Wow, He Really Is a Babykiller!

While some, more respectful and noble souls give Mr. Theresa Hei-- I mean Sen. John Forbes Kerry some degree of deference for his war record, I am not one of them. Just because someone is a veteran doesn't place him beyond reproach or investigation for his war record, just as being a [insert name of identity politics group] doesn't really make you an expert on anything other than the use and abuse of the preposition "as". But let me be clear on this point: I don't mean to impugn veterans, veterans of foreign wars, Vietnam veterans, or even Vietnamese veterans, just Sen. Kerry. In fact, because so much of his war record strikes me as manufactured, false, and opportunistic, it seems to me that calling him a war hero seems to do a disservice to war heroes and opportunists everywhere.

The New York Sun ran an editorial by a Mr. Thomas Lipscomb, who seems to agree with me, insofar as "The Comeback Kerry's" tour of duty is concerned:

“[T]he fabled and distinguished chief of naval operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, told me — 30 years ago when he was still CNO —that during his own command of U.S. naval forces in Vietnam, just prior to his anointment as CNO, young Kerry had created great problems for him and the other top brass, by killing so many non-combatant civilians and going after other non-military targets. ‘We had virtually to straitjacket him to keep him under control,’ the admiral said. ‘Bud’ Zumwalt got it right when he assessed Kerry as having large ambitions — but promised that his career in Vietnam would haunt him if he were ever on the national stage.” And this statement was made despite the fact Zumwalt had personally pinned a Silver Star on Mr. Kerry.

Mr. Kerry was assigned to Swiftboat 44 on December 1, 1968. Within 24 hours, he had his first Purple Heart. Mr. Kerry accumulated three Purple Hearts in four months with not even a day of duty lost from wounds, according to his training officer. It’s a pity one cannot read his Purple Heart medical treatment reports which have been withheld from the public. The only person preventing their release is Mr. Kerry.

By his own admission during those four months, Mr. Kerry continually kept ramming his Swiftboat onto an enemy-held shore on assorted occasions alone and with a few men, killing civilians and even a wounded enemy soldier. One can begin to appreciate Zumwalt’s problem with Mr. Kerry as commander of an unarmored craft dependent upon speed of maneuver to keep it and its crew from being shot to pieces.

Mr. Kerry now refers to those civilian deaths as “accidents of war.” And within four days of his third Purple Heart, Mr. Kerry applied to take advantage of a technicality which allowed him to request immediate transfer to a stateside post.

Well ain't that an asschapper! Here I thought that Mr. Kerry was acting the fool by calling his Band-of-Brothers Vietnam Vets war criminals thusly:

[U.S. Servicemen] had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam...

While in fact, Mr. Kerry-Heinz was confessing his own culpability in war crimes-- er, "accidents of war". So he really is, by his own admission, "Babykiller" Kerry!

Did I mention that he was in Vietnam?

(Hat tip: The Oracle of Knoxville)