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This Week’s
John Kerry obviously has the nation’s conservatives and many Republicans anxious about his pending Democratic presidential nomination. What other reason could there be for their current criticism of his respectable war record? The attacks began after one of Kerry’s former commanders in Vietnam, who is an avowed staunch Bush supporter, recently told the Boston Globe the decorated war hero received one of his Purple Hearts for a small scratch resembling a "fingernail scrape." Naturally, Bush advocates jumped at the chance to question the gravity of the wound he sustained, forcing the Kerry campaign to post scores of pages of the Massachusetts senator’s military service record on the Internet last week. (How many of Kerry’s critics served — voluntarily or otherwise — in the armed forces during war or peace?) How dare those jerks question the record of a combat soldier who received two of the nation’s highest commendations for bravery — a Bronze Star for heroic achievement and a Silver Star for gallantry in action — as well as three Purple Hearts for a variety of wounds. Kerry wasn’t drafted like most Vietnam-era servicemen. He volunteered for two tours of duty in Vietnam, first serving on an offshore guided missile frigate then as the commander of a Navy swift boat that patrolled the Mekong Delta for four months in 1969. Like many Vietnam veterans who soured on the war after eyewitness experience, Kerry had a change of heart about America’s mission and challenged it when he testified at Senate hearings on the war after his discharge, saying, "…How do you ask the last man to die for a mistake?" After Kerry’s records were made public last week, the sleazy New York Post, in its typical journalistic gutter-ese, reported the story with a despicable headline that labeled Kerry a "killer," then cited the senator’s military service that credits him with killing 20 North Vietnamese troops in combat action. Mind you that’s the same tabloid that frequently questions Kerry’s patriotism. What could be more patriotic than volunteering to fight for your country? Several months ago, after a photo of Kerry at a war rally surfaced, a conservative radio talk show host accused Kerry of protesting with "Hanoi Jane" Fonda following his discharge. (The actress was vilified for a 1972 trip to North Vietnam where she declared American POWs were being treated humanely and condemned U.S. soldiers as "war criminals.") Kerry was at a rally in which Fonda happened to show up, as she did at a Central Park protest in 1971 in which I participated. So what? I didn’t see combat, but I’m a Vietnam-era Army veteran. During my Army service I met dozens of guys fresh from Southeast Asia, including a few who sustained friendly fire injuries, who were annoyed about how badly the war was being fought. Not long after I was honorably discharged after three years overseas and stateside, I joined the millions, including combat veterans — like John Kerry — who earnestly spoke out against the war. Does that mean anyone who opposes an ambiguous government policy should not be able to run for office with a clear conscience? The fundamental dilemma nowadays seems to be the misdirected strategy of political campaigning by character assassination. Consequently, attacking an opponent’s record about more pressing issues is clouded when scrutinizing nonessential events that occurred decades ago. But as long as there’s a debate about military service, how many citations did George W. Bush accumulate in his privileged, cushy Air National Guard stint — as New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd put it — "safeguarding Texas from invading Oklahomans"? Heck, did he even get a scratch learning how to fly obsolete F-102s? To show off his flying prowess, and in an attempt to boost his pseudo-military image, Bush resorted to that ridiculous aircraft carrier landing a year ago. Whatever shortcomings can be attributed to John Kerry, his patriotism is definitely not one of them. His attackers better have more substantial ammunition before they pass judgment on his laudable military record, especially when Vice President Cheney didn’t serve and President Bush was nothing more than a weekend warrior with dubious National Guard attendance records.
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