Kerry "defends" Rumsfeld critics- without seconding or approving their calls for Rumsfeld's resignation!
In 2004 John Kerry fought for and accepted the Democratic nomination for president, pledging, as Al Gore had done 4 years earlier, to "FIGHT!" for Democratic voters, millions of whom felt they had not been adequately represented in the Florida recount debacle of 2000 four years earlier. (In 2000 the Florida presidential vote count was NOT recounted as demanded by Florida state law, based on: #1. the Gore-Lieberman failures to understand or fight for Florida's laws; #2. based on the Florida state Republican Party's refusal to comply with state law (Katherine Harris/Gov. Jeb Bush) ; and #3. of course based on Republican candidate George W. Bush running to the US Supreme Court to overrule Florida's Supreme Court ruling that the recounts proceed as per state law.)
In 2004 Mr. Kerry made the Democratic nominating convention, and subsequent campaign, ABOUT HIMSELF. This was probably the most egregious, awful campaign of any Democratic candidate since any of the Democratic landslide losses of the 1980s, and we're including in this list President Carter's completely oblivious unawareness to the "October Surprise" of 1980 (in which Republicans formulated "back door" links to the Iran revolutionary government, in contempt of the Carter administration and defiance of the Constitution), and Gov. Dukakis' landslide loss to George W. Bush in 1988.
Kerry consciously made the convention and campaign about himself, and his running mate, John Edwards, similarly focused his attention on singing John Kerry's praises. In this 'strategy' Kerry and Edwards REPEATED the mistakes of the Al Gore 2000 campaign, in which Gore studiously REFUSED to examine or confront the record of Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who by then had a well established record of TAX CUTS for MULTIMILLIONAIRES, SLASHING of health, education, housing, and other social programs, and IGNORING the plight of those injured or made sick by Texas' industrial pollution and hazardous working conditions. In 2000 Gore's campaign was so pathetic that the Vice President actually canceled a campaign appearance at the Florida Everglades to avoid "environmental" protesters, when instead Vice President Gore SHOULD HAVE CONFRONTED those protesters with photos, videos, statistics, or speakers bearing testimony to the environmental degradation that Gov. George W. Bush had wrought on Texas in his two terms as governor there.
As we just mentioned, in 2004 Kerry FOLLOWED Gore's "speak no evil of George W. Bush" campaign of 2000, which allowed the Bush campaign team (read, Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, and other assorted minions) to unleash the savage attack dogs, "The Swift Boat Veterans for Bush" to scorch and smear Kerry's record. NOT ONE of the 'Swift Boat Veterans' actually served IN COMBAT with then Navy Lt. John Kerry; but the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush LEFT THE IMPRESSION that they HAD served with Kerry, and during that service, found Kerry's conduct sub-par and unbecoming.
In perhaps the ULTIMATE example of Right-Wing hypocrisy, the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush even implied that Kerry was guilty of MURDER, for running down and shooting an armed VC suspect fleeing the ambush site that Kerry and his crew had come under fire from! As always, the Righty smear-mongers want to have their cake and eat it to: Kerry was, they claim, a "coward" for shooting a young VC gunman in the back; and back in America (upon his return from the war), Kerry was a traitor for opposing more death and mayhem (war) in that country!
While the depths to which right-wing propaganda will go to make a smear or accusation is breathtaking and jaw-dropping (turning a decorated veteran into a coward, and making an AWOL National Guard pilot who refused to take the flight physical he was ordered to take into a national hero), the important thing here is that Senator John Kerry HAD TO KNOW that the Republicans and right-wing Democrat haters WOULD MAKE AN ISSUE of his, John Kerry's, well publicized opposition to the Vietnam War, including Kerry's testimony before the Senate about the conduct of that war. (Then, as now in Iraq, the United States used torture and summary arrests as tools in the "pacification" or attempted control of regions under sway or influence of rebels and/or the VC.) Here is John Kerry's speech, defending the rights of Vietnam protesters, TWO YEARS LATE.
