posted on February 14, 2004 12:50:07 PM new
by Gary W. Aldrich
February 12, 2004 Volume 4 Issue 07
This article appeared at Townhall.com on February 12, 2004
If a decorated firefighter becomes an arsonist, is he still considered a hero?
If a dedicated FBI agent leaves his agency, then attacks it - and becomes a professional witness for the defense - is he still a "hero?"
The answers are obvious to any common sense person.
But, if a Vietnam-era soldier comes home, blasts his country, gives aid and comfort to our enemies, and tosses his war medals over the White House fence - in this unique circumstance - then he's apparently still a hero in the minds of many, including the mainstream media.
No amount of draft-dodging or anti-war activity kept Bill Clinton out of the White House, so why should John Kerry suffer from his anti-war, anti-USA excesses? The answer is, he won't. In fact, Kerry will prosper, because in the minds of the persons who will support and vote for him, his heroics are not found fighting Communists in the jungle swamps of Vietnam. Rather, they adore Kerry's "courageous" activism for coming home and standing up to the "corrupted" and hated Nixon Administration.
Those who hate Joe McCarthy love this guy. The Anti-anti Communists flock to Kerry, because he and his ilk had only compliments for the vicious leaders of North Vietnam. How do I know this? I was at many of the so-called "peaceful war protests." I saw the literature expressing support for the Viet Cong. I heard the speeches spewing hatred for Nixon and our government.
I watched the peaceniks roll over police cars and set them on fire. I saw them throw rocks and bottles at the police who tried hard to maintain order. I witnessed the cops fall, as some of those sharp rocks found their mark, and I heard these peaceful war protesters laugh as the blood began to flow.
They wore red headbands in the best traditions of world-wide Communism. They also waved banners praising the North Vietnamese murderers and held up Mao's Little Red Book of Communism as their bible and justification.
They hated Amerika - as they called it - and everything about our life here. We mostly tolerated their hatred and overlooked much of their treason and violence, only to realize that our passivity encouraged them to become ever more violent, ever more hateful.
Finally, setting up 50-caliber machine guns around the perimeters of the Department of Justice, The FBI and the Pentagon was the only "message" the protestors understood - and stopped them from storming and burning down these institutions.
Ah, for these peaceful war protestors, rallies were a great place to get high and meet babes. And I am not simply relying on my own observations, as a 24-year-old FBI agent working undercover in their midst. I base my conclusions on the written accounts available to anyone willing to learn more about these terrible times in our nation's history. Several of these books were written by the leaders of these very movements, and all the facts are there for those who choose to learn the truth.
I'm quite certain Senator John Kerry will be a "hero" to today's peaceniks, anarchists and any others who hate Amerika. But for the more than 50,000 Vietnam Veterans whose names appear on the Vietnam Memorial, Senator John Kerry is nothing but a skunk.
Let's see what happens when he brings his medals to the first presidential debate. I'm willing to bet George W. Bush will have no trouble dealing with this coward.
That Kerry is a US Senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts - to that I say, so is Ted Kennedy.
Massachusetts may have produced many national heroes. But Massachusetts politics do not favor these - only the anti-heroes and misfits do well there. Both of these US Senators owe the country an apology, each for his own reasons, and no amount of political spin will ever erase the colorful stain on their reputations.
posted on February 15, 2004 05:06:33 AM newThe answers are obvious to any common sense person.
LOL Bear as we have seen just on this board, no one on the left has any... mix them in with the ones that can't even vote here and you have maybe a thimble's worth... not even worth 2 cents...
Kerry has shown that he will not stick with any issue longer than with the next speech...
Wishy washy we don't need.
posted on February 15, 2004 10:03:27 AM new
"Let's see what happens when he brings his medals to the first presidential debate. I'm willing to bet George W. Bush will have no trouble dealing with this coward."
Hey, wait, didn't he throw the medals over the white house fence in a big ceremony that brought tears to every liberal's eyes??
Must have been for the TV bite because they say his medals are displayed on the wall in his office.
Just another political hack floating on a prevailing breeze.
posted on February 15, 2004 01:20:29 PM new
That charge against kerry is unfair and I think you know that.
