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rbshirley
Founder
Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 394
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 Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 7:10 am Post subject: Why don't you just stop the smear campaign? |
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I have been receiving numerous emails from people attempting to convince
me that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth should cease their "smear attacks"
on John Kerry. As a result my standard email reply is as follows.
| rbshirley wrote: |
======================================================================
I am writing, as a private citizen, to remind you that your name is signed to a letter that John
O'Neill routinely cites in his battle to bring down John Kerry.
The practical effect of the letter, along with O'Neill's campaign, is to diminish Mr. Kerry and his
entire service record, while lifting up George W. Bush
Misguided as you may think Kerry's testimony was after the war, can you not allow the possibility
that he was simply trying, in his way, to bring the war to an end before more people died? He
may have gone about it wrong, certainly, but I believe that was his goal.
======================================================================
Dear Sir
My wife's father was killed by the North Vietnamese Communists in the "re-education" camps after
they invaded and took over South Vietnam while the United States stood by, following the advice
of John Kerry to trade "unilateral withdrawal" for the return of the US prisoners of war.
My son-in-law was barely able to escape with his life as part of the "boat people" that fled the abuse
and atrocities imposed on all of the people of South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese Communists
So it impossible for me to believe that "he was simply trying, in his way, to bring the war to an end
before more people died?" Without a doubt, the truth is that he traded thousands and millions of lives
in order to further his own political ambitions.
You sir, are the one that was misguided by what was included in John Kerry's testimony after the war.
o He met with representatives of the Communist Parties of Vietnam, enemies of the United States
o He then embarked on a campaign to publicize and advocate their propaganda about atrocities
o He falsely implied that it was the policy of the United States to commit war crimes in Vietnam
o He called the United States' conflict against the Soviet Union the "mythical war with Communism"
o He advocated the Communists demand that the US "unilaterally withdraw" from South East Asia
o He strongly supported the promise that the retribution by the North would not exceed 3000 killed
Now he wants us to believe that in spite of the above that he should be revered as a Vietnam war hero
The only people that consider him a war hero are the North Vietnamese, who have established a tribute
to John Kerry in the "War Crimes Museum" in Ho Chi Minh City honoring him for his contributions to
assisting them to win their war in South East Asia.
Ask John O'Neill to GIVE UP efforts to bring the truth to the American people? Absolutely NOT!
This has nothing to do with Bush and everything to do with John Kerry's character
Since you seem to believe that the Vietnam anti-war movement had some validity, I ask you to read
VERY CAREFULLY what activist and draft dodger David Pence has to say about Kerry's activities
Respectfully .... Bob Shirley .... Swift Boat Sailor
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David Pence's outstanding article should be required reading for anyone that
that thinks that protesting the war the way that Kerry did was honorable or
truthful or correct. See the follow-on posting.
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Last edited by rbshirley on Wed Aug 25, 2004 2:10 pm; edited 7 times in total |
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rbshirley
Founder
Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 394
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| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 1:37 pm Post subject: Re: Why don't you just stop the smear campaign? |
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| David Pence wrote: |
Antiwar activists who got it wrong
Excerpts from David Pence's article
Published February 27, 2004 PENCE0227
Minneapolis - St. Paul Star Tribune
In 1972, a few years after John Kerry was in Vietnam, I was in federal prison
for draft resistance. Draft resisters were glad to have Kerry "on our side."
Most vets hated us. My dad, a World War II Marine, did not speak to me for
seven years after I refused military service. He saw draft resisters as cowards
and traitors. One of his wartime buddies said, "Take your son to Chicago, strip
him naked, and see if he comes back a pacifist." Draft resisters cheered when
Muhammad Ali refused induction. Certainly he was no coward. We cheered
louder when Kerry testified against the war. Certainly he was no traitor.
But even as an activist, I was shocked at Kerry's characterization of American
atrocities in Vietnam as commonplace. The image of the American solider
as "babykiller" was being born. In a foreign country, our men were shot for
the uniform they wore. In their own country they could not wear it for shame.
For other men, flag-draped boxes sealed them from such insults. After
Kerry's testimony, he faced no such shame. To the McGovern Democrats,
he became a hero. He was headed to elected office as the solider who
hated the war. He had a receptive audience in Massachusetts for his
stories of atrocities by soldiers and criminality by the government.
By 1972 if a man would go to jail or a returning solider would repudiate
the war, he was assured an influential community of support and adulation.
For the men who returned from military duty, there was no such honor.
Their shame came not from guilt about their actions as soldiers but from
propaganda of the antiwar movement.
The war against the Soviet Union was the great moral struggle of the
post-WWII generation. Leaving Vietnam did not end the fight against
communism but changed the battlefield to Catholic Poland and Muslim
Afghanistan. The left's complaint was not about Vietnam as a particular
battlefield but the Cold War as a worthy enterprise. Kerry described the
Cold War as "the mystical war against communism" in his infamous Senate
testimony (April 1971). It turns out that communism was not so mystical
-- not in the killing fields of Cambodia or the captive nations of Eastern
Europe or the Islamic southern rim of the Soviet Union.
I am ashamed of my role in those not-so-glorious '60s. I honor John Kerry
the solider. But in this time of war, we must repudiate his disgraceful
depiction of the American solider in Vietnam, his mistaken understanding
of the Cold War, and his equivocation in our present war.
For those tempted to use a soldier's story to advance their worldview ....,
take pause. We were wrong then; you don't have to be wrong now.
David Pence was sentenced to a year and a day in 1972 for draft resistance
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ccr
Commander
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 325
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| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 2:39 pm Post subject: |
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Bravo Zulu, RBS -- for both a great response and your service.
_________________
Whose side is John Kerry really on? Take this quiz and decide for yourself.
http://www.learnthat.com/quiz/
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JROTC
Seaman Apprentice
Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 83
Location: Milwaukee, WI
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| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 10:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Thank you for those two posts, RBS, and your service. If you haven't done it yet, please consider formulately a question and post those two in the newer FAQ section that Ms. 3Navy has requested. Thanks again! |
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