Of course (in most cases) "better late than never;" but once again we must point out: Senator Kerry has no problem using the verb "lie" in context of the now-departed President Nixon, but Kerry DODGES using similarly tough words in describing Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, President Bush, or Vice President Cheney.
Senator Kerry DOES use the term "dishonors the sacrifice" to describe the POLICIES of the Bush-Rumsfeld-Cheney administration, but somehow the rhetoric does NOT make the SOLID, FORCEFUL CONNECTION, that it is THE ACTIONS and WORDS of our Republican leaders that LEAD TO THAT "dishonor."
Or, in short, Senator Kerry is speechifying. He defends the right of Critics of Sec. Rumsfeld to express their opinions and be free of any smear reprisals, BUT Senator KERRY CAN'T QUITE BRING HIMSELF TO CALL FOR Sec. Rumsfeld's RESIGNATION.
Senator Kerry, MILLIONS of us Americans MAY NOT BE AS SMART, as experienced, or as well connected as you.
But ALL OF US can understand, "ELEVEN PARAGRAPHS, and you have NOT called for Sec. Rumsfeld's RESIGNATION, can only mean that YOU MUST APPROVE OF THE JOB HE IS DOING."
Either that, or you are simply too scared to follow your own convictions.
<< We would watch the Nixon administration lie, break the law, and work overtime to squash dissent -- all the while claiming absurdly they were prolonging war to protect our troops as they withdrew. We were a country deeply divided. World War II fathers split with Vietnam generation sons over a war that was tearing us apart -- and split, particularly, over our responsibilities during a time of war. >>
<< In recent weeks, a number of retired high-ranking military leaders have publicly called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. And from the ranks of this administration and its conservative surrogates, we've heard these calls dismissed as acts of disloyalty or as a threat to civilian control of the armed forces. We have even heard accusations that this dissent gives aid and comfort to the enemy. That line of attack is shameful, especially coming from those who have never worn the uniform. >>
Patriotism Is Truth, Today as in Vietnam
Senator John Kerry, Democratic Presidential candidate, 2004
April 23, 2006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-kerry/patriotism-is-truth-toda_b_19603.html
Thirty-five years ago today, I testified before the United States Senate.
I was a 27-year-old Vietnam veteran who believed the war had to come to an end. It was 1971.Three years earlier, Richard Nixon had been elected president with a secret plan for peace -- a plan he kept secret from the American people as young Americans continued to die for a mission high-ranking officials of two administrations had decided was unwinnable.
We would watch the Nixon administration lie, break the law, and work overtime to squash dissent -- all the while claiming absurdly they were prolonging war to protect our troops as they withdrew. We were a country deeply divided. World War II fathers split with Vietnam generation sons over a war that was tearing us apart -- and split, particularly, over our responsibilities during a time of war.
Many people did not understand or agree with my act of public dissent. To them, supporting the troops meant continuing to support the war, or at least keeping my mouth shut.
But I couldn't remain silent.
I felt compelled to speak out about what was happening in Vietnam, where the children of America were pulled from front porches and living rooms and plunged almost overnight into a world of sniper fire, ambushes, rockets, booby traps, body bags, explosions, sleeplessness, and the confusion created by an enemy who was sometimes invisible and firing at us, and sometimes right next to us and smiling. It was clear that thousands of Americans were losing their lives in Vietnam while politicians in Washington schemed to save their political reputations.
Thirty-five years later, in another war gone off course, I see history repeating itself. It is both a right and an obligation for Americans today to disagree with a president who is wrong, a policy that is wrong, and a course in Iraq that weakens the nation. Again, we must refuse to sit quietly and watch our troops sacrificed for a policy that isn't working while Americans who dissent and ask tough questions are branded unpatriotic.
Just as it was in 1971, it is again right to make clear that the best way to support the troops is to oppose a course that squanders their lives, dishonors their sacrifice, and disserves the American people and our principles.True patriots must defend the right of dissent and listen to the dissenters. Dissenters are not always right, but it is always a warning sign when they are accused of unpatriotic sentiments by politicians trying to avoid accountability or debate on their own policies.
We should know by now that those who are right should never fear scrutiny of their policy and thorough debate. In World War I, America's values were degraded, not defended, when dissenters were jailed and the teaching of German was banned in some public schools. It was panic and prejudice, not true patriotism, that brought the internment of the Japanese-Americans during World War II, a measure upheld by Supreme Court justices who did not uphold their oaths to defend the Constitution. We are stronger today because no less a rock-ribbed conservative than Robert Taft stood up at the height of World War II and asserted, ''The maintenance of the right of criticism in the long run will do the country maintaining it a great deal more good than it will do the enemy, and will prevent mistakes which might otherwise occur." --
In recent weeks, a number of retired high-ranking military leaders have publicly called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. And from the ranks of this administration and its conservative surrogates, we've heard these calls dismissed as acts of disloyalty or as a threat to civilian control of the armed forces. We have even heard accusations that this dissent gives aid and comfort to the enemy. That line of attack is shameful, especially coming from those who have never worn the uniform.
Generals and others who call for recognizing the facts on the ground in Iraq are not defeatists, they are patriots. At a time when mistake after mistake is being compounded by the very civilian leadership in the Pentagon that ignored expert military advice in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, those who understand the price being paid for each mistake by our troops, our country, and Iraq itself must be heard. At a time when our nation is imprisoned in a failed policy and we are being told once again that admitting the mistakes, not the mistakes themselves, will provide our enemies with an intolerable propaganda victory, that we literally have no choice but to stay the course even to a bitter end, those who seek to reclaim America's true sovereignty and freedom of action must be respected.
Iraq is not Vietnam, and the war on terrorism is not the Cold War. But the threat of jihadist extremism is another ''long, twilight struggle," as President Kennedy said in his inaugural, and the threat is very real, but we will never defeat terrorists by trampling our own freedom and democracy. The Swift Boat-style attacks that have been aimed at dissenters from Gold Star mothers to decorated veterans like Jack Murtha hurt our democracy even more than they wound their target. I still believe as strongly as I did 35 years ago that the most important way to support our troops is to tell the truth. Patriotism does not belong to those who defend a president's position -- it belongs to those who defend our country, in battle and in dissent. That is a lesson of Vietnam worth remembering today.
In 2004 Mr. Kerry made the Democratic nominating convention, and subsequent campaign, ABOUT HIMSELF. This was probably the most egregious, awful campaign of any Democratic candidate since any of the Democratic landslide losses of the 1980s, and we're including in this list President Carter's completely oblivious unawareness to the "October Surprise" of 1980 (in which Republicans formulated "back door" links to the Iran revolutionary government, in contempt of the Carter administration and defiance of the Constitution), and Gov. Dukakis' landslide loss to George W. Bush in 1988.
Kerry consciously made the convention and campaign about himself, and his running mate, John Edwards, similarly focused his attention on singing John Kerry's praises. In this 'strategy' Kerry and Edwards REPEATED the mistakes of the Al Gore 2000 campaign, in which Gore studiously REFUSED to examine or confront the record of Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who by then had a well established record of TAX CUTS for MULTIMILLIONAIRES, SLASHING of health, education, housing, and other social programs, and IGNORING the plight of those injured or made sick by Texas' industrial pollution and hazardous working conditions. In 2000 Gore's campaign was so pathetic that the Vice President actually canceled a campaign appearance at the Florida Everglades to avoid "environmental" protesters, when instead Vice President Gore SHOULD HAVE CONFRONTED those protesters with photos, videos, statistics, or speakers bearing testimony to the environmental degradation that Gov. George W. Bush had wrought on Texas in his two terms as governor there.
