Leader

Unfit for Office
I was on Mr. Kerry's boat in Vietnam. He doesn't deserve to be commander in chief.

BY JOHN O'NEILL
Tuesday, May 4, 2004 12:01 a.m.

HOUSTON--In 1971, I debated John Kerry, then a national spokesman for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, for 90 minutes on "The Dick Cavett Show." The key issue in that debate was Mr. Kerry's claim that American troops were committing war crimes in Vietnam "on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command." Now, as Sen. Kerry emerges as the presumptive Democratic nominee for the presidency, I've chosen to re-enter the fray.
Like John Kerry, I served in Vietnam as a Swift Boat commander. Ironically, John Kerry and I served much of our time, a full 12 months in my case and a controversial four months in his, commanding the exact same six-man boat, PCF-94, which I took over after he requested early departure. Despite our shared experience, I still believe what I believed 33 years ago--that John Kerry slandered America's military by inventing or repeating grossly exaggerated claims of atrocities and war crimes in order to advance his own political career as an antiwar activist. His misrepresentations played a significant role in creating the negative and false image of Vietnam vets that has persisted for over three decades.

Neither I, nor any man I served with, ever committed any atrocity or war crime in Vietnam. The opposite was the truth. Rather than use excessive force, we suffered casualty after casualty because we chose to refrain from firing rather than risk injuring civilians. More than once, I saw friends die in areas we entered with loudspeakers rather than guns. John Kerry's accusations then and now were an injustice that struck at the soul of anyone who served there.

During my 1971 televised debate with John Kerry, I accused him of lying. I urged him to come forth with affidavits from the soldiers who had claimed to have committed or witnessed atrocities. To date no such affidavits have been filed. Recently, Sen. Kerry has attempted to reframe his comments as youthful or "over the top." Yet always there has been a calculated coolness to the way he has sought to destroy the record of our honorable service in the interest of promoting his political ambitions of the moment.

John Kennedy's book, "Profiles in Courage," and Dwight Eisenhower's "Crusade in Europe" inspired generations. Not so John Kerry, who has suppressed his book, "The New Soldier," prohibiting its reprinting. There is a clear reason for this. The book repeats John Kerry's insults to the American military, beginning with its front-cover image of the American flag being carried upside down by a band of bearded renegades in uniform--a clear slap at the brave Marines in their combat gear who raised our flag at Iwo Jima. Allow me the reprint rights to your book, Sen. Kerry, and I will make sure copies of "The New Soldier" are available in bookstores throughout America.

Vietnam was a long time ago. Why does it matter today? Since the days of the Roman Empire, the concept of military loyalty up and down the chain of command has been indispensable. The commander's loyalty to the troops is the price a commander pays for the loyalty of the troops in return. How can a man be commander in chief who for over 30 years has accused his "Band of Brothers," as well as himself, of being war criminals? On a practical basis, John Kerry's breach of loyalty is a prescription of disaster for our armed forces.
John Kerry's recent admissions caused me to realize that I was most likely in Vietnam dodging enemy rockets on the very day he met in Paris with Madame Binh, the representative of the Viet Cong to the Paris Peace Conference. John Kerry returned to the U.S. to become a national spokesperson for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, a radical fringe of the antiwar movement, an organization set upon propagating the myth of war crimes through demonstrably false assertions. Who was the last American POW to die languishing in a North Vietnamese prison forced to listen to the recorded voice of John Kerry disgracing their service by his dishonest testimony before the Senate?

Since 1971, I have refused many offers from John Kerry's political opponents to speak out against him. My reluctance to become involved once again in politics is outweighed now by my profound conviction that John Kerry is simply not fit to be America's commander in chief. Nobody has recruited me to come forward. My decision is the inevitable result of my own personal beliefs and life experience.
Today, America is engaged in a new war, against the militant Islamist terrorists who attacked us on our own soil. Reasonable people may differ about how best to proceed, but I'm sure of one thing--John Kerry is the wrong man to put in charge.

Mr. O'Neill served in Coastal Division 11 in 1969-70, winning two Bronze Stars and additional decorations for his service in Vietnam.

http://www.csamerican.com/linkFrame.asp?p=a&k=2539

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jth298

"Reasonable people may differ about how best to proceed, but I'm sure of one thing--John Kerry is the wrong man to put in charge"

I would agree that the best way forward is for reasonable people to make these kinds of decisions. You say that Kerry is disloyal, dishonest and the wrong man to have in charge. It would be a great shame if this is true as a lot of hope is placed by the people of the world in Kerry being an improvement on Bush... or at least to help bring some reasoned thinking back into world affairs and some credibility back to America.

Leader

American positions are reasoned and have credibility where it counts.

jth298

I would love to believe this. I would also love to believe that there was some greater purpose and stategy to the path taken by Blair and Bush... or indeed an ethical and credible reason for our great and historic nations to fight this war. Sadly I don't share your faith in the reasoning or credibility of American positions, or British ones for that matter. We appear to be involved in a pointless and poorly planned war, where countless numbers of soldiers, innocent civillians and Iraqi fighters have died... How exactly is this campaign reasoned and credible when it was apparently based on incorrect intelligence in the first place? As I said, I would love to believe that my country was involved in a just war and that we should not feel guilty about it but unfortunately I do not.

Leader

The war is reasonable because evil sadistic people like Saddam can not be allowed to be in power. The war is credible because it is fought for good, by good people.

Confed999

The governments of Iran and North Korea have stated as much.

Personally I'm not sure what Kerry's positions are on the issues today. I knew what they had been changed to yesterday, but I haven't looked today and I'm sure at least something has reversed.

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No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

Leader

John Kerry's positions are like the weather is New England. If you don't like them, just wait a minute and they’ll change.

Ray

I like Kerry. He is so unpredictable. Weather cock?

Even Bush is nice. He too represents the weather. He is a cyclone, a tornado, a typhoon and what you all call a twister!

But Rumsfeld is the best. He is an Earthquake registering 10 on the Richter (?) scale.

Cheney is a weather icon. He is the eye of the storm.

Wolfowitch is that a wolf in witch's clothing and getting Bush and Rumsfeld in hot water while keeping his chair cosy.

But then, let the best man win in this wind of political chicanery.

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"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

HAKUNA MATATA

Leader

Your posts are a waste of space. Why don't you post something substantive instead of wasting time coming up with weather analogies?

Anon

That was a bit ****ing harsh don't you think Leader?

Confed999

Cute

I'm still freaked out that I have to vote for one of these fellas, they're both way too liberal for me.

Anon

Bush is by far the lesser of the two evils.

Not voting at all is the same as voting for JFK the lesser.

Kerry must be stopped.

Confed999

Oh, I like Bush's conviction and tax cuts. I have no idea what Kerry stands for. This is the first time, in my voting lifetime, that a presidential election really mattered enough to vote Rep/Dem. Big government scares me, so I vote Libertarian as a protest, plus if they ever win I have to see that victory party.

Ray

Confed,

You are a Kerry fan?

Confed999

I don't want him to die, but that's about it. I don't trust the guy, heck he is just plain untrustworthy.