A Tangled Web

PASS THE KETCHUP!



As sent to the Belfast Telegraph;



31/01/04



Dear Sir,



The suggestion put forward by Belfast Telegraph columnist Steven King in his recent column (28th January) that US Democrat contender, John Kerry (JKF to his friends) represents a serious threat to George Bush being re-elected to a second term, is predicated on Kerry’s military record. As Mr. King puts it, “what Bush has reason to fear is that Kerry spent the Vietnam War in the Mekong Delta rather than in the Texas National Guard.” However things are not quite as portrayed by your columnist.



A good starting point to get an accurate fix on Senator Kerry’s war record is to visit the “Vietnam Veterans against John Kerry” website. Here fellow Vietnam veterans hotly dispute the evidence he served up in his testimony April 23, 1971, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and instead they suggest that his slander of US soldiers should disqualify him from ever serving as Commander in Chief. Then there’s Kerry's opposition to the death penalty and his 1989 vote against the death penalty for terrorists who kill Americans abroad. That should prove a real voter winner post September 11th!



Perhaps the best insight into the Kerry character relates to the incident of the apparent throwing away of his Vietnam medals in disgust in 1969. The most remarkable part of that media event was the visual image of former soldiers throwing away their hard-won war medals – with John Kerry leading the action. News accounts reported Kerry, the decorated retired lieutenant, had thrown his own medals away. Only many years later did we learn that he kept his and threw away the medals earned by others! Kerry, it seems, according to those who knew him best, had a personal agenda that went beyond exposing the abuses of the Vietnam War. Even as a Yale undergraduate, even as he was entering the military, even as he was leading this anti-war protest and others, he was planning to run for president of the United States some day. Those medals would come in handy.



A political ass leading the Party of the Donkey should ensure Bush returns to the White House. Pass the ketchup!



Yours Sincerely,



etc.



David Vance



Donacloney