Kerry Finally Reports For Duty!
By Debbie Daniel (08/05/04)
Whew! It’s about time. Where have you been, Senator?
Are you ready to tell us what you did for 20 years as a U.S. Senator? Or are you going to just stand there saluting as if you can’t get out of that Vietnam soldier mode.
We’ve heard it, Mr. Kerry . . . all of it. You used nearly your entire speech at the Democratic National Convention “showboating” your four months in Vietnam. You would have thought your plane just brought you home from Hanoi and dropped you off in Boston.
If we can go back 35 years to extol the virtues of your FOUR months of heroics in the jungles of Vietnam, we can surely herald the bravery of our Commander-in-Chief, who reports for duty everyday, and has served our country vigilantly for nearly FOUR years.
Kerry says, “I know war, I’ve faced the enemy.”
And so has George Bush.
I don’t want to take anything away from the deep wounds Mr. Kerry suffered as he carried both rifle and movie camera down the Me Kong Delta while commanding a swift boat of twenty-three soldiers.
Who takes their movie camera off to war?
But I do question the medals he threw away in protest of the very war he showcases to display his heroism. How can he be so proud now to have served in a war he hated and opposed vehemently?
I don’t want to forget the most recent heroism of our Commander-in-Chief. He has shown valiant courage in trying to protect 293 million people against the tyranny of terrorists. They’ve murdered . . . not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, but have repeatedly executed Americans and want to kill many more.
Under Bill Clinton’s watch, the terrorists attacked five times and we did nothing. Under George Bush’s watch they attacked once, and to date, have not done it again. I don’t see any buildings falling.
As we listened last week for hours on end about something that happened a few decades ago, I would like to have my own little “mini-convention” and tell you about my President, George W. Bush, who’s fighting a war right now, and also running for re-election as President of the United States.
How does he do both with an opponent who does nothing but fight the President every step of the way? Mr. Kerry has no other job – he surely doesn’t take his Senate position seriously – because he doesn’t show up to work anymore. It’s President or nothing as he stands there saluting us.
Surely Mr. Bush’s record stands for something over these past four years, but oh yes, I understand . . . Mr. Kerry knows war.
I want to quote from a “Letter to the Editor” in a North Carolina newspaper: “In two years after the terrorists attacked us, President Bush liberated two countries; crushed the Taliban; crippled Al Qaeda and put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran and North Korea. He captured a terrorist who slaughtered 500,000 of his own people. We lost 1,000 soldiers. Bush did all this abroad while not allowing another terrorist attack at home.”
But Mr. Kerry knows war.
Yes, I agree with you, this was a war of choice . . . A CHOICE TO STAY ALIVE. And yes, I agree it was a pre-emptive strike; but if someone came into your house and killed your wife and family, you’d probably go after them, wouldn’t you? Or do you just sit on your front porch, with gun in hand, waiting for the killer to come back.
Mr. Bush has been on a mission. He has not stopped along the way to take pictures of himself fighting this war, but Mr. Kerry’s movie camera – while fighting in Vietnam – seemed to be as valuable as his gun.
He made a documentary of his “heroism” to share with the world. Otherwise, we would have never known.
Why, in some cases we have actual re-enactments so as to give the viewer greater effect of the “real thing” . . . fighting the enemy and shooting film footage of yourself at the same time. Just how does a soldier do that?
As impressed as I’m sure everyone was at Mr. Kerry winning all of his medals “the old-fashioned” way, I’m a bit chagrined that we wouldn’t honor our fighting Commander-in-Chief for the same old-fashioned strategy of war . . . go after the enemy – get him before he gets us.
But it’s John Kerry who knows war.
Ted Kennedy’s brother, a Democrat, President John Kennedy led us into war against North Vietnam 42 years ago – they never attacked us.
A total of 58,000 soldiers are dead because of Mr. Kennedy’s “wrong decision.” It was those soldiers we spat on when they came home from that war. It was those soldiers who were humiliated and made to feel criminal. It was those soldiers we jeered at and sent to their homes in shame.
It was those soldiers Mr. Kerry accused of wrong doings, but he himself became a HERO.
While Mr. Kerry spent FOUR months shooting pictures – I mean fighting – he then came home and lambasted the war . . . went before Congress and performed his “tell-all.”
There may be those that would argue it was John Kennedy’s Vietnam, but if we’re going to call this war on terrorism, George Bush’s “Vietnam,” we can certainly assign blame where it belonged in 1962 – even posthumously.
Does anyone think that John Kerry may have hated that war before he raised his hand and nobly said “Send Me?” Could he have been disgusted before his “ticket” was ever issued? Could he have had a predisposition, with camera in hand, to expose and humiliate soldiers before he ever set foot on jungle soil?
It was a Democrat, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who led us into World War II in 1945 against Germany. We were attacked at Pearl Harbor by Japan but we were at war with Germany . . . and we lost 450,000 lives.
Oh, how we needed a John Kerry who “knew” war.
Another Democrat, President Harry S. Truman led us into war against Korea; North Korea never attacked us, but we gave 55,000 American lives to that effort. Where’s John?
Another Democrat, Bill Clinton, took us to war in Bosnia without a single consent from the United Nations, or the French, or the Germans; but did it anyway. Bosnia never attacked us. Oh, John, where art thou?
All in all, I think Mr. Bush has done an excellent job. I know the Democrats will never stand while balloons fall from the sky in honor of his heroism, but my “balloons of gratefulness” are falling today, and I want this President to know we salute him as our Commander-in-Chief. Good job, SIR!!
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