John Kerry supports the troops

So saying that some generals are resitant to change is the equivalent of insinuating that the soldiers in Iraq are only there because they didn't do well in school? Nice try.

 

Tim Murray would laugh in your face at this possibility, and Steve Lynch is way too smart to run against a Democratic incumbent statewide. What would be the basis of either candidacy, and your contempt for the incumbent doesn't count. And, by the way, Chris, if John Kerry ever came within six feet of you, you'd wet yourself.
And I like the theory that it's OK to underfund the VA if the army is made up of draftees, and that it's OK for policymakers to avoid responsibilty for feckless bungling that gets people killed as long as it's draftees who get killed.

 

Fenian - I've met Kerry on several occasions both in Worcester and in DC. You may be able to tell that I was not impressed. The first time was way back when Kerry was running against Jim Shannon.

What should the stakes be for our bet? You get Kerry and I get everyone else for the 2008 Mass Senate race. If he doesn't run - then all bets are off.

 

Tell him what you thought of him, did you?
I'll bet you my standard political bet -- also known as the Duke And Duke Standard (And Poor) Wager -- One Dollar.

 

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061102/D8L4QH580.html
Kerry's '72 Army Comments Mirror Latest
Nov 2, 3:12 AM (ET)

By JOHN SOLOMON


WASHINGTON (AP) - During a Vietnam-era run for Congress three decades ago, John Kerry said he opposed a volunteer Army because it would be dominated by the underprivileged, be less accountable and be more prone to "the perpetuation of war crimes."

Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran who turned against the war, made the observations in answers to a 1972 candidate questionnaire from a Massachusetts peace group.

After Kerry caused a firestorm this week with what he termed a botched campaign joke that Republicans said insulted current soldiers, The Associated Press was alerted to the historical comments by a former law enforcement official who monitored 1970s anti-war activities

Kerry apologized Wednesday for the 2006 campaign trail gaffe that some took as suggesting U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq were undereducated. He contended the remark was aimed at Bush, not the soldiers.

In 1972, as he ran for the House, he was less apologetic in his comments about the merits of a volunteer army. He declared in the questionnaire that he opposed the draft but considered a volunteer army "a greater anathema."

"I am convinced a volunteer army would be an army of the poor and the black and the brown," Kerry wrote. "We must not repeat the travesty of the inequities present during Vietnam. I also fear having a professional army that views the perpetuation of war crimes as simply 'doing its job.'

"Equally as important, a volunteer army with our present constitutional crisis takes accountability away from the president and put the people further from control over military activities," he wrote.

Kerry's spokesman, David Wade, said Wednesday the historical document needed to be viewed in the era in which it was written but that it nonetheless raised a "bedrock question in a time of war when sacrifice should be shared by all Americans."

"These are the words 34 years ago of a 28-year-old veteran home from a war gone wrong, wondering who in America will bear the cost of battle and shoulder the responsibility of military service," Wade said.

Kerry filled out the candidate questionnaire at the request of Massachusetts Political Action for Peace, an anti-war group that decades later turned over its historical documents to university researchers.

AP obtained the document from someone who gathered it from archives during Kerry's unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign against President Bush. Republicans in that election relentlessly assailed Kerry's role in the anti-war movement decades earlier.

Kerry and Bush renewed their rivalry again this week, with the president accusing Kerry of offending troops. Kerry said he botched the text of a joke and didn't mean to insult troops.

On Wednesday, Kerry canceled campaign appearance on behalf of Democratic congressional candidates and issued an apology.

 

"I am convinced a volunteer army would be an army of the poor and the black and the brown," Kerry wrote. "We must not repeat the travesty of the inequities present during Vietnam. I also fear having a professional army that views the perpetuation of war crimes as simply 'doing its job.'
"Equally as important, a volunteer army with our present constitutional crisis takes accountability away from the president and put the people further from control over military activities," he wrote."

Please explain which of these points has been proven to be incorrect. feel free to ask all the younger members of the Bush family who are veterans for their input, too.

 

You didn't read all the information from the Ph.D. Or the links provided by jmagc that mirrored it. Go back and read.

 

Are these people being drafted to work at McDonald's? Let's see ... how about they get an education and strive for something better?

 

Subtract from the data provided the figures for the Air Force and the Navy, which generally draw from a better-educated base because of the technical skills required, and concentrate, as Kerry did in 1971, on the grunts on the ground, and the numbers change a bit.

 

86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black, 1.2% were other races - source Combat Area Casualty File November 1993 (the CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial)

Stats also show that 2/3 of the soldiers who fought in Vietnam were volunteers.

I pity you if you think that professional soldiers view committing war crimes as simply doing their jobs. A person who holds that opinion of our soldiers is beneath contempt.

 

Awesome. When you are wrong once in a while, just go ahead and admit it. It won't hurt. It won't hurt at all. Because when you write 100% baloney like your paragraph above, you look like a conceited, pompous fool.