Vets Charge: Kerry Killed Fleeing Teen

[>SHOCK<^>WAVE>]

JUST WHAT I WOULD EXPECT FROM A SKULL & BONES BOY

VETS CHARGE: KERRY KILLED FLEEING TEEN; LIED FOR MEDAL

Slaughters Animals, Burns Down Tiny Village
**Exclusive**
A veterans group seeking to deeply discredit Democrat John Kerry&#39;s military service will charge in the new bombshell book UNFIT FOR COMMAND:
"Kerry earned his Silver Star by killing a lone, fleeing, teenage Viet Cong in a loincloth."
"And if Kerry&#39;s superiors had known the truth at the time, they would never have recommended him for the medal."
The book also claims to detail how Kerry personally ordered the slaughter of small animals at a small hamlet along the Song Bo De River.
MORE
The book, set for release next week, hit #1 on the AMAZON hitparade after the DRUDGE REPORT revealed details of the book -- a book the Kerry camapign believes is the"the dirtiest of all dirty tricks ever played on a candidate for the presidency."
The Kerry campaign is planning to vigorously counter the charges and will accuse the veteran&#39;s groups of being well-financed by a top Bush donor from Texas.
The vets have launched a blistering new TV commercial questioning Kerry&#39;s honor and calling him a liar.
MORE
George Bates, an officer in Coastal Division 11, participated in numerous operations with Kerry. In UNFIT FOR COMMAND, Bates recalls a particular patrol with Kerry on the Song Bo De River. He is still "haunted" by the incident:
With Kerry in the lead, the boats approached a small hamlet with three or four grass huts. Pigs and chickens were milling around peacefully. As the boats drew closer, the villagers fled. There were no political symbols or flags in evidence in the tiny village. It was obvious to Bates that existing policies, decency, and good sense required the boats to simply move on.
Instead, Kerry beached his boat directly in the small settlement. Upon his command, the numerous small animals were slaughtered by heavy-caliber machine guns. Acting more like a pirate than a naval officer, Kerry disembarked and ran around with a Zippo lighter, burning up the entire hamlet.
Bates has never forgotten Kerry&#39;s actions.
MORE
UNFIT FOR COMMAND, DRUDGE has learned, claims Kerry "earned his Silver Star by killing a lone, fleeing, teenage Viet Cong in a loincloth."
ARE THE VETS TELLING THE TRUTH?
"They hired a goddamn private investigator to dig up trash&#33;" charged a top Kerry adviser traveling with the senator late Tuesday. "This is pay for play... How low can they go?"
Kerry supporters are comparing the effort by the veterans to the Arkansas State troopers tell-all against Bill Clinton.
MORE
John O&#39;Neill, co-author of UNFIT FOR COMMAND, believes that "Kerry&#39;s Star would never have been awarded had his actions been reviewed through normal channels. In his case, he was awarded the medal two days after the incident with no review. The medal was arranged to boost the morale of Coastal Division 11, but it was based on false and incomplete information provided by Kerry himself."
According to Kerry&#39;s Silver Star citation, Kerry was in command of a three-boat mission on the Dong Cung River. As the boats approached the target area, they came under intense enemy fire. Kerry ordered his boat to attack and all boats opened fire. He then beached directly in front of the enemy ambushers. In the battle that followed, the crews captured enemy weapons. His boat then moved further up the river to suppress more enemy fire. A rocket exploded near Kerry&#39;s boat, and he ordered to charge the enemy. Kerry beached his boat 10 feet from the rocket position and led a landing party ashore to pursue the enemy.
