Horsefeathers - DISHONORED BY KERRY: REAL WAR HEROS

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September 08, 2004

DISHONORED BY KERRY: REAL WAR HEROS

Horsefeathers is delighted that John Kerry has been unable to foist his tale of warrior gallantry on the American public. Instead of being ashamed of utilizing 3 minor scrapes to bug out on his 'band of brothers', Kerry endlessly boasts of his battle courage and fantasy exploits. In the course of his macho self invention, Kerry regularly promotes himself into the ranks of war heros. He thereby casts doubt on every soldier who honestly earned his medals. Here's a reminder, courtesy of C. Alan Hopewell of some of the men dishonored by Kerry's boasts.

On June 6, 1944, Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder and his elite 2nd Ranger Battalion fought their way up a thousand feet of sheer coastal cliff at Pointe du Hoc, with grappling hooks and rope, with one goal: Destroy the premier battery of enemy artillery that threatened to wreak havoc on the Allies’ entire D-Day invasion. This mission was without question the most hazardous of the entire invasion. By the time a relief column arrived two days after the invasion’s start — only about 90 of Rudder’s 225 men remained in fighting condition. Though wounded twice, the colonel stayed the course, fighting off five counterattacks until relief arrived at noon on D-Day plus two. Colonel Rudder’s assault force, originally 225, had suffered 70 percent casualties. Directly at the start of the old Military Walk at Texas A&M University, a revered campus location for the Corps, stands a bronze statue in his likeness with a representation of Pointe du Hoc behind him. Major General Rudder’s 22 service medals and other honors gleam from behind glass inside the adjacent building named for him, including the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second highest military award. Thirteen additional Distinguished Service Crosses were won by the Battalion in taking Pointe du Hoc that day, along with a Presidential Unit Citation.

None of these were "band aid" medals or earned from political connections. None of the 2nd Ranger Battalion requested to go home after four months and start an "anti-war" movement while still on active duty. Ranger Lt. Robert Edlin turned down the Congressional Medal of Honor, stating that "I must decline that because I don't want to leave my company." Actually, the monstrous guns were not installed as expected from intelligence reports. The press did not perseverate on "being lied to about nonexistent guns" and run endless stories about men killed over "faulty intelligence" or "going in without a plan." The guns were found some distance away, and were still a very real threat, armed and ready to wreak havoc upon the landing craft. The Rangers calmly disabled them with thermite grenades, saving hundreds of lives, and went on to free Europe from terrorism and dictatorship. Rudder himself commanded the 109th during the Battle of the Bulge, and, again, did not quit, thinking the war was now a "quagmire."

C. Alan Hopewell, Ph.D., M. S. Psy.Pharm, ABPP
Diplomate, American Board of Professional Psychology
American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology
Master's Degree in Clinical Psychopharmacology
Major, USAR 1971-1991

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Comments

Are you aware that the Swifties have changed the text on their web site yet again in response to someone pointing out conflicts in their claims?

Before we go any further, do some work.

Posted by: Sam at September 8, 2004 12:26 PM

Naah. Let's not. There are lots of idiot websites sites you can go to if that's your inclination. Rumor has it that our own in-house idiot Frank has a website.

Lets start with the article at hand.

Or, if you really want to start with "websites that changed their information", lets go in chronological order and start with all the changes on Kerry's webite since the challenges of the SwiftVets have come to light.

Or- lets start with all the changes in the stories Kerry's staff have made in telling their changing stories about Kerry's changing stories.

Or- just to make it simple- recognize that Kerry is a liar.

Meanwhile, back to the article. It is true, as the article demonstrates, that there is quite a difference between the meaning of "hero" as applied to someone like Rudder and his Ranger battalion or an opportunist and liar like John Kerry.

Posted by: Grumpy at September 8, 2004 02:28 PM

Grumpy, did you hear the latest? Bush didn't show up for duty in Massachusetts, either, as he was obliged to.

