Kerry's War Wound Called 'Fingernail Scrape'

jimnyc

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Aug 28, 2003
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Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry insisted on being awarded his first Purple Heart in Vietnam event though his injury amounted to no more than a "fingernail scrape," his commanding officer at the time now says.

Retired Lieutenant Commander Grant Hibbard tells the Boston Globe that he can still recall Kerry's wound, and that "it resembled a scrape from a fingernail," the paper said.

"I've had thorns from a rose that were worse," Hibbard insisted.

Still, the former Navy man remembered that Kerry insisted on receiving a Purple Heart for the wound he said was incurred during a Dec. 3, 1968 skirmish with Viet Cong near Cam Ranh Bay.

"He had a little scratch on his forearm, and he was holding a piece of shrapnel," Hibbard told the Globe. "People in the office were saying, `I don't think we got any fire,' and there is a guy holding a little piece of shrapnel in his palm."

Much to Hibbard's chagrin, Kerry persisted in his quest for a war decoration for the scratch.

"I finally said, `OK, if that's what happened . . . do whatever you want.'" Hibbard said. "After that, I don't know what happened. Obviously, he got it, I don't know how."

Kerry's campaign refused to say whether he remains certain that his skimmer boat had come under fire or whether he recalls his superior officer raising doubts about whether he was entitled to the Purple Heart.

While a Kerry aide provided a copy of a medical report showing treatment for the wound in question, The Naval Historical Center "could not locate a copy of the original card for the incident," the Globe said.

Kerry was awarded two additional Purple Hearts for subsequent wounds that have also been described as minor. He then invoked a little used regualtion that entitled a triple Purple Heart winner to return to the U.S.

Former Sen. Max Cleland, a Kerry supporter who lost three limbs in Vietnam, was never awarded a Purple Heart.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/4/14/103222.shtml
 
Originally posted by DKSuddeth
no no no, max cleland

Max was injured. Yeah. He stupidly picked up a live grenad at camp. Props to the man, but it's not that heroic. I'd' say the public investment in max as a warrior was a net loss, after factoring in health care costs.
 
Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
I'd' say the public investment in max as a warrior was a net loss, after factoring in health care costs.

That is bullshit. Everyone who serves honorably in the Armed Forces is a gain to our country. Economics aside, the millions of veterans of our Armed Forces (of whom I hardly consider myself worthy to be grouped with) deserve our thanks, not a berating due to excessive health care costs.
 
Originally posted by gop_jeff
That is bullshit. Everyone who serves honorably in the Armed Forces is a gain to our country. Economics aside, the millions of veterans of our Armed Forces (of whom I hardly consider myself worthy to be grouped with) deserve our thanks, not a berating due to excessive health care costs.

I know. A thanks, yes. Maybe some kind of medal. But i do think medal inflation has occurred to some extent.
 
I closely listened to you buffoon last evening. As long as he can read a scripted document he does present an adequate presentation. His handling of the off the cuff press questions left much to be desired. If I gave a presentation and question and answer session with the stumbling over words that he exhibited I would either put the audience to sleep or defeat their participation in a give and take presentation. Apparently this site is propagated with a slue of wet behind the ears pragmatists who have to live their lives and experience the harsh realities of life. As a therapist I don’t wish to waste my time conversing with a group of narcissistic individuals or personality tainted individuals who whether due to past learning or rigid inflexibility cannot exercise compassion or muster up empathy. In fact you are flaunting your lack of common sense and ignorance by supporting this reclusive and self-righteous regime that refuses to earn up to any personal weaknesses. Apparently our society is moving toward the theory that you must be a team player and back up the people in control in spite of your conscience nagging at you and admitting that we are only human and our dictates are not infallible. Talk about a grandiose posturing or an omnipotent delusional stance.
 
