I heard John Kerry placed first in a bald-eagle-raping contest sponsored by a Muslim extremist group in Paris. Can’t find a cite, though.
Here is some food for thought. I concentrate on the Vietnam issues not because I think they are the most important (I certainly don’t), but because I don’t thiink they can/should be discounted out of hand either.
“So often in life, we choose to believe what other people tell us without questioning it. Sometimes this is a good thing, but oftentimes it’s not. This is especially true in regards to the coming presidential election.”
Do you not see that you are doing precisely what your admonishing her not to do? Do you really think it is enough ask someone to supply you with the counter arguements and not verify them? You started out with an agenda and your course of action is as myopic as your aunt’s opinions.
“I took a lot of time to research the information contained in the Kerry resume.”
Really? How much time did you spend looking at information that may supoport her view or verifying the opinions and information you’ve received in response to your question here?
“Apparently a guy who goes and fights in a war forfeits the right to protest it later?”
No one has questioned his right to protest the war, just the manner in which he did it. Never before had someone accused his fellow soldiers–en masse–of committing war crimes. (Imagine being a POW who was being tortured in order to get you to sign forms claiming that you were guilty of atrocities, and learning through your torturers that a fellow soldier-–safe back in the States–was saying that you were guilty of those very crimes.)
“It’s a sore subject, but there were atrocities committed in Vietnam. Kerry saw this first-hand, lost at least five friends to the war, and got shot at several times himself. If anyone has the right to protest that war, it’s the men who were actually in the war.”
The only atrocities Kerry claimed to have witnessed himself were those he committed himself. The ones he enumerated to the senate were told to him at the Winter Soldiers’ meeting in Detroit, where 150 vets against the war relayed their stories, which were never verified. (As it turns out, at least 11 of them had never been to Viet Nam.) No doubt atrocities were committed, as they have been in every war known to man. But to say that it was systemic is grossly unfair to the honourable majority who were risking their lives.
“As for the medal issue… The Purple Heart regulation in effect at that time said that a wound “must require treatment by a medical officer.” The regulation does not state anything about the severity of the wound. Purple Hearts were widely given for many types in injuries, including minor ones.”
The attending doctor has stated it merely required a band aid. No, he is not the one who signed the medical report because he had his assisstant do it, who was not a doctor. True, it might be technically allowed to be recommended for a Purple Heart for a tiny cut like Kerry’s, but what does that say about his character? Can you imagine if every soldier who banged his knee or cut his finger put in for a Purple Heart. Aside from demeaning the award itself, you’d have to double or triple the number of staff troops to do all the paperwork.
“The Purple Heart is not something you ask for, it’s awarded to you.”
A Purple Heart has to be requested by someone. Kerry requested his first one and was turned down by his commandioiing officer. Only after that commandiing officer left the area did the request go through (obstensibly by Kerry himself).
One last thing, rather than taking someone else’s thinking and then presenting it as your own, may I recommend digesting that information, synthesizing it, then putting it into your own words. Aside from being a more honest exercise, it will force you to think through issues more fully. You benefit and we benefit, as we will have another point of view to digest ourselves.
magellan 41
If that’s what the intent was, then I withdraw the criticism - the message I got from it was extremely offensive to me. I’m glad to hear that it wasn’t what you meant.