What's Kerry hiding?

[jimnyc]

Why the refusal to release his medical file from vietnam? Perhaps his injuries weren't enough to warrant the purple hearts? Why did some who lost limbs NOT receive a purple heart while Kerry gave himself 3 of them?

How is it ok to demand Bush's records but his are off limits?

And I'll ask again, can anyone give me any good reasons why just one person should vote for this fool?

 

[DKSuddeth]

I would think that medical files would be sacrosanct after all the uproar we heard about rush limbaugh's medical files being subpeonad. In fact, I was one of the people who supported limbaughs medical records being kept private.

While kerry is still a fool, I think its wrong to put ANYONES medical records in the open.

 

[jimnyc]

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
I would think that medical files would be sacrosanct after all the uproar we heard about rush limbaugh's medical files being subpeonad. In fact, I was one of the people who supported limbaughs medical records being kept private.

While kerry is still a fool, I think its wrong to put ANYONES medical records in the open.

I don't think this stuff should be dragged into the open either. I just think it's highly hypocritical of him to demand all kinds of records from Bush and then cry foul when people demand his records.

 

[DKSuddeth]

I'm not familiar with the request for medical records by either of the two. Was there a specific request for bush's medical records that I didn't hear of?

 

[jimnyc]

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
I'm not familiar with the request for medical records by either of the two. Was there a specific request for bush's medical records that I didn't hear of?

Nope, just every other military related record. His demands are that the public needs to know the truth about Bush's service record. Well, if he received 3 purple hearts, then the public should know how he got them.

Either your fully in or fully out. Don't sit there and make an issue out of Bush's military background and then groan and moan when they do the same in return.

 

[DKSuddeth]

Well, if he received 3 purple hearts, then the public should know how he got them.

fair enough. with every medal comes a citation that explains briefly how it was attained. Have these not been made public?

Either your fully in or fully out. Don't sit there and make an issue out of Bush's military background and then groan and moan when they do the same in return.

shades of the 2000 primaries.

 

[Fletch]

I think that Kerry's general medical records should be kept private. It is non of our business if he got the clap in Vietnam, or if he had a mole removed from his ass. However, it think that since he has brought up the 3 Purple Hearts and is playing up this war hero thing, I think he should let us know just what those wounds were. The word is he missed a total of 2 days of duty for all 3 wounds. I will say this, my father has 3 bullet holes in him from that war, and has yet to recieve medal one. I think he owes it to his fellow Vietnam vets to make public what those wounds were, if he is going to mention them as part of his campaign.

 

[tim_duncan2000]

I think he should say what happened too if he's going to keep bringing it up. There are people who have been permanently disabled and/or had to be in the hospital for a long time to recover from their injuries. It seems strange to me that Kerry hardly missed any time, managed to get 3 purple hearts, and got out of there after a few months. Maybe there is nothing to it, but I'm not so sure.

 

[winston churchi]

I don't think we need to know details of how he was injured or if he was just in recieving those purple hearts. He has the purple hearts and that needs to be accepted.

However he also needs to be prepared, as he has brought it upon himself, that along with his critizism of Bush's military record, he has questions to answer on behalf of himself first.
He has been written off as a traitor by many Vietnam comrads and he needs to address that. He has point the finger at himself before he points the finger at anyone else.

When Clinton was running for President, JK himself said we needed to put the past behind us. If he still followed his own advise than why is he critizing Bush for his past? Why has he brought up his past with Vietnam if he wanted us to forget it.

The only thing JK may have going for him against Bush in any debates is his past - work - he was a prosecutor at one point in his life. JK is familiar with pointing his long finger and accusing, that is what he was paid to do in his past. He is familiar with finding 'dirt' on his challengers - before he can tell anyone what good he would serve, he will point his finger at Bush and accuse.
This is what Bush needs to be prepared for - but something tells me that Bush has something up his sleeve. Perhaps it is wishfull thinking or a sixth sense - but I have a strong feeling there is something we do not know - yet.

 

[Lefty Wilbury]

NONE of kerry military records have been released. not performance evaluations, combat reports etc etc etc. nothing has been released from him and it doesn't look like he'll release it anytime soon.

Doubt over war record used to wound Kerry

Sunday Times
Sarah Baxter, New York


VIETNAM has been the defining issue for John Kerry. His status as a much-decorated war hero has helped to propel him to the top of the pack of Democrat candidates for president. Conservative critics believe he has been given a free ride for too long on his war record, however, and are planning a fightback.

Support for their case is expected to come from a book to be published next month by reporters from The Boston Globe in the senator’s home state of Massachusetts. The book, J F Kerry, the Complete Biography, will question the extent of the senator’s injuries in Vietnam and whether he was entitled to an early release from the war. Vietnam, The Washington Post said yesterday, “is a double-edged issue” for Kerry.

Kerry has not authorised the release of his war records — a strange omission, say his political foes, given the ferocity with which his supporters have demanded to see every last document of President George W Bush’s military service in the Texas air national guard.

“Vietnam is such a crucial part of his background and his campaign, you would think he would want people to see them,” said Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, a conservative journal. “There is going to be pressure on him to release them.”

Kerry, who is surrounded on the stump by the “band of brothers” who fought with him in the Mekong delta, became a fierce public critic of the Vietnam war after he left the navy.

A faked photograph of Kerry sharing a microphone with Jane Fonda was a warning to the senator how his opposition to the conflict would be used against him. There has also been much criticism of the way he threw away another man’s medals rather than his own during a 1971 protest demonstration.

Kerry’s conduct during the war, however, was thought until now to be sacrosanct. Unlike many of his generation, he volunteered for service in Vietnam.

He went on to perform heroically as the skipper of a Swift boat patrolling Vietcong-infested waters and won a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for bravery.

Kerry served only four months of a year-long tour of duty after he received three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action. The injuries were not serious; by his own account one shrapnel wound laid him off for two days and the other two did not interrupt his duties.

Five of Kerry’s friends died in action and his medals show that, at the very least, he had several brushes with death. The future senator then invoked what he insists was a “three and you’re out” rule enabling a soldier with three Purple Hearts to be sent home.

He requested a transfer to the Boston, New York or Washington DC areas and was given a plum job as an admiral’s aide in Brooklyn. He returned to America a bitter opponent of the war and was released from the army early.

In response to an inquiry from The Sunday Times, Kerry’s campaign staff gave the newspaper a copy of naval regulations stating that “all naval personnel” who are “wounded three times, regardless of the nature of the wound or the treatment required for each wound” may be reassigned.

A spokesman for the US navy said, however, that such redeployment was not automatic: “It would depend a lot on the nature of the injuries.”

Ted Sampley, who runs Vietnam Vets Against John Kerry, said if a soldier could be sent home for minor wounds, “there would have been a lot of people claiming scratches, getting their Purple Hearts and getting out of there”.

Sampley believes that the well-connected Kerry — photographed with President John F Kennedy as a young man — simply received favourable treatment. “How many other people were able to get out of Vietnam early and be reassigned to a cushy post?” he wondered.

Kerry declined a request from The Boston Globe to authorise the release of military records that could reveal more about his injuries and treatment. The Sunday Times submitted a similar request and was told the records might be released in future.

Conservative opponents do not intend to challenge Kerry’s bravery. “It’s obviously extremely dicey to question a man’s wounds,” said Lowry. “If he got injured at all he was risking his life.” But after the pressure that Bush was under to release his records, they believe Kerry is obliged to do the same.