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View Full Version : Oliver North penned an open letter to Senator John Kerry.



Shelly
09-09-2004, 08:48 PM
Didn't see this posted here...

link (http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/north.asp)

by Oliver North


All newspaper editors want to know what their readers like. If you would like to read this feature in your local newspaper, please do not hesitate to share your enthusiasm with your local newspaper editor.

RELEASE: FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2004, AND THEREAFTER



BRING IT ON, JOHN



"Of course, the president keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: 'Bring it on.'" -- Sen. John Kerry



Dear John,

As usual, you have it wrong. You don't have a beef with President George Bush about your war record. He's been exceedingly generous about your military service. Your complaint is with the 2.5 million of us who served honorably in a war that ended 29 years ago and which you, not the president, made the centerpiece of this campaign.

I talk to a lot of vets, John, and this really isn't about your medals or how you got them. Like you, I have a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. I only have two Purple Hearts, though. I turned down the others so that I could stay with the Marines in my rifle platoon. But I think you might agree with me, though I've never heard you say it, that the officers always got more medals than they earned and the youngsters we led never got as many medals as they deserved.

This really isn't about how early you came home from that war, either, John. There have always been guys in every war who want to go home. There are also lots of guys, like those in my rifle platoon in Vietnam, who did a full 13 months in the field. And there are, thankfully, lots of young Americans today in Iraq and Afghanistan who volunteered to return to war because, as one of them told me in Ramadi a few weeks ago, "the job isn't finished."

Nor is this about whether you were in Cambodia on Christmas Eve, 1968. Heck John, people get lost going on vacation. If you got lost, just say so. Your campaign has admitted that you now know that you really weren't in Cambodia that night and that Richard Nixon wasn't really president when you thought he was. Now would be a good time to explain to us how you could have all that bogus stuff "seared" into your memory -- especially since you want to have your finger on our nation's nuclear trigger.

But that's not really the problem, either. The trouble you're having, John, isn't about your medals or coming home early or getting lost -- or even Richard Nixon. The issue is what you did to us when you came home, John.

When you got home, you co-founded Vietnam Veterans Against the War and wrote "The New Soldier," which denounced those of us who served -- and were still serving -- on the battlefields of a thankless war. Worst of all, John, you then accused me -- and all of us who served in Vietnam -- of committing terrible crimes and atrocities.

On April 22, 1971, under oath, you told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that you had knowledge that American troops "had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam." And you admitted on television that "yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed."

And for good measure you stated, "(America is) more guilty than any other body, of violations of (the) Geneva Conventions ... the torture of prisoners, the killing of prisoners."

Your "antiwar" statements and activities were painful for those of us carrying the scars of Vietnam and trying to move on with our lives. And for those who were still there, it was even more hurtful. But those who suffered the most from what you said and did were the hundreds of American prisoners of war being held by Hanoi. Here's what some of them endured because of you, John:

Capt. James Warner had already spent four years in Vietnamese custody when he was handed a copy of your testimony by his captors. Warner says that for his captors, your statements "were proof I deserved to be punished." He wasn't released until March 14, 1973.

Maj. Kenneth Cordier, an Air Force pilot who was in Vietnamese custody for 2,284 days, says his captors "repeated incessantly" your one-liner about being "the last man to die" for a lost cause. Cordier was released March 4, 1973.

Navy Lt. Paul Galanti says your accusations "were as demoralizing as solitary (confinement) ... and a prime reason the war dragged on." He remained in North Vietnamese hands until February 12, 1973.

John, did you think they would forget? When Tim Russert asked about your claim that you and others in Vietnam committed "atrocities," instead of standing by your sworn testimony, you confessed that your words "were a bit over the top." Does that mean you lied under oath? Or does it mean you are a war criminal? You can't have this one both ways, John. Either way, you're not fit to be a prison guard at Abu Ghraib, much less commander in chief.

One last thing, John. In 1988, Jane Fonda said: "I would like to say something ... to men who were in Vietnam, who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to deepen because of things that I said or did. I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but there were times when I was thoughtless and careless about it and I'm ... very sorry that I hurt them. And I want to apologize to them and their families."

Even Jane Fonda apologized. Will you, John?

To find out more about Oliver North, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

CommanderMcBragg
09-09-2004, 10:12 PM
Oliver North lost his credibility in my eyes after the Iran Contra scandal.
Phhhhhhhht! Is what I think of his letter.

Aggie Hoopsfan
09-09-2004, 11:44 PM
Ollie was a scapegoat to save people higher up.

Even if he "lost cred" in your eyes, he hit this one on the nose.

Yonivore
09-10-2004, 12:59 AM
What do you mean lost credibility, he's the only one that stood up and took it like a man...accepted responsiblity, and the consequences.

How can you lose credibility for telling the truth?

Nbadan
09-10-2004, 03:52 AM
Oliver North lost his credibility when he became a daily caller into the Sean Insanity show, and always spouts off Republican't talking points .

I swear, the democrats couldn't have a better discreditor than that show.

Dick Morris...a joke

Ed Koch...a NY mistake

Oliver North...a felon

Newt Gingrich...a wife abuser

Aggie Hoopsfan
09-10-2004, 04:21 AM
The same Hannity who is raising scholarship funds for the children of our military who are killed in the war on terrorism?

Yeah, I could see where credibility would be a problem - it's only credible if you're protesting or bitching that you should get it for free.

Nbadan
09-10-2004, 04:33 AM
The same Hannity who is raising scholarship funds for the children of our military who are killed in the war on terrorism?

Seems only fitting considering what Sean has single-handedly done to discredit his own profession. The public no longer has a reliable check and balance mechanism to keep government officials honest. If Woodward and Bernstein had made their accusations against Nixon and his plumbers today, they could have just gone on the Insanity show and spun the whole thing as a liberal conspiracy.

Aggie Hoopsfan
09-10-2004, 02:37 PM
Seems only fitting considering what Sean has single-handedly done to discredit his own profession.

This coming from a man who holds up the NY Times and 60 Minutes smear campaigns like they're fact.

Bullshit.

Typical Nbadunce lunacy aside, way to change the topic again... the next time I see any of your sissy little liberal reporters do anything to help this country, its troops, or their families, will be the first.

:flipoff

Tommy Duncan
09-10-2004, 02:43 PM
I don't believe that Hannity has ever proclaimed himself to be a journalist. He's clearly represented as a commentator, just like Colmes, O'Reilly, Matthews, Scarbourogh, etc.

The problem I have is with individuals who are portrayed as journalists when they are something else...

http://www.ratherbiased.com/photos/first_01.jpg

Ex. A

Aggie Hoopsfan
09-10-2004, 02:47 PM
Quit making sense Marcus, you need to go out on the conspiracy limb if you want to argue with the likes of Nbadan.

Yonivore
09-10-2004, 02:56 PM
I hear they're thinking of changing the name of the program to, "THE CBS EVENING KERRYFEST WITH DAN RATHERBIASED."

Joe Chalupa
09-10-2004, 03:41 PM
insHannity & Colmes.

Yonivore
09-10-2004, 03:57 PM
Then there's Peterless Jennings and Tom Brokejaw

Nbadan
09-10-2004, 04:43 PM
.and yet a affiliate of FauxNews is the only major news program to go to court to actually argue that they have a right to report misleading or completely false facts, and the courts agreed with them.

Amazing, simply amazing.

NameDropper
09-10-2004, 04:51 PM
And don't forget about Rush Limpballs.

Tommy Duncan
09-10-2004, 04:58 PM
Oh yes, Fox News is biased.

But not ABCCBSNBCCNNMSNBCNewYorkTimesBostonGlobeEtc...