabling Kerry for years, covering up his lies. The PC press beliefs and their censorship of discussion, and cover up of the facts, has been and continues trying to enable Kerry’s Lie.
3) Kerry’s Lie helped create Political Correctness; “ending the Vietnam war, now” as the morally superior position. PC is built on Kerry Lie sand, and it is now developing cracks.
What is worth fighting for, what is worth fighting against? The evil commies deserved to be fought against; Saddam deserved to be fought against.
Yesterday on Fox News there was a telephone interview with a man who said he was a crewmember on PFC #3 on March 13, 1969 when it was blown out of the water by the mine. He has wanted to stay out of the controversy, and was not part of the Swiftvets Against Kerry group. But after three weeks of conflicting media coverage, he came forward to say there was no enemy fire from the banks and that Larry Thurlow and Steve Gardiner have told the truth about the events of that night. So far, I have not heard any more followup on this story.