Tuesday, October 31, 2006

John Kerry Reveals Democrat's True Beliefs about Soldiers--UPDATED Scroll Down, Updated Again

Count on John Kerry to clarify the Democrat's stance on the military. Here it is:



John Kerry's words beg so many questions. He has contempt for the military--that much is clear. I wonder what, exactly, he did over in Vietnam, what guilt and shame he carries with him into his civilian life. Did he go to Vietnam for the express purpose of undermining the military forever? Is he that calculated?

Most people who have experienced war, come back quite certain that war is hell. Many come back ambivalent. Some come back and decide that pacifism is the only way. Some come back and hate war and become timid when power is need. Colin Powell comes to mind in the last instance.

It seems to me that in this too-smart world, that there is no justifiable use for force if you're a Progressive. The Democrats seem to believe that it is unfair that America is the lone super power. I always felt that Clinton giving away the secrets to the Chinese was about leveling the playing field--making things fair. In Clinton's case, he looked conflicted and pained every time he attempted a salute. He just couldn't do it. The military made him queasy. The military after all symbolizes a line in the sand--this side is right, this side is wrong. That is very uncomfortable for relativist, secular intellectuals.

Where there is no morality, or the morality is skewed to what feels fair, it can make sense that all people should have access to what American's have access to. If we are decimated by nuclear weapons in the hands of psychopaths--well, it's our own damn fault for making them to begin with. We're lucky to have survived this long. Nuclear weapons are dangerous. (Not crazy people wielding nuclear weapons are dangerous.)

This moral equivalence will be the West's suicide. I shudder to imagine what the world would look like with a President like Kerry in charge.

A note: I tried to find the Kerry clip on YouTube, went to Instapundit where he had just posted on it and then found it via Gateway Pundit. Gateway Pundit also has the statistics about today's military recruits. Don't confuse Kerry with the facts, though. He wants to lie and make it seem like urban kids make up the military. Nope, it's the children of the conservative suburban and rural voters who make up the military you ungrateful snob.

For his part, Glenn Reynolds says this about Kerry's unconscionable remarks:

Kerry's suggestion that the troops in Iraq are dumb failures is not only reprehensible, but false on the facts. In other words, a typical Kerry performance, just in time for the elections. Democrats must be wondering what they were thinking to nominate him in 2004, and why he won't go away now.
He also notes a release from John McCain's office:
The suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq, is an insult to every soldier serving in combat, and should deeply offend any American with an ounce of appreciation for what they suffer and risk so that the rest of us can sleep more comfortably at night. Without them, we wouldn't live in a country where people securely possess all their God-given rights, including the right to express insensitive, ill-considered and uninformed remarks.
Ace says: Report for Duty, Idiots!

Michelle Malkin has more, including great letters from the dumbbells serving our country.

Betsy has a perspective about Kerry. Plus, she investigates other bad Democrat behavior.

On a related note, Dr. Santy proposes how to win, even when you lose. The Democrats and Press are employing the full court press. Will it work?

UPDATE: For those who think that Kerry's babbling was a "little nothing", Glenn Reynolds has more of a round-up. You know, the longer I think about it, the angrier I get. The man has absolutely no shame. The thing is, he's not alone in his opinion that anyone deciding to be a soldier is an uneducated hayseed deluded by some misplaced American sentimentalism.

That's really it, isn't it? America isn't worth fighting for, those over in Iraq aren't fighting for America's interests, if only everyone was as smart as me (John F. Kerry), we'd be a socialist nation like France trying to stop "youths" from burning the suburbs--at least we'd have paid paternity leave and six weeks of paid vacation. Oh, and we'd speak French. Je suis tres intelligente, tu es tres stupide les Etas Unis.

While most Democrats were convinced, CONVINCED!, that the Republicans would not vote Republican because they're hate-filled homophobes so repulsed by Mark Foley's ill-advised IMs, what they miss is the real offensive stench in Washington: a whole political class who put politics and power before everything. They put it before principle (I thought they loved gay people), before family (callously calling out Cheney's daughter), before Country (undermining the war and the soldiers). They have no shame and no conscience.

