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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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 Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 8:13 am Post subject: Kerry: "Taranto Misinterpreted My Words" |
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Oh my God!
When will this insufferable liar just go away.
Those hearings were all about normalizing relations with Vietnam
to get the Colliers contract. Big bucks, John!!
You had to shut down those pesky POW/MIA families to do it.
You can never be forgiven for that. You are scum!
| Quote: | Exaggerated Claims of Violence
The Vietnam War was worse than what followed.
BY JOHN KERRY
Saturday, August 4, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
James Taranto misinterpreted my words and misreads history (" 'It Didn't Happen,' " July 26). I know the tragedy that followed a tragic war. John McCain and I led the effort to locate American POWs and ultimately normalize relations with Vietnam. I traveled to Cambodia to help create a genocide tribunal to bring to justice the butchers of the killing fields.
But what did not happen was the region-wide war or immediate chaos predicted by many who believed we had to maintain our massive military presence in Vietnam. A brutal dictatorship consolidated power in Vietnam, the region's refugee crisis worsened, and two years after we left Vietnam, Cambodia's Khmer Rouge launched a genocide.
Mr. Taranto mistakenly views the violence after 1973 as a direct result of our withdrawal. In fact, the violence arose from the conditions that led us to withdraw: a Vietnamese civil war we couldn't stop supported by a Cambodian insurgency we couldn't bomb into submission. It's horrifying that so many South Vietnamese suffered. But, even accepting Mr. Taranto's estimate of 165,000 Vietnamese deaths--double that of most academic sources--this is a significant decrease from the preceding eight years when 450,000 civilians and 1.1 million soldiers were killed.
We should not repeat the mistakes of Vietnam in Iraq, but let's have an honest debate rather than a hysterical one. The agony of exiting a quagmire is that there are few certainties and no good options. That choice was created not by the advocates for changing course, but by the architects of a disastrous war.
Mr. Kerry is a U.S. senator from Massachusetts and was the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee. |
Wall Street Journal
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“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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Me#1You#10
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Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 6503
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| Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 3:13 pm Post subject: |
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Taranto's commentary, to my knowledge, has never drawn a direct response from Kerry. In fact, I would be hard pressed to recall Kerry directly responding to ANY pundit as it opens the door wide to rhetorical escalation and a deeper examination of Kerry's record.
Taranto's needed no personal prodding to whet his already prolific appetite for Kerry skewering. It should be fun to watch. |
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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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| Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 8:24 pm Post subject: |
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Me#1 said:
| Quote: | | ...it opens the door wide to rhetorical escalation and a deeper examination of Kerry's record. |
You're right on, #1.
Kerry has now ENGAGED Taranto and I don't think Taranto will
look kindly on Kerry's charges of misinterpretation and that
Taranto's views are mistaken. Oweee!
Nothing like waving a red flag at the bull!
I can just see Taranto pawing the ground and snorting.
I look forward to another Kerry-skewering.
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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I B Squidly
Vice Admiral
Joined: 26 Aug 2004
Posts: 879
Location: Cactus Patch
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| Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:34 pm Post subject: |
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Taranto's response is too highroad for me.
| Quote: | Answering Kerry
On Saturday The Wall Street Journal and this Web site published a letter to the editor from Sen. John Kerry, wherein he responded to the July 26 op-ed in which we took the senator to task for his statement: "We heard that argument over and over again about the bloodbath that would engulf the entire Southeast Asia, and it didn't happen."
In typical Kerry fashion, he acknowledges in his letter that it did happen, but faults us for taking what he said at face value and ignoring his unspoken nuances. We thought about responding, but instead we decided to let you have the last word. What follows is the text of Kerry's letter, interspersed with rebuttals from OpinionJournal readers: |
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110010435
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"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"
-Wlm Shakespeare |
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Me#1You#10
Site Admin
Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 6503
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| Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:58 pm Post subject: |
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| I was somewhat underwhelmed myself. Perhaps Taranto feels Kerry is no longer worth the effort. |
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Navy_Navy_Navy
Admin
Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 5777
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| Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 3:53 am Post subject: |
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Maybe so... and THAT would be the unkindest cut of all! 
Just to let ordinary John Q's respond? Mercy, what a slap in the face!
How far you've fallen, John Fraud Kerry.
The big boys in political commentary are sloughing you off onto us ordinary citizens for rebuttal! LOLOL! Personally, I love it.
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~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother |
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I B Squidly
Vice Admiral
Joined: 26 Aug 2004
Posts: 879
Location: Cactus Patch
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| Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:57 pm Post subject: |
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Part 2 from Taranto:
| Quote: | Answering Kerry--II
Our Monday item about John Kerry's Saturday letter about our July 26 op-ed about Kerry's claim that a bloodbath "didn't happen" after America's retreat from Vietnam brought this follow-up from reader R.T. Barber:
I just got around to reading Kerry's attempt to extract himself from his latest verbal quagmire and was stunned at his statement that "450,000 civilians and 1.1 million soldiers were killed" in the eight years preceding the U.S. withdrawal. One of your readers, Betty Tolsma from Shertz, Texas (home to many airmen serving at Randolph Air Force Base), wrote that "Mr. Kerry needs to give academic sources for the civilian (450,000) and military (1.1 million) war deaths which he cites in his response to James Taranto's account of the post-Vietnam debacle."
The Department of Defense figures on U.S. Vietnam War casualties show 47,424 "total hostile deaths" and 58,209 "total in-theater deaths." So from where was the 1.1 million figure derived?
I suspected that South Vietnamese military casualties exceeded U.S. military casualties, but the U.S. Army reported that "South Vietnamese military deaths exceeded 200,000," which if added to U.S. casualties falls far short of the senator's number. A May 2004 report on the differences and similarities between the Vietnamese and Iraq conflicts published by the U.S. Army War College includes the following passage on page 13:
In April 1995 the government in Hanoi announced that Communist forces during the "American period" of the Vietnam War had sustained a loss of 1,100,000 dead, a figure that presumably included the Communists' 300,000 missing in action. (Hanoi also estimated 2,000,000 civilian dead.) This passage includes a citation for the Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (Spencer C. Tucker, ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
I'm sure Senator Kerry isn't purposely reciting Communist propaganda in support of his argument.
Hmm, we're actually not so sure. But even if we assume Hanoi's numbers are accurate, consider what Kerry is claiming: that it was worth sacrificing the lives and freedom of the South Vietnamese--our ally--in order to prevent casualties on the enemy side. Imagine what the world would look like if we'd taken that approach during World War II--or, for that matter, what it will look like if we take it with Muslim terrorists. |
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"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"
-Wlm Shakespeare |
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LewWaters
Admin
Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 3:32 am Post subject: |
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Maybe Kerry was citing the 200,000 a year he said we were "murdering" back in his 1971 prevarication before the Fulbright Commission.
Otherwise, it isn't abnormal for the left to just make up numbers, throw them out and expect all to buy into their disinformation.
Thank God and the Swifties he didn't get elected.
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