I guess everyone is entitled to their opinon, Morrow.
Kerry is trying to spin this as a joke gone awry, but no one is buying it because of his well-documented public disdain for the military time and again!
To put it bluntly, Kerry is a POS! I also take offense at YOUR remarks about military people: 'a lot of them aren’t as smart as the average bear.' I would be taking a guess, but I would feel pretty safe in guessing that our opinion was made in a shallow manner, probably more in passing without ever getting to know the people or without having experienced a wide cross-section of the military. I know it would very much surprise both you and Kerry to learn that the average military member is extremely smart.
When I was in college and screwing around in my 1st 2 years being educated, mostly in subjects I already knew/had taken in HS but which were core curiculum subjects for my degree, my best friend was learning how to maintain a multi-million dollar helicopter and was flying missions into hot spots in Africa to evac Ambassadors and their families! He was responsible for multi-million dollar equipment, was taking on incredible responsibility, and was leading his own enlisted troops while my biggest responsibility was getting out of bed and making it to class on time.
When I graduated, I was offered a starting salary by an Atlanta PR firm of $50,000 a year and turned it down because I wanted to serve my country. Kerry served his country as a stepping stone or a bullet on his anti-war resume. Then there is John, an engineer - a bud - who died in Iraq, who could have made 4-5 times more money than he ever made in the military on the outside but chose to serve his country because THAT was more important to him!
Kerry's remarks demonstrated his own ignorance as well as his continued disdain for the military, his continued willingness to take shots at the military for his own political and personal gain, and served only to dishonor the sacrifices of many men and women who have died in Iraq as well as those who serve more bravely than he ever did!
His own party members are abandoning him in droves! 1 Dem leader was quoted as saying 'I guess losing in 2004 wasn't enough - now he wants to lose in 2006', while another Dem has asked him to cancel his visit he had planned to help the candidate run for office. It is not as much that his colleagues are appalled, angered, and disgusted by his remarks, as the families of soldiers who have died in Iraq are, as it is that his colleagues are afraid of getting struck by the political lightning that Kerry has called down by his remarks! Just as equally disturbing remarks by his fellow colleagues have been spewed in the past, like Durbin's comparing military members to Nazis and Pol Pot Regeimists.
(If you remember, Durbin read an e-mail that he believed was a classified report about Gitmo, one which SPECULTED possible torture at Gitmo, which turned out to be false. Durbin, however, used what he though was a classified report on the floor, doing what he THOUGHT was exposing classified information - which would have been illegal, in order to score politcal points by condemning the military for actions that turned out to be false, anyway. In the wake of his comments and the revelation that the 'report' was just an un-substantiated e-mail, Durbin STILL refused to apologize to the military for his remarks or for what he thought was leaking/exposing classified information in order to score political points!)
In his 1st days in the White House, Clinton demonstrated his ignorance and disdain for the military by asking the Joint Chiefs of Staff to wear civilian clothes to the White House to brief him every morning, and he rarely returned salutes, as Commander and Chief of the United States military, from military personel who served him (ex: Marines who slauted as he boarded his presidential helos, etc...) So, it is no hidden secret that the Democratic party has no great love of the military! Heck, every time they take the White House, the 1st thing they do is try to free up money in the bdget to spend in other areas, and the 1st place they ALWAYS target, to the point of weakening this country, is the military!
This time, however, Kerry went 1 step too far for the American people, for his fellow commrades in the House and Senate who have served in the military as well, and for the families who have buried loved ones who have served valiantly in Iraq/the military! His colleagues are abandoning him, distancing themselves from him as they have done with Howard Dean, and are demanding he apologize....so they will sound as if they care as deeply for the men and women in uniform as the voters do!
Like I said, Kerry is a POS, but you can't fault a snake for biting you if you try to hold him close to you and say he's your pal. He is what he is! Kerry will do what he can to recover from this, but if you put make-up on a pig, it's still a PIG!
'Nuff said!
