Kerry Warns Against Committing More Troops to Afghanistan Now

Just a little moderation here, so was he a General in the Vietnam war? So was he a General in the First Gulf War? So, was he a General ever in his life? Did I hear NO? Okay so, if he was not a General, but was a Troop, where does he get his knowledge on Strategic planning? Oh, from no where... He is a nowhere General. Do not get me wrong, he served, which is a good sign, but he is not General Material. So, who would I listen to, not Hillary, not Gates, I would listen to General Petraus, or General McChrystal...Now one more point, Barack can sit in the oval office and not make a decision, he can fly on Air Force One and not make a decision, that is Barack'sa motif, to not make a decision.... God Bless America... thank you

Your wrong about Kerry....He may have protested the Vietnam war when he
came home as thousands of other did ...but he was brave soldier.
You tend to believe Bush, Rove and their cronies as they belittle anyone
who served our country in the military just as they did McCain.


During the night of December 2, 1968 and early morning of December 3, 1968, Kerry was in charge of a small boat operating near a peninsula north of Cam Ranh Bay together with a Swift boat (PCF-60). According to Kerry and the two crewmen who accompanied him that night, Patrick Runyon and William Zaladonis, they surprised a group of men unloading sampans at a river crossing, who began running and failed to obey an order to stop. As the men fled, Kerry and his crew opened fire on the sampans and destroyed them, then rapidly left. During this encounter, Kerry received a minor wound in the left arm above the elbow. It was for this injury that Kerry received his first Purple Heart.[21]

Kerry received his second Purple Heart for a wound received in action on the Bo De River on February 20, 1969. The plan had been for the Swift boats to be accompanied by support helicopters. On the way up the Bo De, however, the helicopters were attacked. They returned to their base to refuel and were unable to return to the mission for several hours.

As the Swift boats reached the Cua Lon River, Kerry's boat was hit by a RPG round, and a piece of shrapnel hit Kerry's left leg, wounding him. Thereafter, they had no more trouble, and reached the Gulf of Thailand safely. Kerry still has shrapnel in his left thigh because the doctors tending to him decided to remove the damaged tissue and close the wound with sutures rather than make a wide opening to remove the shrapnel.[22] Kerry received his second Purple Heart for this injury, but like several others wounded earlier that day, he did not lose any time off from duty.[23][24]

Eight days later, on February 28, 1969, came the events for which Kerry was awarded his Silver Star. On this occasion, Kerry was in tactical command of his Swift boat and two others in an eight boat formation. Their mission on the Duong Keo river included bringing a demolition team and dozens of South Vietnamese Marines to destroy enemy sampans, structures and bunkers as described in the story The Death Of PCF 43.[25] Running into an ambush, Kerry "directed the boats to turn to the beach and charge the Viet Cong positions" and he "expertly directed" his boat's fire and coordinated the deployment of the South Vietnamese troops, according to the original medal citation (signed by Admiral Zumwalt). Going a short distance farther, Kerry's boat was the target of an RPG round; as the boat beached at the site, a VC with a rocket launcher jumped and ran from a spider hole. While the boat's gunner opened fire, wounding the VC on the leg, and while the other boats approached and offered cover fire, Kerry jumped from the boat and chased the VC and killed him, capturing a loaded rocket launcher.[26][27][27]

Kerry's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander George Elliott, joked to Douglas Brinkley in 2003 that he didn't know whether to court-martial Kerry for beaching the boat without orders or give him a medal for saving the crew. Elliott recommended Kerry for the Silver Star, and Zumwalt flew into An Thoi to personally award medals to Kerry and the rest of the sailors involved in the mission. The Navy's account of Kerry's actions is presented in the original medal citation signed by Zumwalt. The engagement was documented in an after-action report, a press release written on March 1, 1969, and a historical summary dated March 17, 1969.[28]

On March 13, 1969, five Swift boats were returning to base together on the Bay Hap river from their missions that day, after a firefight earlier in the day (during which time Kerry received a slight shrapnel wound in the buttocks from blowing up a rice bunker), and debarking some but not all of the passengers at a small village. They approached a fishing weir (a series of poles across the river for hanging nets), so that one group of boats went around left, hugging the shore, and a group with Kerry's 94 boat went around right along the shoreline. A mine was detonated directly beneath the lead boat, PCF-3, as it crossed the weir to the left, lifting PCF-3 completely into the air.[29]

James Rassmann, a Green Beret advisor who was aboard PCF-94, was knocked overboard when, according to witnesses and the documentation of the event, a mine or rocket exploded close to the boat. According to the documentation for the event, Kerry's arm was injured when he was thrown against a bulkhead during the explosion. PCF 94 returned to the scene and Kerry rescued Rassmann from the water. Kerry received the Bronze Star for his actions during this incident; he also received his third Purple Heart.[30]

After the crew of PCF-3 had been rescued, and the most seriously wounded sailors evacuated by two of the PCFs, PCF 94 and another boat remained behind and helped salvage the stricken boat together with a damage-control party that had been immediately dispatched to the scene.