The moderate, conservative Democrats are crying tonight. They don't deserve a vote and here's why: Democratic leaders like John Kerry would ostensibly lead our country if enough of the conservative Democrats win. A little advice for guys like Ford: move to another state and become a Republican. You'll get in and you'll make a positive difference.

UPDATED II: LaShawn Barber thinks this is much ado about nothing. She stands by her words, which are these:

Think about it, people. Do you really believe that John Kerry, a war veteran, thinks American troops are dumb or would say so publicly during a war in the midst of an election cycle? When I first heard about his remarks, I knew instinctively that he couldn’t have meant that. And I can’t stand the man!

Calm down. Get a grip. Take a pill. Blog about something that makes sense. Kerry’s mangled remarks aren’t worth it, in my view. So you rally your readers against him and enjoy the thrill of yet another blog swarm. But it’s based on nothing.

Are there any voices of reason on the Right???

Well, I stand by mine. I see her point. I just respectfully disagree. No one gave Mel Gibson a moments peace when he uttered offensive words under the influence of serious liquor. Rightly so. The reason? "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Had Gibson not made a film where people suspected he was anti-semitic he might have received more leeway, but many people feel that his words revealed his true feelings on the matter. Likewise, Kerry has undermined the soldiers multiple times over the years. Lots of people have a sneaking suspicion that he not only dislikes America's presence in Iraq, he dislikes soldiers no matter what the war.

I heard the remarks, too, and realized Kerry was trying in his dopey way to make a joke. He thought it would play well with a friendly crowd. Even the remark he was supposed to say is offensive:

“I can’t overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq.”

Enough already! Enough bashing the President and the half of the country who voted for him. Enough of bashing the military who supports the President. Enough! I think Kerry's ad-lib was exactly what he intended to say.

Either way, I agree with LaShawn on this: He needs to apologize and if he had quickly said, "It was a gaffe and stupid" it would have died faster. Also, if the press had given this the same attention to Kerry, it gives Republican's verbal missteps, maybe people would dismiss it as "nothing". Given the hostile environment these days, the imbalance in media, it makes for the imbalanced reactions LaShawn sees in the comments at her blog.

11 comments:

David Foster said...

Kerry's remarks are obviously insulting to everyone who is serving, or has served, in the military. They are also very destructive of the social fabric, in that they encourage class snobbery--specifically, they encourage people who are college students or college graduates, with a major in some easy and useless subject, to feel superior to people doing difficult and dangerous work.

Anonymous said...

As long as we're talking about supporting the troops, you should note that Democrats are the ones who really support the troops, not Republicans. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America have graded our elected officials according to their votes on veterans' issues.

Here's the rundown, folks. This organization of war veterans gives Democratic senators high grades (A's and B's). On the other hand, no Republican gets higher than a C+.

Here is a breakdown of senators by grade.

John Kerry, himself a war veteran, earned a B from IAVA.

Some people are turning a mangled joke into something it isn't. If we can deal with Bush's linguistic stumbles, we can deal with a mangled joke. John Kerry's voting record speaks for itself. He supports our troops and our war veterans. The Republicans do not.

Melissa Clouthier said...

Anon 7:20,
I agree that Kerry was trying to be funny, but what he said came from the heart. It wouldn't have been out his mouth if is wasn't. Look at the scorn heaped on Mel Gibson and he was drunk to high heaven. His words were still inexcusable.

The Congress needs to do everything it can to help these veteran men and women when they return home. I'm glad Kerry receives a "B". Congress also needs to help them in the midst of battle. This is where Kerry falls short.

He is the guy who accused troops of terrorizing the Iraqis in the dark of night. It wasn't true. Now, imagine for a moment, that it was true. His flapping his jaws encourages the enemy. For some reason, the Democrats just cannot get their minds around that concept. Their words matter. People are listening. The terrorists listen. The soldiers listen.

Ever word out of his mouth should be all pride and encouragement, but he just, can't, do, it. In fact, what he does say, is that only the uneducated end up in the military because they lack no options.

How can you parse that as positive? This wasn't just a malapropism. This was an unveiled moment.

