Kerry's war service undercuts some GOP attacks

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/Columnists.nsf/0/3ED34773F17636F286256E2900536DEE?OpenDocument&Headline=POLITICS%3A+Kerry's+war+service+undercuts+some+GOP+attacks++

SOMERSWORTH, N. H. - One by one, John Kerry's honor guard of defenders are speaking up against charges that he is your typical elitist, out-of-touch Massachusetts liberal - adjectives the Republicans will sell in a five-pack if Kerry is nominated for president.

They are war veterans, mostly of the Vietnam conflict. Their mere presence at a town meeting here on Sunday night and all over New Hampshire said that Kerry's is not the liberal campaign conservatives love to parody. As often as not, the veterans go on the attack, saying things about George W. Bush that Kerry himself won't say.

"Senator, both of us served in Vietnam in a very unpopular war, and the record shows that George Bush avoided the draft like the plague," said Richard Cooper, a former tech sergeant, referring to Bush's time in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam years.

The vets who gather for Kerry regularly remind anyone who will listen of inconvenient facts confronting the Bush administration, not only the president's own choices during the Vietnam years but also the five draft deferments Vice President Cheney received during the 1960s.

more

[The Stranger]

1. Thanks, I think.

Let's see. Kerry earned two Purple Hearts and the Silver Star with one of the most dangerous assignments in the Viet Nam War. He is a decorated war hero. The Chimp was either AWOL or was defending North Dallas from the imminent threat of Viet Cong attack.

This undercuts "some" GOP attacks? Give me a fucking break. The attacks should be going the other way. The Chickenhawks never saw a single bullet fly, never saw action, most of them never even fucking served (Wolfowitz comes to mind in particular).

But they want to send someone else's sons and daughters to go die? Come on. We can do better than that.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

4. bingo

[blm]

2. Another reason why Rove did not want to face Kerry in the general election

Heheh.

[Pepperbelly]

3. Max Cleland has gotten on the bandwagon, too ...

noting the deficiencies in bush's military record, specifically his failure to show up for a year or so of the sweet duty he volunteered for as a way of avoiding the not-so-sweet duty that was the lot of so many young men at the time.

Good for Max.