September 27, 2004

Vietnam Vet: The Physical Wounds Healed; The Wounds Kerry Inflicted Continue to Do Harm

Dexter Lehtinen, former United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, was a reconnaissance-platoon leader in Vietnam. In National Review Online he writes:

In 1971, I awoke from three days of unconsciousness aboard a hospital ship off the coast of Vietnam. I could not see, my jaws were wired shut, and my left cheekbone was missing, a gaping hole in its place.

Later, while still in that condition at St. Albans Naval Hospital, one of my earliest recollections was hearing of John Kerry’s testimony before Congress. I remember lying there, in disbelief, as I learned how Kerry told the world that I served in an Army reminiscent of Genghis Khan’s; that officers like me routinely let their men plunder villages and rape villagers at will; that “war crimes” committed in Vietnam by my fellow soldiers “were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.”

Then Kerry went to Paris, meeting with North Vietnamese enemy officials, while our soldiers continued to fight in the field. The pain and disbelief I felt listening to his words went deeper than the pain I felt from the enemy fire that seriously wounded my face.

Eighteen months later I was discharged from the hospital, the enemy-inflicted wounds fully healed. But more than 30 years later, the wounds inflicted by John Kerry continue to bring pain to scores of Vietnam veterans. Those wounds from the bearing of false witness against a generation of courageous young Americans who fought and died in Vietnam are much more serious than any wound warranting a Purple Heart. Those wounds go to the heart and soul. Those wounds never go away.

Read the whole thing.

France and Germany Repudiate Kerry

From John Kerry’s speech regarding his four-point plan to deal with Iraq:

First, the President has to get the promised international support so our men and women in uniform dont have to go it alone.

...we cannot hope to succeed unless we rebuild and lead strong alliances so that other nations share the burden with us. That is the only way to succeed.

However, France and Germany have now dismissed Kerry on this.

No French or German turn on Iraq
French and German government officials say they will not significantly increase military assistance in Iraq even if John Kerry, the Democratic presidential challenger, is elected on November 2.

Mr Kerry, who has attacked President George W. Bush for failing to broaden the US-led alliance in Iraq, has pledged to improve relations with European allies and increase international military assistance in Iraq.

“I cannot imagine that there will be any change in our decision not to send troops, whoever becomes president,” Gert Weisskirchen, member of parliament and foreign policy expert for Germany’s ruling Social Democratic Party, said in an interview.

... Michel Barnier, the French foreign minister, said last week that France, which has tense relations with interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, had no plans to send troops “either now or later”.

That view reflects the concerns of many EU and Nato officials, who say the dangers in Iraq and the difficulty of extricating troops already there could make European governments reluctant to send personnel, regardless of the outcome of the US election.

A French government official said: “People don’t expect that much would change under a Kerry administration, even if things can only get better. We do not anticipate a sudden honeymoon in the event Kerry replaces Bush.

It looks like Kerry just says whatever he thinks people want to hear. He doesn’t mind contradicting himself and he doesn’t bother to check the facts.

Throughout his campaign Kerry has trumpeted that he will do a better job than Bush of working with France and Germany. And here they are saying that he’s mistaken.

I’ve posted several times that it appears that Kerry has no idea what he’s talking about. And here we see that Kerry had no idea what he was talking about with regard to point #1 of his four-point plan for dealing with Iraq.