John Kerry "insults the troops"

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:06pm

Now where were these cajones during his run for the presidency?
From Salon.com

Campaigning with California gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides Monday, John Kerry told a crowd at Pasadena City College: "You know, education -- if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Kerry spokesman David Wade tells us that the senator was referring to George W. Bush -- a president not exactly known for his intellectual curiosity or academic successes -- but the GOP isn't buying it. The Republican National Committee says that Kerry, who volunteered for Vietnam after graduating from Yale, was belittling U.S. troops now serving in Iraq; John McCain has declared Kerry's comments "insensitive" and "ill-considered"; and Tony Snow said today that Kerry "not only owes an apology to those who are serving, but also to the families of those who have given their lives in this." Snow said that Democratic candidates like Jim Webb and Tammy Duckworth should be asked whether they're in accord with Kerry's "absolute insult."

Kerry will hold a press conference later today. In the meantime, he has issued a statement in which he pushes back hard. "If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy," Kerry said. "This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did."

Kerry said he won't be "lectured" by a "stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium" or by "doughy Rush Limbaugh," and that he's disgusted when "Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country, lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have." If anyone owes the troops an apology, he said, it's "George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it."

-- Tim Grieve

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:08pm

" "You know, education -- if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." "

Sadly enough, that's rather true.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:08pm

It does sound more like he's insulting the troops in that context. It doesn't sound like he's discussing an individual.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:12pm

I don't see how the telling the truth "insults the troops". I don't think there are many troops over there with MBA's or BA's for that matter. To me, insulting the troops is having them over there being slaughtered and maimed for life for no reason. Now that's what I would call an insult.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:18pm

I hate and despise John Kerry. So, I cannot be objective about anything that spews from his ugly mouth. Having said that, it sure sounds like he's insulting the troops, and not the President. It also sounds like he's back-peddling. He's been known to insult troops and back-peddle, before.

[ckeaton]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:22pm

First of all, there are plenty of individuals serving the modern military that are hardly slackers. Much of modern war is fought with chips and processors over bullets and swords.

Secondly, we all know what Kerry meant, so can the idignation. This story is about the worst of politics. One idiot says something stupid, and the opponent smells blood in the water so they pounce too hard and too fast, and both sides are caught into what amounts to little more than a schoolyard shoving match.

Did Kerry insult the intellects of our men and women in uniform? Of course. Did he intend to? Probably not. Is the other side using it opportunistically in the throes of election week? Sure thing.

Updated On: 10/31/06 at 03:22 PM

[kelzama]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:22pm

Think again. Two relatives are serving in Iraq. One on his voluntary third tour of duty and a graduate of VMI. The other, an advanced degree in the sciences.

What an elitist spew of bull puckey. To think how close he was to being their commander in chief.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:23pm

"Did Kerry insult the intellects of our men and women in uniform? Of course. Did he intend to? Probably not."

Come on. Read it again.

[touchmeinthemorning]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:23pm

even if he is insulting the troops (which you'd have to be uneducated to believe -- given the context of this speech), it still is quite a muted act when compared to acting criminally against the troops in much the same way Nathan convicted David of acted in the Old Testament:

2 Samuel 12

1 Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, "There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.

2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds,

3 but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was to him like a daughter.

4 A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man who had come to him."

5 David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As Yahweh lives, the man who has done this is worthy to die!

6 He shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity!"

7 Nathan said to David, "You are the man. This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says:'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.

8 I gave you your master's house, and your master's wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things.

9 Why have you despised the word of Yahweh, to do that which is evil in his sight?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:23pm

Trick or Treat! This is the GOP's October surprise. One more week until elections.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:27pm

If he didn't intend to insult them, then I suppose it's his lack of education that landed him in Nam!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:31pm

"I hate and despise John Kerry. So, I cannot be objective about anything that spews from his ugly mouth."

Gosh, at least someone admits it. If only the "Swift Boat veterans" could have been so honest.

[M J R]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:31pm

He volunteered for Vietnam. Learn to read.

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:31pm

"The Republican National Committee says that Kerry, who volunteered for Vietnam after graduating from Yale, was belittling U.S. troops now serving in Iraq;"

Note the word volunteered in the above sentence.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:34pm

Like the troops now didn't volunteer? Huh?

[jimnysf]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:35pm

Kerry is right. You should all be directing your venom at Bush. He is the one who owes the troops and their families an apology for all the senseless killing and injuries. What a waste!

[M J R]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:35pm

Incidentally, from where did you graduate, JohnBoy?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:39pm

Rath, I don't believe that Kerry was referring to Bush or any other individual. It's pretty clear he meant the troops and if he didn't, he messed up his own joke.

Now having said that, what's not true about it? Since when does becoming a hero negate the fact that a lot the troops are there because of a lack of options. No. Not all. Some are brilliant and well trained. Some are of average intelligence and with other options. But there are people serving who have chosen to serve because out of all other options, the millitary was the best.
Updated On: 10/31/06 at 03:39 PM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:42pm

I'm not saying there's no truth to it - for some people, yes, it is the truth of the matter. But, it was a pretty insulting way to phrase it.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:42pm

only two arms of the american military commission officers without college degrees: the army and the coast guard. in the case of the army, an individual must have two years of active duty service and have completed 90 semester hours. 86% of all officers have at the least a ba. it's not a stretch with current battlefield advances in communications and war-fighting capabilities to assume that at least 30-40% of noncoms are working with at the least a ba as well.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:43pm

Here's a great responding letter from a salon.com reader:

"Anyone with a grain of sense knows EXACTLY who and what Kerry was referring to -- and the who/what is Bush & his cadre of incompetent neocon advisors.

Reflect now on Tony Snow's incredibly lame attempt to claim that Cheney's approval of "dunking" in NO WAY meant he endorsed waterboarding of terrorism suspects. Oh, really?

In my 50 plus years on this earth, I've never seen such a pathological aversion to the truth as with this President, his advisors and his supporters. The comparison to language manipulation in Orwell's "1984" is usually invoked at this point, so it may appear to be a cliche (how does one type an "e" with an accent here, anyway?) -- but this is no cliche.

Language means what Bush and his people SAY it means. Any similarity to definitions as printed in Websters Dictionary, or to normal ways to parse sentences, is purely coincidental."

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:44pm

This is the John Kerry we needed in 2004.

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:46pm

"A Kerry aide told CNN that the prepared statement, which had been designed to criticize President Bush, "was mangled in delivery."

Kerry was supposed to say, "I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq."

It makes slightly more sense in this context.

I can't imagine any politician at this point purposely insulting the troops. It just doesn't make sense with an election just around corner.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:47pm

"It makes slightly more sense in this context."

In point of fact, it changes the entire meaning.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 3:47pm

Well he really bumbled it then.