SwiftVets.com

[BillGremm]

You know Kerry really does deserve a medal for being able to buffalo the liberals and conservatives alike into buying into his swift boat self-aggrandising fantasies for over 35 years.

None of the real-life military war heroes that I grew up knowing talked much about their glory days. However, I was persistent and would get the information out of them in bits and pieces. These were rare moments where they would pacify me ,an eager seeker of GI Joe like adventures, with small glimpses of past battles fought by young men who managed to make it through their war and move along life where their silence wore like a medal to young boys like me.

There was an modest aura about the tight-lipped, matter of fact men that I knew. And yet you could tell that they respected men in politics, liberal or conservative, that were vets like themselves. In some ways the respect they gave these men was the only accolade they gave themselves like reflections off a glass; for the candidate may have been lawyer or successful businessman, but the common factor is they had both served their country and knew something about sacrifice. There was an unofficial line that candidates, who were veterans, rarely crossed. That line served to keep the candidate on the side that identified him with all vets and to cross over it by claiming some seperate distinction apart from the common service of all was just not acceptable.

That is what is so sad about John Kerry. He never got it. He did not understand that service for ones country, especially in war, is not a prerequisite for greatness, but in the most humble sense greatness itself.
John Kerry has worn his war service like a self-star spangled banner for too long and forced the silent sailors that served with him to speak out about him and about their own service. Unlike Kerry this is not natural for them to discuss these things, but they must for the present battle for them isn't fought for medals or political gain but it is fought so that younger men and women now serving this country will know the truth; being confident that their service will never be looked at as anything less than great--in the most humble sense.
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Up - Down, In - Out, Black - White, Truth - Kerry