If people believed he loved the military, they might throw the comment out as a silly mistake. But deep down, people have wondered about how he really feels about the men and women in uniform. His words told them.

Anonymous said...

Stop pretending that John Kerry speaks fo Democrats as a whole and check out IAVA's web site. Democrats' actions tell the real story. In truth, the Democrats support the troops, not the Republicans. Hillary Clinton, in fact, received an A- from IAVA. These are Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans--hardly a liberal group.

John Murtha, James Webb, Wesley Clark, and Tammy Duckworth are all Democrats who've served this country admirably. In fact, here is a list of politicians and pundits and there military records, or lack thereof. It's quite an eye opener. It's no coincidence that Tammy Duckworth is one of many Iraq war veterans running for office this year as Democrats.

If people truly support the troops, I suggest they write to Republican senators who are voting against the troops' interests. Check out IAVA for more.

And maybe some Republicans could pitch in by enlisting to serve a war that they support with all their being.

Trying to guess Kerry's "true intentions" behind a lame joke is not supporting the troops. It's a diversion, nothing more, and it's a waste of energy. Though I know it makes some Republicans feel better at what is a very difficult time for their ideological ilk, I believe that their anger is best directed elsewhere. A better idea would be to hold this administration accountable and ask why we went to Iraq in the first place and how we can get out. (Hint: Bin Laden has yet to be caught. Why is that? And what does it tell you if military generals are calling on Rumsfeld to resign? And what does it tell you if a congressman with extensive ties to the Pentagon is coming forward and saying the Iraq war was a mistake?)

I would also recommend checking out the writings of Karen Kwiatkowski. She is a conservative libertarian and retired Air Force colenel who used to work at the Pentagon. She has an inside view of what went on there. Her writings can be found here.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:34:

doubleplusgoodthink, comrade!
doubleplusgood duckspeak!

war is peace
freedom is slavery
ignorance is strength
oceania has never been at war with eurasia
chocolate ration of 20 grams has been increased to 10 grams
2 + 2 = 5
bush is goldstein

Anonymous said...

Yes indeed, quite a few people in the GOP leadership have mastered doublespeak.

Anonymous said...

PS: Kerry's joke was about Bush, not the troops in Iraq. But everyone already knows this, I'm sure.

Anonymous said...

Yes yes there are plenty of Democrats who join the military too... just because a group or individual served in the military doesn't make them pro-Republican or non-partisan.

The bottom line is that Kerry said something very offensive to members of the military and he should have immediately appologized. If he had done this and then said, BTW Dubya is an idiot and I meant to take a shot at him, I would have no problem with his comments. He never apologized for the actual words that came out of his mouth and thats unacceptable.

Melissa Clouthier said...

Is it acceptable to call the President stupid and intellectually lazy when the beneficiary of the rhetoric is an American enemy? Don't you think that it demoralizes soldiers to hear their Commander-in-Chief to be called names by a former military man?

I'm not saying that the President is above criticism. Anyone who reads my blog knows that I've posted aplenty about some stupid decisions made by the President.

But criticizing decisions is not the same as an ad hominem attack. This is the sitting President in a time of war. Can we at least wait until he's out of office before calling him a name?

Anonymous said...

I could not agree with you more. Sometimes is's all about simple respect!!!

Anonymous said...

The democrats and the the alphabet Networms(cbs in particular) have an interesting technique of saturation as far as Kerry's 'botched' 'joke' goes. I and millions of other americans are not so ignorant and inexperienced that we think Kerry BOTCHED a joke. No, he said exactly what he meant to say and he also speaks for the alphabet networks. Every 24 hours another statement about what he MEANT to say comes out. I call that saturation...intended to undo his poor judgement and loose tongue only days before the election. THEN in the next breath they tell us that the republicans are worried and the dems are set to take over at least one of the two chambers...they hope both. Because we're camping i'm stuck with the alphabet network programming this week. What i'd really like to know are the statistics for cbs viewers suicides cause i gotta tell you...they are so depressing i wanted to shoot myself after the third day and i'm not just talking about election news. c