John Kerry's Million Dollar Pain in the Ass
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Kerry's Lies and Spin
Just when you think you've gotten to the bottom of John Kerry's self-promotion and flat-out lying in order to create a heroic background for himself, the ooze gives way and you find an even lower level -

Read this op-ed piece for even more insight into Senator John Kerry:

"Grandstanding draws spotlight on Kerry's military record," Phil Valentine, Williamson County Review Appeal, Friday, August 13th, 2004

Some interesting quotes from Mr. Valentine's article:

"By now, you've certainly heard of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. This is a group of Vietnam vets who served with Kerry during his four months in Vietnam and they don't have too many kind words for their former comrade-in-arms.

Before you discount these veterans as partisan hacks, as the Democratic spin-control machine would have you believe, understand that 16 of the 23 surviving officers who served with Kerry in swift boats in Vietnam have joined this group."

In other words, 2 out of 3 surviving swift boat officers who were in Vietnam with Kerry (including two of his former commanding officers) feel strongly enough about John Kerry's bullshit about his service there that they got together to protest it publicly.

Valentine's article goes on to state what I mentioned in an earlier entry - quoting Kerry's former CO Cmdr. Grant Hibbard about Kerry's attempt to brazenly get a Purple Heart for an accidentally (and incompetently) self-inflicted shrapnel scratch which happened outside of combat; and his eventual going around his CO to get that medal fradulently despite Cmdr. Hibbard's refusal to sign off on it.

Here's the new stuff -

"The third Purple Heart in question, the one that was Kerry's ticket home after just over four months in combat, occurred on March 13, 1969. The wounds sustained included a small bruise on his right arm and a minor injury to his buttocks. Again, Kerry insists he was wounded by enemy fire, but those who were there tell a different story. Kerry says he was wounded by an underwater mine. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth say Kerry was wounded as a result of his not-so-bright decision to toss a grenade into a nearby rice cache. The "shrapnel" actually plucked from Kerry's fanny was rice pellets."

So not only WAS Kerry a pain in the ass (according to two of his commanding officers in Vietnam) but he apparently got a Purple Heart for GIVING HIMSELF ONE, too - for two self-inflicted wounds (through incompetence and extremely poor judgment about when and where to use antipersonnel grenades, not to mention using them outside of actual combat or even confirmed contact with the enemy of any other sort), incurred outside of combat as required for the award of a Purple Heart or points toward early rotation out of theater, Lt.(j.g.) John Kerry was sent home from Vietnam after only four months in theater, not the year he would have ordinarily served.

So John Kerry appears:
a) to have lied to get TWO of his Purple Hearts
b) thus to have lied on two occasions in order to be sent home from Vietnam after four months, instead of the usual year-long tour;
c) to have not corrected or clarified either item (a) or item (b) when folding them into his new patriot-hero persona;
d) by all of the above to have an abiding disrespect for true heroism as evidenced by not seeking combat wound decorations for non-combat wounds; and finally
e) to have shown willingness over a period of over thirty years to swear to the truth of lies when they are convenient to his goals.

Some of you would like to know why I call John Kerry "Zippo John," and Mr. Valentine's article throws light on that, as well:

"Interestingly enough, Kerry characterized himself as a war criminal in 1971, saying that he had taken part in the torching of villages and the killing of innocent civilians in violation of the Geneva Conventions."

The activity Kerry admitted to before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is what was known as a "Zippo raid," after the brand of cigarette lighter allegedly used by rogue American troops to burn the thatch huts of Vietnamese villagers down.

Taking Senator Kerry at his word, I started calling him "Zippo John" to commemorate his self-admitted acts of arson against civilians while allegedly serving his country.

I still want to know why John Kerry didn't do jail time - either for perjury before the Senate or for war crimes. One way or another, he either lied under oath or told the truth about having done worse things.