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neverforget · Vice Admiral Joined: 18 Jul 2004 Posts: 875

By Victor Davis Hanson, who I think is one of the best thinkers and writers we have in our country, although we may not like his conclusion:

>>Even in daytime fighters do not perceive anything; indeed, nobody knows anything more than what is going on right around himself.

So the fifth-century B.C. military historian Thucydides commented on the confusion of battle on the heights above Syracuse (413 B.C.), and, indirectly, on the inability of historians such as himself to sort out the conflicting accounts provided by veterans of all battles.<<

SNIP/>>It is time to drop the mess and leave it at this: A veteran John Kerry, who easily could have been blown up on numerous occasions, came home mixed up and said and did things he probably now regrets, which over the last three decades have provided both rich political capital for him and ammunition for his enemies — depending on the ever-changing perception of Vietnam in the popular memory of a given decade.

So I conclude with empathy for John Kerry, whom I appreciate as a veteran who served his country — even if I would not now vote for him. He should have been aware of the god Nemesis. Still, in a spirit of magnanimity and appreciation for his months on a boat in a very inhospitable landscape, Americans perhaps should remember the words of Pericles, as recorded by Thucydides shortly after the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War: "For there is justice in the claim that steadfastness in his country's battles should be as a cloak to cover a man's other imperfections; since the good action has blotted out the bad, and his merit as a citizen more than outweighed his demerits as an individual."<<

http://victorhanson.com/articles/hanson082704.html

BuffaloJack · Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 5:41 pm Post subject:

Hanoi John might have served Ok.
It's what he did afterwards that infuriates most veterans.
He turned and gave aid to the enemy.

ASPB · Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 7:32 pm Post subject:

If it were simply a matter post-war braggadocio it might be forgiven but it's not. Anyone who has read both Tour and Unfit cannot help but conclude Kerry embarked not just on a Swift boat but also on a deliberate scheme to create a "Hero's" war record contemporaneously.

I knew several men like him during my tour on the rivers of Vietnam. They were scorned then and if met again would be scorned now.

Unfortunately national politics has force me meet the same type of man again.

He is scorned!
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beansoup · Lieutenant Joined: 20 Aug 2004 Posts: 215 Location: Texas

I read somewhere that, Kerry applied for that assignment, when the Swiftboats were just a patrol mission..[Non-combat] It wasn't for a couple of weeks that it Swiftboats were put in action...That must have thorn in his side, and he then embarked on the career, theory with, difficulty..
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producehawk · PO1 Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 463

Kerry lied, nuff said

LewWaters · Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 7:57 pm Post subject:

neverforget · Vice Admiral Joined: 18 Jul 2004 Posts: 875

I think this is the first time I've disagreed with Hanson, although there is a lot in the meat of the article that is highly critical of Kerry.

Hanson has written brilliantly and spportively of the war on terror including our military in Iraq.

The third paragraph, which I didn't put in, talks about the difficulty he had trying to reconstruct the events of his WWII bomber pilot father's death in battle.