Listen to what he had to say...he makes sense. Have you ever served in the military. Research his military background . They need to
pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq. My nephew was in Iraq..he said they are pulling guys out of there already and they are not sending them to
Afghanistan. This is not a war they can win. Look what happened to the
Russians.



bobjimflys
12:38AM Oct 18th 2009

McCain was never a general, either.

Worked so well??? Then why are we still there? This is ridiculous--let's just get all the troops home and let those crazies over there figure out what they want, and let them fight for it the same way our Patriots did. They'll appreciate it more that way.

http://splashinthepacific.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/this-and-that-my-bout-with-swine-flu-alan-grayson-on-bill-maher-how-come-the-government-cant-balance-the-budget-like-dave-did/

PCL.

Spoken like a true Frenchie. Were you people born with white flags in your hand?
No wonder your ancestors gave my ancestors Normandy, in return for not pillaging the country anymore.

You can say what you want about Kerry, but when it came time to defend this country, Kerry not only volunteered for the Navy, he also volunteered to go inland and be posted to one of the most dangerous of all postings in all of Vietnam, the Mekong Delta. Where Kerry did his tour was no joke. We lost a lot of brothers in arms fighting on the rivers of Vietnam. Look up the perfume River and see how many of our guys bought it there. Anyone who won 3 purple hearts, a bronze star, and a silver star, one of our nation's highest awards for valor, was not over there trying to play it safe. Even though he did not agree with the war, he did his duty and did not duck combat! Kerry's 5 months of combat = 5 medals for Kerry!


When one totals McCain's 23 missions over North Vietnam, times the number of minutes he was actually over enemy territory (approximately 20 to 35 minutes per mission), McCain's total time over Vietnam before being shot down, was about 10 1/2 hours. For those 10 1/2 hours over Vietnam, McCain, the Admiral's son, was awarded two Silver Stars, two Legions of Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Bronze Stars,

the Vietnamese Legion of Honor and three Purple Hearts averaging over one hero medal per hour.... Kerry's 5 months of combat = 5 medals for Kerry! Ok repukes, now who the phoney... I spit on republican cowards like you!now who the phoney... I spit on republican cowards like you!

Mccain is so inconsistent about his time as a POW that we may never know for sure if he is telling the truth! But one thing is for sure, "Why won't john mccain OK the release of the military records that our US Government has on him and other POW MIA's... "why has john blocked every attempt by all POW-MIA groups to get access to those military records of yours or any other POW MIA soldiers records that could help fined info that could lead to the closure for many POW-MIA's familys who's love ones are still missing ...John Mccain has made it his own personal one man War/fight to block and make it impossible to get access to those records! Why john... could it be those records could show information/facts that you could be a phoney war hero and a traitor who has built your self up by standing on the Graves of many POW MIA soldiers... You dirt-bag, I spit on cowards like you!

McCian has been a phoney and a traitor all his life... thats what happens to people who are given everything they want in life! They turn on you the moment they don't get what they want from you and go to where they can get it even if it means betraying the ones who helped and or love them! That's why mccain betrayed his fellow POW's and helped our enemies the VC so he could have it easy, the way he's always had it in life... Tell us why john in 1973 when POW Ted Guy was releasedalong with you and the other POW's, he brought charges against eight fellow POWs whom many considered to be traitors to our country? Could one of those POW traitors have been you John McCain and the other POW traitors who have now pulled their wagons around you not only to protect them selves but you as well which has enabled them to feed off of your success! But the charges, in the wake of the hero's welcome which rightfully greeted the returned POWs who were true heros, were dropped by Guy at the behest of the U.S. Government/Admiral Edmond John McCain, commander in chief of U.S.

Naval forces >mccain's daddy pulling strings to cover johnny.