Originally posted by shadow 04
I closely listened to you buffoon last evening. As long as he can read a scripted document he does present an adequate presentation. His handling of the off the cuff press questions left much to be desired. If I gave a presentation and question and answer session with the stumbling over words that he exhibited I would either put the audience to sleep or defeat their participation in a give and take presentation. Apparently this site is propagated with a slue of wet behind the ears pragmatists who have to live their lives and experience the harsh realities of life. As a therapist I don’t wish to waste my time conversing with a group of narcissistic individuals or personality tainted individuals who whether due to past learning or rigid inflexibility cannot exercise compassion or muster up empathy. In fact you are flaunting your lack of common sense and ignorance by supporting this reclusive and self-righteous regime that refuses to earn up to any personal weaknesses. Apparently our society is moving toward the theory that you must be a team player and back up the people in control in spite of your conscience nagging at you and admitting that we are only human and our dictates are not infallible. Talk about a grandiose posturing or an omnipotent delusional stance.

Really? -And how does that make you FEEL?

How is your home life?
 
Home life is just great but I can't say the same for the nation new guy.
 
Originally posted by shadow 04
Home life is just great but I can't say the same for the nation new guy.

Agreed. What would you consider the main problem?
 
Originally posted by shadow 04
Apparently this site is propagated with a slue of wet behind the ears pragmatists who have to live their lives and experience the harsh realities of life. As a therapist I don’t wish to waste my time conversing with a group of narcissistic individuals or personality tainted individuals who whether due to past learning or rigid inflexibility cannot exercise compassion or muster up empathy.

Then why are you here? Why don't you leave? Maybe you need some therapy.
 
Originally posted by shadow 04
I closely listened to you buffoon last evening. As long as he can read a scripted document he does present an adequate presentation. His handling of the off the cuff press questions left much to be desired. If I gave a presentation and question and answer session with the stumbling over words that he exhibited I would either put the audience to sleep or defeat their participation in a give and take presentation. Apparently this site is propagated with a slue of wet behind the ears pragmatists who have to live their lives and experience the harsh realities of life. As a therapist I don’t wish to waste my time conversing with a group of narcissistic individuals or personality tainted individuals who whether due to past learning or rigid inflexibility cannot exercise compassion or muster up empathy. In fact you are flaunting your lack of common sense and ignorance by supporting this reclusive and self-righteous regime that refuses to earn up to any personal weaknesses. Apparently our society is moving toward the theory that you must be a team player and back up the people in control in spite of your conscience nagging at you and admitting that we are only human and our dictates are not infallible. Talk about a grandiose posturing or an omnipotent delusional stance.

BTW - what does this have to do with Kerry and the purple hearts he received?
 
We seem to be moving to an autocratic style of government that worships the bottom line and material goods. People’s success in life is being judged by how much wealth they can amass not by what they can do for their fellow human being.
 
Originally posted by shadow 04
We seem to be moving to an autocratic style of government that worships the bottom line and material goods. People’s success in life is being judged by how much wealth they can amass not by what they can do for their fellow human being.

I see.

And, how do you feel about that?

-The worship thing.
 
In a nationally televised press conference Tuesday night, President Bush "steadfastly refused to admit mistakes and passed up opportunities to explain what it will take to achieve his goal of a free and stable Iraq," according to the Washington Post. Additionally, the Associated Press reported that while he "acknowledged a good deal of introspection after all the questions about his actions before the Sept. 11 attacks," he offered "not a whiff of contrition" for his Administration's role in the worst national security breakdown in American history. The event was "more theater than substance," according to the BBC, in which the President "offered no shocking new policy initiatives" and instead used "the language and zeal of a missionary," as the New York Times reported, to implore Americans to continue on his increasingly chaotic and directionless path in Iraq. But with Bush's approval ratings hitting a new low, the event did nothing to quell the growing questions Americans have about the Administration's national security credentials.



The Washington Post notes that it quickly became clear that the President was refusing "to lay out new details of the path forward, suggest any change in direction or acknowledge any rethinking of his decisions in the face of recent setbacks." While Bush claimed that his Administration was getting "more involvement by the United Nations," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday virtually ruled out sending a large U.N. team to Iraq "for the foreseeable future" because of worsening security, while the Russian Emergency Ministry will start evacuation of Russian specialists from Iraq. Bush tried to reassure the international community about the June 30 transfer of power, saying confidently that U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was working "with Iraqis to determine the exact form of the government that will receive sovereignty on June 30th." But U.N. officials and diplomats say Bush's "expectations are not only inflated, but they are also dangerous."