As we just mentioned, in 2004 Kerry FOLLOWED Gore's "speak no evil of George W. Bush" campaign of 2000, which allowed the Bush campaign team (read, Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, and other assorted minions) to unleash the savage attack dogs, "The Swift Boat Veterans for Bush" to scorch and smear Kerry's record. NOT ONE of the 'Swift Boat Veterans' actually served IN COMBAT with then Navy Lt. John Kerry; but the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush LEFT THE IMPRESSION that they HAD served with Kerry, and during that service, found Kerry's conduct sub-par and unbecoming.
In perhaps the ULTIMATE example of Right-Wing hypocrisy, the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush even implied that Kerry was guilty of MURDER, for running down and shooting an armed VC suspect fleeing the ambush site that Kerry and his crew had come under fire from! As always, the Righty smear-mongers want to have their cake and eat it to: Kerry was, they claim, a "coward" for shooting a young VC gunman in the back; and back in America (upon his return from the war), Kerry was a traitor for opposing more death and mayhem (war) in that country!
While the depths to which right-wing propaganda will go to make a smear or accusation is breathtaking and jaw-dropping (turning a decorated veteran into a coward, and making an AWOL National Guard pilot who refused to take the flight physical he was ordered to take into a national hero), the important thing here is that Senator John Kerry HAD TO KNOW that the Republicans and right-wing Democrat haters WOULD MAKE AN ISSUE of his, John Kerry's, well publicized opposition to the Vietnam War, including Kerry's testimony before the Senate about the conduct of that war. (Then, as now in Iraq, the United States used torture and summary arrests as tools in the "pacification" or attempted control of regions under sway or influence of rebels and/or the VC.) Here is John Kerry's speech, defending the rights of Vietnam protesters, TWO YEARS LATE.
Of course (in most cases) "better late than never;" but once again we must point out: Senator Kerry has no problem using the verb "lie" in context of the now-departed President Nixon, but Kerry DODGES using similarly tough words in describing Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, President Bush, or Vice President Cheney.
Senator Kerry DOES use the term "dishonors the sacrifice" to describe the POLICIES of the Bush-Rumsfeld-Cheney administration, but somehow the rhetoric does NOT make the SOLID, FORCEFUL CONNECTION, that it is THE ACTIONS and WORDS of our Republican leaders that LEAD TO THAT "dishonor."
Or, in short, Senator Kerry is speechifying. He defends the right of Critics of Sec. Rumsfeld to express their opinions and be free of any smear reprisals, BUT Senator KERRY CAN'T QUITE BRING HIMSELF TO CALL FOR Sec. Rumsfeld's RESIGNATION.
Senator Kerry, MILLIONS of us Americans MAY NOT BE AS SMART, as experienced, or as well connected as you.
But ALL OF US can understand, "ELEVEN PARAGRAPHS, and you have NOT called for Sec. Rumsfeld's RESIGNATION, can only mean that YOU MUST APPROVE OF THE JOB HE IS DOING."
Either that, or you are simply too scared to follow your own convictions.
<< We would watch the Nixon administration lie, break the law, and work overtime to squash dissent -- all the while claiming absurdly they were prolonging war to protect our troops as they withdrew. We were a country deeply divided. World War II fathers split with Vietnam generation sons over a war that was tearing us apart -- and split, particularly, over our responsibilities during a time of war. >>
<< In recent weeks, a number of retired high-ranking military leaders have publicly called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. And from the ranks of this administration and its conservative surrogates, we've heard these calls dismissed as acts of disloyalty or as a threat to civilian control of the armed forces. We have even heard accusations that this dissent gives aid and comfort to the enemy. That line of attack is shameful, especially coming from those who have never worn the uniform. >>
Patriotism Is Truth, Today as in Vietnam
Senator John Kerry, Democratic Presidential candidate, 2004
April 23, 2006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-kerry/patriotism-is-truth-toda_b_19603.html
Thirty-five years ago today, I testified before the United States Senate.
I was a 27-year-old Vietnam veteran who believed the war had to come to an end. It was 1971.Three years earlier, Richard Nixon had been elected president with a secret plan for peace -- a plan he kept secret from the American people as young Americans continued to die for a mission high-ranking officials of two administrations had decided was unwinnable.