U.S. government records show that less than two weeks after he was taken to the hospital, Hanoi's press began quoting specific military information, including the name of the aircraft carrier on which McCain had been based, information about the location of rescue ships and the order of which his attack was supposed to take place. The records demonstrate, according to the Dispatch article that McCain continued to collaborate with the Communists after he recovered from his injuries. He did a number of propaganda broadcasts that were aimed at destroying the moral of American servicemen fighting in the jungles of South Vietnam, On June 4, 1969, a U.S. Wire Service story reported one of McCain's broadcasts.

The following is McCain's own admission of collaboration in an article he wrote, printed May 14, 1973 in U.S. News and World Report:

"I think it was on the fourth day [after being shot down] that two guards came in, instead of one. One of them pulled back the blanket to show the other guard my injury. I looked at my knee. It was about the size, shape and color of a football. I remembered that when I was a flying instructor a fellow had ejected from his plane and broken his thigh. He had gone into shock, the blood had pooled in his leg, and he died, which came as quite a surprise to us - a man dying of a broken leg. Then I realized that a very similar thing was happening to me.

"When I saw it, I said to the guard, `O.K., get the officer.'"An officer came in after a few minutes. I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital. Compare McCain's record as a prisoner of war to that of Army Special Forces Captain "Rocky" Versace, who was captured by Vietnamese Communists (Viet Cong) on Oct. 29, 1963 in South Vietnam and who resisted his captors to the end.

Very few, if any, in Congress know about Capt. Versace.

He spent two years chained in a bamboo cage and endured almost daily torture by the Vietnamese Communists. Capt. Versace continuously frustrated his Viet Cong interrogators by refusing to obey demands that he denounce America and accept the Communist Philosophy of revolution. He told his captors as they were dragging him to an interrogation hut, "I am an officer of the United States Army. You can force me to come here, you can make me sit and listen, but I don't have to believe a damn word you say."

The Viet Cong decided that day to take no more resistance from Rocky Versace. A few days later, one order of Viet Cong leader Vo Van Kiet, today Vietnam's prime minister and McCain's friend, Versace was dragged from his filth-ridden, mosquito-infested bamboo cage for the last time and forced to kneel with his forehead pressed into the jungle mud. Cap. Versace was then shot in the back of the head.

McCain doesn't talk about MIAs Capt. Rocky Versace, from Norfolk, VA., or Sgt. Kenneth Roraback of Fayetteville, N.C., or Army Sgt. Harold Bennett of Perryville, Ark., who were all ordered executed by his friend, "Butcher" Kiet, according to reports.

Compare McCain, the POW hero, to another fellow prisoner of war, Marine Capt. Donald

Cook, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Capt. Cook was awarded our nation's highest award for valor because, during his years of captivity, he jeopardized his own health by sharing his meager supply of food and scarce medicines with other U.S. prisoners who were sicker. He became legendary for his refusal to betray the military Code of Conduct. On one occasion, Vo Van Kiet's Viet Cong cadre put a pistol to Capt. Cook's head, demanding that he denounce the United States.

Capt. Cook resisted and calmly recited the nomenclature of the parts of the pistol, giving the Communists nothing. The Viet Cong were so infuriated at Capt. Cook's resistance that they isolated him from other American prisoners. They intentionally denied him much needed food and medicine. Like Capt. Versace, Capt. Cook disappeared and was never heard from again. Today, Hanoi claims Capt. Cook died as a result of malaria and that they do not know where his remains are buried.

McCain discourages any talk about Capt. Versace, Sgt. Roraback, Sgt. Bennett, and Capt. Cook.

To talk about such patriots would require the United States to demand the return of their remains, or, at the very least, records of their deaths. If those MIAs are proven dead and their remains returned, then McCain's friend, Vo Van Kiet, would be forced to explain the holes in the back of their skulls and why he had ordered the POWs murdered.

Where do you come from that you can actually defend Kerry as a war hero? 6 months served and he is brave because he comes home and speaks out against vietnam? Amazing. Regardless, what has he done for the US in Washington other the be at " the podium" for good news fim shots? Why do none of his proposed "initiatives or ideas" ever get national traction? Fact is, he is only elected because Massachussetts will elect a moron democrat before they would ever judge a candidate by their qualifications. Our political system is wonderful but the downside can be " the intelligent american voter".

Am I getting this right. Kerry is advocating retreat from Afghanistan and giving up? What exactly American does he stand for. He takes after his father! And they talk about Obama's status?