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Is this stuff going to force the demorcrats to find a way to come up with a different candidate? Kerry is starting to look very weak to me.


Unfit for Office

By JOHN O'NEILL
May 4, 2004; Page A20

HOUSTON -- In 1971, I debated John Kerry, then a national spokesman for the
Vietnam Veterans Against the War, for 90 minutes on "The Dick Cavett Show."
The key issue in that debate was Mr. Kerry's claim that American troops were
committing war crimes in Vietnam "on a day-to-day basis with the full
awareness of officers at all levels of command." Now, as Sen. Kerry emerges
as the presumptive Democratic nominee for the presidency, I've chosen to
re-enter the fray.

Like John Kerry, I served in Vietnam as a Swift Boat commander. Ironically,
John Kerry and I served much of our time, a full 12 months in my case and a
controversial four months in his, commanding the exact same six-man boat,
PCF-94, which I took over after he requested early departure. Despite our
shared experience, I still believe what I believed 33 years ago -- that John
Kerry slandered America's military by inventing or repeating grossly
exaggerated claims of atrocities and war crimes in order to advance his own
political career as an antiwar activist. His misrepresentations played a
significant role in creating the negative and false image of Vietnam vets
that has persisted for over three decades.

Neither I, nor any man I served with, ever committed any atrocity or war
crime in Vietnam. The opposite was the truth. Rather than use excessive
force, we suffered casualty after casualty because we chose to refrain from
firing rather than risk injuring civilians. More than once, I saw friends
die in areas we entered with loudspeakers rather than guns. John Kerry's
accusations then and now were an injustice that struck at the soul of anyone
who served there.

During my 1971 televised debate with John Kerry, I accused him of lying. I
urged him to come forth with affidavits from the soldiers who had claimed to
have committed or witnessed atrocities. To date no such affidavits have been
filed. Recently, Sen. Kerry has attempted to reframe his comments as
youthful or "over the top." Yet always there has been a calculated coolness
to the way he has sought to destroy the record of our honorable service in
the interest of promoting his political ambitions of the moment.

John Kennedy's book, "Profiles in Courage," and Dwight Eisenhower's "Crusade
in Europe" inspired generations. Not so John Kerry, who has suppressed his
book, "The New Soldier," prohibiting its reprinting. There is a clear reason
for this. The book repeats John Kerry's insults to the American military,
beginning with its front-cover image of the American flag being carried
upside down by a band of bearded renegades in uniform -- a clear slap at the
brave Marines in their combat gear who raised our flag at Iwo Jima. Allow me
the reprint rights to your book, Sen. Kerry, and I will make sure copies of
"The New Soldier" are available in bookstores throughout America.

Vietnam was a long time ago. Why does it matter today? Since the days of the
Roman Empire, the concept of military loyalty up and down the chain of
command has been indispensable. The commander's loyalty to the troops is the
price a commander pays for the loyalty of the troops in return. How can a
man be commander in chief who for over 30 years has accused his "Band of
Brothers," as well as himself, of being war criminals? On a practical basis,
John Kerry's breach of loyalty is a prescription of disaster for our armed
forces.

John Kerry's recent admissions caused me to realize that I was most likely
in Vietnam dodging enemy rockets on the very day he met in Paris with Madame
Binh, the representative of the Viet Cong to the Paris Peace Conference.
John Kerry returned to the U.S. to become a national spokesperson for the
Vietnam Veterans Against the War, a radical fringe of the antiwar movement,
an organization set upon propagating the myth of war crimes through
demonstrably false assertions. Who was the last American POW to die
languishing in a North Vietnamese prison forced to listen to the recorded
voice of John Kerry disgracing their service by his dishonest testimony
before the Senate?

Since 1971, I have refused many offers from John Kerry's political opponents
to speak out against him. My reluctance to become involved once again in
politics is outweighed now by my profound conviction that John Kerry is
simply not fit to be America's commander in chief. Nobody has recruited me
to come forward. My decision is the inevitable result of my own personal
beliefs and life experience.

Today, America is engaged in a new war, against the militant Islamist
terrorists who attacked us on our own soil. Reasonable people may differ
about how best to proceed, but I'm sure of one thing -- John Kerry is the
wrong man to put in charge.

Mr. O'Neill served in Coastal Division 11 in 1969-70, earning two Bronze
Stars and additional decorations for his service in Vietnam.

URL for this article:
online.wsj.com/article/0,...76,00.html


"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier."

Kipling-