We would watch the Nixon administration lie, break the law, and work overtime to squash dissent -- all the while claiming absurdly they were prolonging war to protect our troops as they withdrew. We were a country deeply divided. World War II fathers split with Vietnam generation sons over a war that was tearing us apart -- and split, particularly, over our responsibilities during a time of war.
Many people did not understand or agree with my act of public dissent. To them, supporting the troops meant continuing to support the war, or at least keeping my mouth shut.
But I couldn't remain silent.
I felt compelled to speak out about what was happening in Vietnam, where the children of America were pulled from front porches and living rooms and plunged almost overnight into a world of sniper fire, ambushes, rockets, booby traps, body bags, explosions, sleeplessness, and the confusion created by an enemy who was sometimes invisible and firing at us, and sometimes right next to us and smiling. It was clear that thousands of Americans were losing their lives in Vietnam while politicians in Washington schemed to save their political reputations.
Thirty-five years later, in another war gone off course, I see history repeating itself. It is both a right and an obligation for Americans today to disagree with a president who is wrong, a policy that is wrong, and a course in Iraq that weakens the nation. Again, we must refuse to sit quietly and watch our troops sacrificed for a policy that isn't working while Americans who dissent and ask tough questions are branded unpatriotic.
Just as it was in 1971, it is again right to make clear that the best way to support the troops is to oppose a course that squanders their lives, dishonors their sacrifice, and disserves the American people and our principles.True patriots must defend the right of dissent and listen to the dissenters. Dissenters are not always right, but it is always a warning sign when they are accused of unpatriotic sentiments by politicians trying to avoid accountability or debate on their own policies.
We should know by now that those who are right should never fear scrutiny of their policy and thorough debate. In World War I, America's values were degraded, not defended, when dissenters were jailed and the teaching of German was banned in some public schools. It was panic and prejudice, not true patriotism, that brought the internment of the Japanese-Americans during World War II, a measure upheld by Supreme Court justices who did not uphold their oaths to defend the Constitution. We are stronger today because no less a rock-ribbed conservative than Robert Taft stood up at the height of World War II and asserted, ''The maintenance of the right of criticism in the long run will do the country maintaining it a great deal more good than it will do the enemy, and will prevent mistakes which might otherwise occur." --
In recent weeks, a number of retired high-ranking military leaders have publicly called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. And from the ranks of this administration and its conservative surrogates, we've heard these calls dismissed as acts of disloyalty or as a threat to civilian control of the armed forces. We have even heard accusations that this dissent gives aid and comfort to the enemy. That line of attack is shameful, especially coming from those who have never worn the uniform.
Generals and others who call for recognizing the facts on the ground in Iraq are not defeatists, they are patriots. At a time when mistake after mistake is being compounded by the very civilian leadership in the Pentagon that ignored expert military advice in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, those who understand the price being paid for each mistake by our troops, our country, and Iraq itself must be heard. At a time when our nation is imprisoned in a failed policy and we are being told once again that admitting the mistakes, not the mistakes themselves, will provide our enemies with an intolerable propaganda victory, that we literally have no choice but to stay the course even to a bitter end, those who seek to reclaim America's true sovereignty and freedom of action must be respected.
Iraq is not Vietnam, and the war on terrorism is not the Cold War. But the threat of jihadist extremism is another ''long, twilight struggle," as President Kennedy said in his inaugural, and the threat is very real, but we will never defeat terrorists by trampling our own freedom and democracy. The Swift Boat-style attacks that have been aimed at dissenters from Gold Star mothers to decorated veterans like Jack Murtha hurt our democracy even more than they wound their target. I still believe as strongly as I did 35 years ago that the most important way to support our troops is to tell the truth. Patriotism does not belong to those who defend a president's position -- it belongs to those who defend our country, in battle and in dissent. That is a lesson of Vietnam worth remembering today.
posted by verifi at 6:07 AM
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