Kerry&#39; citation reads: "The extraordinary daring and personal courage of Lt. Kerry in attacking a numerically superior force in the face of intense fire were responsible for the highly successful mission."
Here&#39;s what O&#39;Neill and the Swiftees say: "According to Kerry&#39;s crewman Michael Madeiros, Kerry had an agreement with him to turn the boat in and onto the beach if fired upon. Each of the three boats involved in the operation was involved in the agreement." O&#39;Neill writes that one crewman even recalls a discussion of probable medals.
Doug Reese, a pro Kerry Army veteran, recounted what happened that day to O&#39;Neill, "Far from being alone, the boats were loaded with many soldiers commanded by Reese and two other advisors. When fired at, Reese&#39;s boat--not Kerry&#39;s--was the first to beach in the ambush zone. Then Reese and other troops and advisors (not Kerry) disembarked, killing a number of Viet Cong and capturing a number of weapons. None of the participants from Reese&#39;s boat received Silver Stars.
O&#39;Neill continues: "Kerry&#39;s boat moved slightly downstream and was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. . . .A young Viet Cong in a loincloth popped out of a hole, clutching a grenade launcher, which may or may not have been loaded. . . Tom Belodeau, a forward gunner, shot the Viet Cong with an M-60 machine gun in the leg as he fled. . . . Kerry and Medeiros (who had many troops in their boat) took off, perhaps with others, and followed the young Viet Cong and shot him in the back, behind a lean to."
O&#39;Neill concludes "Whether Kerry&#39;s dispatching of a fleeing, wounded, armed or unarmed teenage enemy was in accordance with the customs of war, it is very clear that many Vietnam veterans and most Swiftees do not consider this action to be the stuff of which medals of any kind are awarded; nor would it even be a good story if told in the cold details of reality. There is no indication that Kerry ever reported that the Viet Cong was wounded and fleeing when dispatched. Likewise, the citation simply ignores the presence of the soldiers and advisors who actually &#39;captured the enemy weapons&#39; and routed the Viet Cong. . . . [and] that Kerry attacked a &#39;numerically superior force in the face of intense fire&#39; is simply false. There was little or no fire after Kerry followed the plan. . . . The lone, wounded, fleeing young Viet Cong in a loincloth was hardly a force superior to the heavily armed Swift Boat and its crew and the soldiers carried aboard."
DRUDGE learns from UNFIT FOR COMMAND that if Kerry&#39;s superior officers knew the truth, they would never have recommended the award:
"Admiral Roy Hoffmann, who sent a Bravo Zulu (meaning "good work"), to Kerry upon learning of the incident, was very surprised to discover in 2004 what had actually occurred. Hoffmann had been told that Kerry had spontaneously beached next to the bunker and almost single-handedly routed a bunkered force in Viet Cong. He was shocked to find out that Kerry had beached his boat second in a preplanned operation, and that he had killed a single, wounded teenage foe as he fled."
"Commander Geoge Elliott, who wrote up the initial draft of Kerry&#39;s Silver Star citation, confirms that neither he, nor anyone else in the Silver Star process that he knows, realized before 1996 that Kerry was facing a single, wounded young Viet Cong fleeing in a loincloth. While Commander Elliott and many other Swiftees believe that Kerry committed no crime in killing the fleeing, wounded enemy (with a loaded or empty launcher), others feel differently. Commander Elliott indicates that a Silver Star recommendation would not have been made by him had he been aware of the actual facts."
Developing....

