I write today about the most serious of matters – the upcoming election of the President of the United States this coming November.
As you are all aware by now, we have a choice to make when we head to the polls. As I’m sure you are also all aware, there is a lot of mud being slung around by partisans on both sides of the Presidential race – most by “unaffiliated” organizations – relating to this or that candidate’s actions.
I am going to ignore all of it for a time, because quite frankly, there are no clean hands.
However, all this mud has, as often happens, brought a few nuggets of gold to the surface that we would otherwise not likely be aware of.
Senator Kerry would have you believe that all of these “Swift Boat” ads are just plain lies, and so are the 200-odd veterans who support them. The Swift Boat vets would have you believe that Kerry was an opportunist who intended to be President even before going to Vietnam, and spun his every move while there towards that eventual end.
Who’s right? I don’t know. Nor do I think we can ever know with certainty. The fog of war and the passage of time play into the hands of those on both sides who wish to claim “victory.” A critical analysis of the claims made by both sides leads one to conclude that there are enough holes to drive Mack Trucks through.
But back to the nuggets that have been washed up along with the mud.
One of them is a brief admission that stumbled out of one of Kerry’s campaign staffer’s mouth today, and was briefly reported upon – and then disappeared. It is that perhaps, just perhaps, one of Kerry’s Purple Heart wounds was indeed self-inflicted.
Why is this important? Well, perhaps its not, in the grand scheme of things. Plenty of people schemed to avoid going to Vietnam all together. Indeed, it appears from the record that while Kerry asserts that “he volunteered”, the truth is that he did so into the unit he served because his lottery number was up! An awful lot of people did that – “volunteering” in one branch or unit of the service to avoid the possibility of being drafted into the infantry. In light of this, and that we previously elected an admitted draft dodger (Bill Clinton) to the Oval Office, is “shading the truth” by throwing grenades with wild abandon in the hopes of catch a few pin-pricks so horrible?
Well, not really. What’s truly reprehensible is turning around and playing it like you were General Patton, of course, not the act itself.
But during this dust-up we have run into two more serious allegations, both of which have now been proven – one by Kerry’s own words, and the second by the documentary record of history.
I refer in the first case to Kerry’s infamous “Cambodia” story. Mr. Kerry, in a 1986 speech on the Senate floor that spanned 20 minutes, during which we were debating assistance to the Contras in Nicaragua, made the claim (as he had several times since 1979 in print and verbally) that:
[1]“I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared -- seared -- in me."
We now know, of course, that this claim is and has been throughout – since 1979 – false.
What makes this more serious than a simple mistake, however, is that this is how Mr. Kerry justifies his view of the government having “lied to the American people.”
Well, Mr. Kerry, the truth isn’t quite that, is it? The truth, it appears, is that you intentionally lied to influence national and foreign policy, in letters to the Boston Globe and even on the floor of the United States Senate
[2].
That should be, all on its own, enough to disqualify Kerry for the office of Commander in Chief.
After all, the cornerstone of Mr. Kerry’s campaign, and that of the Democrats in general this election season, as exemplified by Mssrs. Gore, Dean and others, is that the Bush Administration has lied to the American people in leading us to war in Iraq!
So given that Mr. Kerry has now been implicated in the very offense that he claims disqualifies his opponent from office, through incontrovertible evidence, by his own words and standards he is unfit to serve.
But it does not end there. Indeed, there is an even more serious matter on the table before us. That is the matter of Kerry participating in some of the atrocities that he testified that others had committed in Vietnam. Specifically, Kerry said:
“[3]SEN. KERRY: There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 calibre machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down."
Now John Kerry was not just some “grunt” in the service. He was an officer. And as an officer, he was clearly aware of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Specifically, the following excerpts from the Uniform Code of Military Justice:
918. ART. 118. MURDER
Any person subject to this chapter whom without
justification or excuse, unlawfully kills a human being, when he--
(1) has a premeditated design to kill;
(2) intends to kill or inflict great bodily harm;
(3) is engaged in an act which is inherently dangerous to others and evinces a wanton disregard of human life; or
(4) is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of burglary, sodomy, rape, robbery, or aggravated arson; is guilty of murder, and shall suffer such punishment as a court-martial may direct, except that if found guilty under clause (1) or (4), he shall suffer death or imprisonment for life as a court-martial may direct.
919. ART. 119. MANSLAUGHTER
(a) Any person subject to this chapter who, with an intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm, unlawfully kills a human being in the heat of sudden passion caused by adequate provocation is guilty of voluntary manslaughter and shall be punished as a
court-martial may direct.
(b) Any person subject to this chapter who, without an intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm, unlawfully kills a human being--
(1) by culpable negligence; or
(2) while perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate an offense, other than those named in clause (4) of section 918 of this title (article 118), directly affecting the person; is guilty of involuntary manslaughter and shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
926. ART. 126. ARSON
(a) Any person subject to this chapter who willfully and maliciously burns or sets on fire an inhabited dwelling, or any other structure, movable or immovable, wherein to the knowledge of the offender there is at the time a human being, is guilty of aggravated arson and shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
(b) Any person subject to this chapter who willfully and maliciously burns or sets fire to the property of another, except as provided in subsection (a), is guilty of simple arson and shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
Do we need to have any further debate on this?
Here we have a man who has applied for the job of Command in Chief. He has listed chief among his qualifications for the job his service in Vietnam, and what he claims is his principled opposition to the war once he returned to the United States.
Yet, by the incontrovertible documentary evidence on the table before us, Mr. John F. Kerry has shown that he is unfit for that office.
He has been proven to twist his service record and speak falsely while in a time of war for the specific purpose of influencing foreign and domestic policy – an extremely serious matter.
But even worse, he has shown that when the whim suited him, he ignored, as an Officer of the United States Military, the very law which governs its conduct - the UCMJ - in that he has admitted to multiple, serious offenses – some of which, during times of war, are punishable by death.
Whatever Mr. Kerry may wish to advance as policy initiatives have, as a consequence of these actions, become irrelevant.
If you value our heritage as a nation that operates under the rule of law, you simply cannot vote for Mr. Kerry in November. Irrespective of what he may propose now, or what he may wish to do, a vote for this man is a vote for an admitted war criminal and individual who has prevaricated for more than 20 years in an attempt to influence foreign and domestic policy in times of war.
At a time when we face one of the most serious threats to this nation’s continued health that has come before the United States, to trust this man with the guidance of our military and foreign policy would to akin to electing Saddam Hussein. While certainly Hussein murdered more people, and prevaricated more often, the offenses are the same – they differ only in quantity, not quality.