The President was asked about his Administration's past promises about Iraq, with one reporter noting that the Administration promised "that U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators with sweets and flowers; that Iraqi oil revenue would pay for most of the reconstruction; and that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction." But instead of acknowledging his Administration's gross overhyping of intelligence, the President instead clung to a now-discredited assertion. He claimed Iraq "refused to disarm" – an implicit reiteration that Iraq had WMD. But according to Bush's own weapons inspector, David Kay, there remains "no evidence Iraq had stockpiled unconventional weapons before the U.S.-led invasion in March." Corroborating assertions by former Administration officials that Bush has always focused on invading Iraq regardless of circumstance, the President added that "even knowing what I know today about the stockpiles of weapons, I still would've called upon the world to deal with Saddam Hussein."



The President said that oil revenues in Iraq are "bigger than we thought they would be at this point in time" – an effort to further the myth that Americans will not have to continue financing the enormous cost of Iraq reconstruction (already, U.S. taxpayers have spent $166 billion in Iraq). But according to the New York Times, Iraq oil revenues are now only "running at a rate of about $14 billion a year" – far less than the $20 billion to $30 billion a year the Bush Administration promised would allow Iraq to "finance its own reconstruction."



President Bush once again claimed that "there was nobody in our government, at least, and I don't think the prior government that could envision flying airplanes into buildings." Yet, moments after uttering this, he said one of the reasons he asked for the August 6 Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) "had to do with the Genoa G-8 conference I was going to attend" in 2001, where he was explicitly warned that Islamic terrorists could be plotting to fly airplanes into buildings. Even his claim about "the prior government" was false: As the WSJ reported, "despite official assertions that the U.S. had little reason to suspect before Sept. 11 that airliners would be used as weapons, the federal government had on several earlier occasions taken elaborate, secret measures to protect special events from just such an attack." The measures were taken after intelligence reports warned of suicide attacks using planes, and many of them were ordered directly by President Clinton.



The President once again claimed to have no idea that a terrorist attack was imminent before 9/11, saying "had I had any inkling whatsoever" of an attack, "we would have moved heaven and earth to save the country." But a front-page report by the Washington Post today notes that according to newly declassified information, "by the time a CIA briefer gave the President the August 6 PDB headlined 'Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US,' the president "had seen a stream of alarming reports on al Qaeda's intentions. So had Vice President Cheney and Bush's top national security team." The President was specifically told that Bin Laden was "planning multiple operations," that he had designs on hijackings, and that the "Bin Laden threats are real."
 
Originally posted by shadow 04
I closely listened to you buffoon last evening. As long as he can read a scripted document he does present an adequate presentation. His handling of the off the cuff press questions left much to be desired. If I gave a presentation and question and answer session with the stumbling over words that he exhibited I would either put the audience to sleep or defeat their participation in a give and take presentation. Apparently this site is propagated with a slue of wet behind the ears pragmatists who have to live their lives and experience the harsh realities of life. As a therapist I don’t wish to waste my time conversing with a group of narcissistic individuals or personality tainted individuals who whether due to past learning or rigid inflexibility cannot exercise compassion or muster up empathy. In fact you are flaunting your lack of common sense and ignorance by supporting this reclusive and self-righteous regime that refuses to earn up to any personal weaknesses. Apparently our society is moving toward the theory that you must be a team player and back up the people in control in spite of your conscience nagging at you and admitting that we are only human and our dictates are not infallible. Talk about a grandiose posturing or an omnipotent delusional stance.
Why didn't you just save yourself the energy and write blah blah blah. You certainly got the same message across.
 
I'll ask again Shadow, WHAT THE HELL DOES ANY OF THIS HAVE TO DO WITH JOHN KERRY AND THE PURPLE HEARTS?

And if you have no desire to converse with us, why are you here? Why don't you leave? What's your point?
 

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