http://www.drudgereport.com/ufd1.htm

[spinningfreemanny]

I just heard the Vet advertisement; rather combative...Nice to take the snippet of the Edwards ad and turn it around so.

[hobbes]

Kerry earned his Silver Star by killing a lone, fleeing, teenage Viet Cong in a loincloth

UNFIT FOR COMMAND, DRUDGE has learned, claims Kerry "earned his Silver Star by killing a lone, fleeing, teenage Viet Cong in a loincloth."

A young Viet Cong in a loincloth popped out of a hole, clutching a grenade launcher

The lone, wounded, fleeing young Viet Cong in a loincloth was hardly a force superior to the heavily armed Swift Boat

Kerry was facing a single, wounded young Viet Cong fleeing in a loincloth.

So what was Kerry wearing?

[3RA1N1AC]

any minute now, the conservatives and middle-of-the-roaders who poo-poo michael moore&#39;s unscholarly/unscientific methods are going to likewise take this thread to task for bringing us anecdotal election season mud-slinging from a gossip column...

... right? *looks at the clock*

[spinningfreemanny]

aww come on, this is almost elementary to the 3 years of bush being compared from genitalia to Hitler.

and 21 congressional medal of honor winners that back bush are not a "gossip column"

[Biggles]

Rather late in the day for such a revelation from these individuals. If such a war crime took place where was their moral indignation all these 40 years. It has long been suggested that the Vietnam war was peppered with such instances and that war crimes abound. Perhaps it is time a very detailed examination was made of all who participated in that war and how they won their medals.

On the other hand, it looks like a partisan attack, sounds like one and by golly it tastes like one. If proved to be so it may actually work against Bush even if his campaign had nothing to do with this.

[Busyman]

Originally posted by Biggles@5 August 2004 - 15:00
Rather late in the day for such a revelation from these individuals. If such a war crime took place where was their moral indignation all these 40 years.

On the other hand, it looks like a partisan attack, sounds like one and by golly it tastes like one. If proved to be so it may actually work against Bush even if his campaign had nothing to do with this.

Took the words out of my mouth.

People seem to scream very loud...........near election time.

I recall

Paula Jones and Bill Clinton
Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas
etc, etc.



edit: If true, it would explain why he wanted to throw his medals away.

[j2k4]

Without addressing this, um.....revelation, I must say that the whole issue of Kerry&#39;s military service and the odd behavior(s) exhibited on his return from the war to be very peculiar, to say the least.

Gravity has a similar effect on all chips; what shakes out is more a function of where they land, rather than how quickly they fall.

Sounds like a soon-to-be non-event, to me.

[3RA1N1AC]

Originally posted by spinningfreemanny@5 August 2004 - 10:10
and 21 congressional medal of honor winners that back bush are not a "gossip column"

these complaints do sound like gossip to me because, like biggles and busyman say, they were not made anywhere near the time that the event supposedly happened, despite describing both cowardly and monstrous behavior on kerry&#39;s part which would gnaw at the soul of any man who were to witness such a thing. and it contradicts everything that&#39;s been revealed by his military records which are the only "evidence" of his conduct in vietnam that can be said with any certainty to not be influenced by people&#39;s opinions of kerry as a politician.

kerry has been trotting out veterans to support his campaign, including a few who served with him, and one who says that kerry saved his life. the speculation goes that these guys have been paid by the democrats to vouch for him. none of us know for certain that they are on the payroll, but it&#39;s plausible, no?

by that logic it&#39;s also plausible that kerry&#39;s political opponents might get the very same idea, pay some vets to say he&#39;s the worst soldier ever to lace up a pair of boots, and hire a writer (who nixon had previously tapped to publically feud with kerry in the &#39;70s) to do the novelization. by the time anyone bothers to check up on how many of the 21 medal of honor recipients actually served with kerry, and whether any of &#39;em may just be holding a grudge for his post-enlistment politics, the damage will be done.

i&#39;m actually not even a fan of john kerry. i&#39;ve never voted for a democrat and don&#39;t intend to, anytime soon. but this story has all the earmarks of a by-the-numbers smear job. it would be a fitting "tit for tat" response to the political accusation of bush going AWOL from the national guard... except kerry&#39;s military records have his superior officers saying he served admirably, in contradiction to the accusation, while bush&#39;s records have gone AWOL. it doesn&#39;t help that the story&#39;s taken from the drudge report (a self-described partisan gossip site) which credits a professional character assassin as the source. the FST News & Events board and its generally thoughtful denizens (righties, lefties, and "others") are above that, as they&#39;re above using michael moore as the ultimate source of their facts. at least, i like to think it is.

just sayin&#39;, >SHOCK<^>WAVE> posted a campaign ad rather than a topic for debate.

[3RA1N1AC]

Originally posted by j2k4@5 August 2004 - 12:33
Sounds like a soon-to-be non-event, to me.

i let my response stew for a few minutes before pressing the button, woulda added a line for this if i&#39;d seen your post. but... um... yes. we seem to agree that, opinions about the senator aside, it&#39;s a pretty flimsy story... or at least one that won&#39;t be kicking around for too long given the chances of it ever being verified.