Posted by: Tad at September 8, 2004 03:08 PM

I saw that too, Tad: Boston Globe "reexamination." Don't forget, Barnes is on 60 Minutes tonight.

Posted by: Frank at September 8, 2004 03:43 PM

AWOL= Absent without leave from your assigned duty station, since President Bush was never assigned to the Alabama ANG it would be impossible for him to have been AWOL from that unit.

Posted by: logiccop at September 8, 2004 04:25 PM

Frank- you must mean "didn't I hear the oldest"-- I heard that during the 2000 election.

George Bush hasn't even asked- let alone obliged me- to vote for him based on what he did 35 years ago.

John Kerry did. The difference being, Kerry lied about what he did.
As an added plus, Kerry came back from the war and proceeded to lie about what the people he served with did.

Then he went to North Vietnam to aid and give comfort to the enemy.

Kerry is a liar.
You're an idiot.

Ever think that may have a lot to do with the polls?

Posted by: Grumpy at September 8, 2004 04:27 PM

FLorida is no longer in Bush's column and Pennsylvania is now in Kerry's. See the polls as of today.

(You'd have seen it hours ago if you'd have risked exposing yourself to other opinions by coming to my site. It's your duty as a citizen to explore other points of view, you know.)

Posted by: Frank at September 8, 2004 05:00 PM

FRANK: GET UO TO DATE. THE ZOGBY POLL YOU CITED IS DATED AUGUST 30. IN THE ENSUING TWO DAYS, ACCORDING TO MORE RECENT ZOGBY POLLS BUSH SURGED TO A DOUBLE DIGIT LEAD. THE ONLY TIME IN POLLING HISTORY THAT A CONDIDATE PULLED AHEAD AFTER LABOR DAY WAS RONALD REAGAN. ON LABOR DAY 1980 HE TRAILED BY A POINT AND BY ELECTION TIME IT WAS A LANDSLIDE.
BUSH IS WAY AHEAD, SO LIVE WITH IT.

Posted by: RUTH KING at September 8, 2004 05:52 PM

If you read the polls instead of just selecting the ones that say what you would like to hear, you would know that some polls show Kerry with an infinitesimal lead in Florida and Pennsylvania.

Others show Bush in the lead.

The only duty I have regarding your opinions is to expose them as being idiotic. I don't have to visit your site to do that. You have advertised your idiocy quite well enough here.

Posted by: Grumpy at September 8, 2004 05:57 PM

Ruth, according to that site the date of the interviews is from August 30 - Sep 3. It only started on Aug 30.

I'd agree that some of the Zogby interviews were done before Bush spoke, but certainly not all.

I'll have to dig up the link, but I believe JFK was also behind in the polls on Labor day, as well as George W Bush. Two of those three won in November, and the third in December.

Posted by: Frank at September 8, 2004 06:08 PM

AWOL

Hey Frank, you've been AWOL for awhile.
What's up?

Did you notice that if you hit that link you gave it shows George Bush ahead in projected electoral votes

Posted by: Grumpy at September 10, 2004 12:45 AM

Frank was last heard mumbling: "They're not forgeries. They're not forgeries. Please Dan say it ain't so. "

Posted by: Stephen at September 10, 2004 07:53 AM

So this guy walks into a bar, finds it filled with silly drunks. Says to himself, "What did I expect in a bar?"

Frank was mumbling anything but that, Stephen. You should get out more often. You might have noticed your hero signed a statement swearing he'd report to a unit in Massachusetts and did not? This was not from any CBS document, but from one which the White House released in February. "I must have misspoken," was Dan Bartlett's defense about what he said in 1999, claiming back then that Bush had reported.

Who needs to mumble when uncovering Bush lies is like shooting fish in a barrel?

Posted by: Frank at September 12, 2004 07:13 PM

Halsbänder http://versandhaus.gelago.de/cat17574/Damen/Wäsche/BHs-&-Dessous/Halsbänder/

Posted by: Halsbänder at September 21, 2004 09:41 AM