I believe that he was sincere in his protest against the Vietnam war. After serving there he saw the needless carnage and wanted to end it. Eisenhower expresssed the same sentiment about war when he said, "Here would be a great area from the Elbe to Vladivostok and down through Southeast Asia torn up and destroyed without government, without its communications, just an area of starvation and disaster. I ask you what would the civilized world do about it? I repeat, there is no victory in any war except through our imagination, through our dedication, and through our work to avoid it."
posted on February 15, 2004 04:24:07 PM new
Well, golly gee! He's against war! Well I guess just about everybody is. Even trot out the comments made by Eisenhower. Of course Eisenhower gave the same speech as Washington, Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, .......
I wonder if anyone ever asked Ike if we should have thought hard and asked the Japanese in Jan '42 to forgive us for getting them ever so mad at us. Since he was "against war" Helen should be able to approximate his answer.
I wonder if we ask Kerry if we should have allowed China and Russia to use their Vietnamese proxies to take over Burma, Thailand, etc to "prevent war" what he would say.
posted on February 15, 2004 06:14:37 PM new
The Democrats are trying to get Kerry a pass from his anti-American activities because Kerry was a war hero. Well, Benedict Arnold was also a war hero.
Jane Fonda and John Kerry didn't just oppose the Vietnam War. THEY PROVIDED AID AND COMFORT TO THE ENEMY.
In my opinion, Kerry and Fonda should have been tried for treason.
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Why aren't you guys concerned about Bush's August 1972 suspension from flight status in the Texas Air National Guard because he missed his flight physical and was missing for 6 months.
posted on February 15, 2004 07:32:28 PM new
Because President Bush is kicking asses and taking names. A President Kerry will run up the white flag and turn the country over to the UN.
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posted on February 15, 2004 08:46:19 PM new
1971 Photo of Kerry Doctored
By Michael Rothfeld
Staff Writer
As a 20-year-old photographer documenting the country's struggle over the Vietnam War, Ken Light snapped the picture of John Kerry at a peace rally in Mineola. It captured the future senator alone at a podium, squinting into the sun.
Light did not photograph Jane Fonda on that warm June Sunday in 1971. The actress, who is reviled by many Vietnam veterans for her vocal stance against the war, did not even attend.
But when opponents of the Democratic presidential hopeful began e-mailing Light's picture to one another four days ago, it depicted Fonda standing by Kerry's side. The photo had been doctored.
"I'm horrified," said Light, 52, who grew up in East Meadow and now heads the graduate photojournalism program at the University of California at Berkeley. "I think this kind of alteration is probably one of the scariest forms of trickery, particularly when it's done against a political candidate."
Dag Vega, a spokesman for Kerry's campaign, said, "The smear tactics have started already."
Kerry, who co-founded Vietnam Veterans Against the War, spoke at the Register for Peace Rally on June 13, 1971, when thousands gathered for "the largest anti-war demonstration ever held on Long Island," according to a story in Newsday the next day. Light recalled Long Islanders of all ages sprawled across the State Supreme Court mall in Mineola, with American flags and peace symbols. Former members of Congress who attended included Bella Abzug, Allard Lowenstein and Lester Wolff. Folk singer Peter Yarrow entertained, and the rally ended with a burst of thunder and lightning.
Light, a student in Ohio at the time, took the picture of Kerry but never published it, and it sat in his files until two weeks ago when he shipped it to Corbis, his Seattle-based agent, which placed it in its online archives.
That is apparently where someone found it, and attempted to capitalize on the attention garnered by an authentic photo of Kerry and Fonda at a Vietnam-era rally -- seated some distance apart -- posted early this month on a Web site called www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com. The Web site's creator, Ted Sampley, a Vietnam veteran from North Carolina, said he received the doctored photo by e-mail on Wednesday from a woman in Richmond, Va.
"Thought you might want to include this pic on your site," said the note from Loree Siemek, with an attachment called "HanoiJohn.jpg," a takeoff on "Hanoi Jane," the derisive nickname given to Fonda by her critics during the Vietnam era. It is made to look like a newspaper clipping, headlined "Fonda Speaks to Vietnam Veterans at Anti- War Rally," with an Associated Press photo credit. Sampley said he was immediately skeptical, and e-mailed it to some friends who concluded it was faked. He did not post it.
"I looked at it and it didn't feel right," Sampley said in an interview. "It just looked too good."
Siemek, 34, reached by phone, said she found the picture on a conservative Internet message board and had no idea it was phony.
"This thing has spiraled out of control," Siemek said. "If I had any thought that photo was not real, I would never have forwarded it to the veterans' group."
