The peopel who served with Kerry, his commanders and the US Navy itself all speak very favorably of his service. Most of the swiftboat scumbags never even served with him. The Navy says the swiftboat accusations are a load.
You seem to behind the curve on this. Everything in the Swiftboat book has been roundly debunked and refuted. The fact that you would try to cite it does great damage to your own credibility.
Do a search. Or not. You’re wrong about “all of his commanders”, that their accusations have been debunked, and much, much more. I’d insult you roundly here for being so…YOU…but I wouldn’t want to inadvertently insult all Doper or all of mankind.
So I leave with what that which should be named after you: :rolleyes:
It does not go too far at all IMO. Someone reversing themselves so thoroughly, as has been cited in this thread already (and you never responded to), is a severe character flaw. We want people who have the courage of their convictions. Not someone who will prostitute themselves when it proves expedient. That is NOT who I want as president.
Of course people can change their minds and that is even a good thing. Being hidebound to a position despite what information is available is stupid. In the case of McCain though he has reversed himself so many times and on principled matters to boot there is no hand waving it away as an aberration.
That a person who made such a trademark for himself as a principled Senator to bend over and cozy up to people he once had huge issues with is appalling. Based on his previous service to the country I could grant him some leeway but he has made it impossible to ignore. It is not just a little thing here or there but a massive pile of evidence of this remarkable change in persona. He simply is not the same man anymore and my choice is to vote for the man he is today…not the man he was in 1999 or 1975.
Aside from there being no relationship between the two sentences you typed, I’ll just say this. No, I will not bother providing a cite for you. This has been discussed before. You’ve even participated. You know how to search. Have fun.
As far as the record, do me sure it shows—plainly and clearly—that I have no respect for you.
Unfit for Command doesn’t seem to be the most reliable source, I’m afraid. Only one of the SBVT served with Kerry, and he wasn’t there on any of the occasions on which Kerry won his medals. The only SBVT guy who was there for one of them praised Kerry for his actions on that particular occasion. All the rest of Kerry’s crew says he deserved his medals. Sorry, magellan, but it seems to me that the preponderance of evidence here is that Kerry served honorably.
I might point out that your first link to Reuters is not a news report but a press release (see source at the end of the article and note it is in the press release section). As such it proves nothing except what the authors of the press release want you to believe.
I have yet to read the second link through but I did note while it looks like they were footnoting their evidence they (probably innocently) did not actually include the footnotes/cites. As such it makes it difficult to sort through their claims and verify what they say. They’ve been thoroughly debunked to this point but maybe this chapter will be different.
I just find it interesting that all these people who are so busy screaming about how unjustified Kerry’s medals were weren’t on the boat, while all the people on the boat seem to think it was absolutely legit. What’s wrong with that picture?
By the way, I’d like to know how many of those who hold the Swiftboat Vets in such low regard actually read Unfit for Command as opposed to taking Wikipedia’s explanation. :rolleyes: But no problem, new book, new opportunity to keep your fingers in your ears and your hands over your eyes.
magellan, I read your article. I didn’t see anyone who was on Kerry’s boat. Your ‘witnesses’ seem to all be people who have political beefs with Kerry.
My father got a Purple Heart in WWII when hit by masonry from a crumbling building in Germany after the war had ended. Do you think he doesn’t deserve his? I certainly hope not; he has the scars to this day. Then why would Kerry not deserve a Purple Heart for an injury due to rice sent flying by an explosion? A war related injury is a war related injury - it doesn’t have to be caused by metal.
Actually, “war-related”" is not the metric. Enemy action is. For instance, Max Cleland lost limbs when a grenade was dropped as he came off a helicopter. That didn’t merit him a Purple Heart, although it was indeed war-related. As he explained in his autobiography Strong at the Broken Places:
