Is John Kerry a war criminal? One anti-war commentator thinks so.
As should be obvious to regular readers of mine, I am no fan of John F. Kerry or the Democrats. But can you imagine the temerity involved in calling him a war criminal? Could you possibly bring yourself to conceive of Kerry in this fashion?Well, someone has.
The culprit is Justin Raimondo, the editor of a site called Antiwar.com. It's hard to describe exactly what Raimondo is - Libertarian? Old-school conservative? Leftist-in-denial? - but I'll settle for "jackass." And I'm being nice.
This is what the anti-war agitator has to say about Mr. Kerry:
The only problem with the ABB strategy, however, is that the man they want to replace George W. Bush with is potentially even more of a monster. After all, Kerry personally killed a great many Vietnamese during our losing war in Southeast Asia ... As part of the murderous "Phoenix" program, designed to dry up the pool of support in which the Viet-Cong was submerged, Kerry and his cohorts unleashed a reign of terror, and killed many thousands of Vietnamese villagers, most of them ordinary peasants, including women and children. He brags about his three Purple Hearts, and his campaign compares his military record favorably to the AWOL Bush, who managed to stay well out of it, while the Bush-haters screech that the president is a "chickenhawk" because he wasn't eager to become a mass murderer.Say what you will about Kerry, but this is yellow journalism at its finest. Kerry is a war hero and earned his Purple Hearts through sheer acts of bravery. The closest Raimondo has ever come to displaying bravado is bragging about his gym-enhanced kick-ass credentials. (Give me five minutes in the ring with him anytime.)
We all know that Kerry became involved in subversive anti-war activities after coming home, and testified before Congress to the nature of the bloodbath that Vietnam had become. Whether or not one believes that Kerry deliberately tried to make the American forces look bad in an attempt to stop the war at any cost - and I surely do - there is no denying that if Kerry took part in any of this wartime bloodletting himself, he did it to save the lives of his fellow servicemen.
Raimondo came close to seeing the truth about the anti-war movement during a rally in San Francisco in October 2002, but it didn't take him long before he started pounding the pavements of protest again.
Raimondo, like so much of the anti-war movement, relies on anti-Semitism as fuel for their outrage over Iraq:
In an effort at damage control, the Israel lobby is making a concerted effort to smear whomever states the obvious: a great deal of the "intelligence" used to lie us into war came directly from Tel Aviv and was "stovepiped" into the White House by neocon White House advisors, and that, in retrospect, this war has been to the strategic advantage of one and only one nation on earth: Israel.Need further proof? Check out this little gem:
It is typical of the Israelis to characterize the Wall of Separation as a defensive measure, when it is really a land grab of huge proportions, one that will ensure the failure of the American diplomatic initiative. These are, after all, the original authors of the doctrine of pre-emption, now adopted by the U.S.Pre-emption? Israel faces thugs on all sides of their nation who are determined to wipe their country off the map, and Israel engages in "pre-emption?" It's just a ploy for a U.S. sponsored land grab to shape our deviously imperialist Middle East policy, says Raimondo. True anti-war colors have never run so deep into the fabric of their ideology.
Raimondo has attacked so many people from so many corners, it's not the least bit implausible to suspect that he has no friends left (if he ever had any to begin with). The anti-war obsession eats at his soul to the extent that he actually endorses Nader and can't fathom how Democratic voters could turn to Kerry. Has it honestly come to that - simply because Kerry rightly states that we can't leave Iraq, that we have a duty to see this job through, then to hell with him and the Democratic Party?
I gleefully refer to Democrats as Demoncraps, such is my distaste for their policies, but Raimondo goes way too far. There is no excuse for trashing Kerry the way that he has. It is, like so much else that Raimondo writes, despicable.
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Article comments
26 - Justin Raimondo
Oh, but this is my favorite part of Senor Manning's screed: "As should be obvious to regular readers of mine...."
Yeah, all 24 of them....
27 - Shark
So for this Presidential election, we're faced with deciding between TWO WAR CRIMINALS?
Cool, but I'm for the baby killer who had the balls to actually personally fire the weapon.
A Stronger America
28 - Mike Kole
Ye of self-limited options! There will be more than two candidates on the ballot.
29 - Mark Edward Manning
Justin R.: "Yeah, all 24 of them...."
Justin, I had 41 entries before I posted this one, not 24 (where'd you get that number?), and though that may not appear very much, (1) I only joined Blogcritics.org after discovering it in March (after blogging for more than three years) on my primary website (in which my "smear" against you also appears, you'll be interested to note) to reach a wider audience, and (2) People are familiar with me here and where I stand. I've been lauded and jeered (depending upon whether one is conservative or liberal) enough by all the regular bloggers on this page - they know me well enough for me to write a statement calling out my "regular readership."
Besides, you're so high-minded, it honestly sounds like something you'd have written after only your first 24 columns on antiwar.com.
[edited]
30 - Mark Edward Manning
Shark: "Cool, but I'm for the baby killer who had the balls to actually personally fire the weapon."
This will be sure to floor you, Shark, but I'm with you ... not in that I'm voting for Kerry, but I will stick up for the dude against unjust, punishing accusations, and you're right ... at least Kerry had balls. Raimondo stitches his on every time he writes.
31 - MCH
"Honor the Fallen"
www.miltarycity.com/valor/honor_alpha_ahtml
"Army Spc. Tyanna S. Avery-Felder, 22, of Bridgeport, Conn.; assigned to the 296th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Ft. Lewis, Wa.; died April 7 in Mosul, Iraq, of injuries sustained April 4 when her convoy vehicle was hit with an improvised explosive device in Balad."
Only one week before Mrs. Avery-Felder was scheduled for leave to visit her family stateside, the truck she was in ran over a makeshift bomb. She passed away three days later from shrapnel injuries.
Tyanna met and married Adrian Felder, another soldier at Ft. Lewis, in 2002. Spc. Avery-Felder had planned for a career working with children and enrolled at Southern Connecticutt State University, but left after one year to enlist in the military, because she felt that actions speak louder than words.
This beautiful, courageous 22-year old woman, who played basketball and sang in the Bridgeport High choir, is survived by her parents Ray and Ilene Avery, two siblings and her husband Adrian.
www.cbsnews.com/elements/2003/03/22/iraq/whoswho545277_0_47_person.shtml
"All gave some...some gave all" (VVA slogan)
- MCH, Vietnam era vet
32 - MCH
Re comment #18;
"If there was a draft, I'd go. Would you? (They might draft women if they ever reinstitute it.)"
- by R.J. (Bobby) Elliott
Two things, Bobby...
1) As a bellicose advocate of the pre-emptive attack on Iraq and bellicose supporter of the subsequent occupation, why would it take being drafted before you'd go? Why not put your money where your mouth is and enlist?
and 2) Since I've never read anywhere where bhw has said she supported the invasion, how does being drafted apply to her?
- MCH, Vietnam era vet