Me#1You#10
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Joined: 06 May 2004
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 Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:09 pm Post subject: RightWingNews.com: An Interview With John O'Neill |
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From John Hawkins, RightWingNews.com...
| Quote: | September 07, 2004
An Interview With John O'Neill
On Friday of last week, I sat down with John O'Neill from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth for a 25 minute phone interview. We discussed John Kerry's first and third Purple Hearts, his Bronze Star, his Senate testimony, Cambodia, Chris Matthews, and several other topics of note.
Read and enjoy. (Cont) |
| Quote: | An Interview With John O'Neill
by John Hawkins
John Hawkins: Now I've heard that you called George Bush an "empty suit," voted for Al Gore in 2000, and are giving all the money that your book,"Unfit For Command," makes to charity. Is all of that true?
John O'Neill: Most of it. I didn’t actually call George Bush an empty suit. I had made private remarks critical of George Bush, but not that one that I remember. I am giving all the money to charity and I did vote for Al Gore in 2000 and I voted for Ross Perot twice before that.
John Hawkins: Also, if the election were between George Bush and John Edwards, who would you vote for?
John O'Neill: I said a year ago that I would have voted for John Edwards. To be candid, I wouldn’t want to express what I would do today.
John Hawkins: I understand. After all the attacks he has made on you guys, you probably don’t have as many warm and fuzzy feelings about him now.
John O'Neill: I probably wouldn’t be as enthusiastic (laughs). I’ll probably stay better informed in the future.
John Hawkins: I know there are more than 250 members of the Swift Boat Vets for Truth, but do you have any sort of breakdown of how many there are who served with Kerry in the field in Vietnam?
John O'Neill: Yes. Here are some of the statistics. John Kerry’s primary service was in a little area called An Thoi, Coastal Division 11. At Coastal Division 11 there were 23 officers he served with by our count. 17 of the 23 belong to our organization that have condemned him as unfit. Four have supported him and two have taken no position. There’s a photograph that you can find on John Kerry’s website.
John Hawkins: I’ve seen that one.
John O'Neill: It has 20 officers on it. Two are dead. Two have taken no position and then there’s John Kerry. That leaves, in other words, 15 officers there other than the ones who have taken no position or are dead or Kerry himself. Of those 12 condemn him as unfit and have joined our organization. Three support John Kerry after intense solicitation by John Kerry.
John Hawkins: What about men who served in the field with John Kerry?
John O'Neill: There were approximately 100 sailors at Coastal Division 11. More than 60 of them have signed on with us.
On his boat there were 10 people, to be fair, some for as little as 6 days. That’s the one category where he runs ahead of us. One is dead. Eight support him for President but not necessarily on the facts. Many of them, when asked, have indicated that things in our book "Unfit For Command" are true and one of them has condemned him. Now that’s the statistic he uses all the time. It’s very important to understand that some of those people were with him as little as 6 days, also that these boats operated in a common pack of 2 to 6 boats, that many of these people said that they were disgusted with him, that he turned their stomach, that they considered he had totally betrayed them as recently as 5 years ago. So he has made a concerted effort over the past 5 years obviously to improve his relationship with those people and most of them now support him, but not all.
The Kerry argument has been that you have to look now just at the guys who are on his own little boat. That’s a Washington lawyer argument that everybody laughs at because these boats never operate by themselves. They operate in packs of 2 to 6 boats and everybody on a normal night bunks together in a common bunkroom on a mother ship and so people know exactly what is happening. I think another statistic is that the entire chain of command all the way up to Admiral Zumwalt who is dead but whose son has signed our letter all condemn John Kerry as unfit. So I think that above John Kerry and along side John Kerry, he’s condemned by large majorities of people who believe he’s unfit to be the Commander-In-Chief.
RightWingNews.com - con't
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Last edited by Me#1You#10 on Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:34 pm; edited 5 times in total |
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