Viet Nam and Iraq - Kerry's positions are consistent in many ways.

[MoonRiver]

John Kerry seems to have always been very patriotic and a strong supporter of national security. However, he isn't dogmatic about his beliefs, and insists that our government protect US in a rational and reasonable manner. This has been a theme throughout his adult life.

In VN Kerry volunteered, not just to join the Navy, but to take on a mission in the most dangerous part of the conflict. He did his duty with honor and valour, becoming wounded in the process. But, on the front lines, he soon recognized the folly and needless horror of that war. When he figured this out he was able to let go of his previous positions and do the correct thing by becoming a leader of the protest movement.

I see his positions Iraq as parallel to those he held in VN. I really believe he was convinced that Iraq posed a major threat, and the pResident should have the ability to invade, under the auspices of the UN and international support. Then * double crossed Congress by ignoring international pressure to utilize diplomacy rather than violence. * shat on the UN and went right ahead with his misadventure. Of course, the moron has now bungled the whole thing. Kerry is once again looking at a government that has no plan or clue about what its doing in a war with little to no international support, and an indigenous people determined to throw US troops ou. PLUS, we have all the governmental lies, spun to justify an invasion, associated with both VN and Iraq. That's why his positions aren't inconsistent on the two wars. He wants to do whatever he can to keep the country safe, but when he recognizes its a fiasco he can admit that we now need Plan B.

I was always against the war in Iraq, but I was against the VN war, at least when I became old enough to analyze what was going on. Had I been a man of draft age, with no deferements at the time, I would have run lickity split to Canada. John Kerry is a different breed from me in that area, and I think we need to take this into consideration when judging his IRW vote.

edited because of my usual screw-ups :argh:

[the Kelly Gang]

1. one difference : John Kerry is sane, George Bush is insane

[MoonRiver]

2. Actually, I wasn't comparing Kerry with *.

I was comparing Kerry's positions on VN and Iraq.

[the Kelly Gang]

3. apologies..you are right..I got 'Bush' on the brain and it sends me mad

[MoonRiver]

5. I know what you mean. I reel angry just thinking about him.

Hopefully, soon we won't have to. :hi:

[Spazito]

4. I totally agree with you!

It is very consistent, imo. Kerry shows that he believes in his country, will serve it both in and out of the military yet will not hesitate to criticize what went wrong. He served in Vietnam, came home and pointed out what was wrong there and he serves in Congress, voted for the invasion of Iraq, based on what Congress had been told, and now is able to point out what is wrong and what needs to be done.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Exactly the reason I won't be voting for him.

I had the mistaken notion that he actually believed what he said in '71. Apparantly, that was just to promote his career then. Now, he is just another DLC stooge candidate chasing the muddle..er, middle.

[zoeyfong]

7. Kerry is trying to exercise Vietnam demons, just like *, cheney, Rums-

feld, etc. It appears that kerry is flashing back to his vietnam days (before he figured out the war was wrong) and seems determined that we will 'win' this war in Iraq, no matter how many people we have to kill, no matter how long we have to stay there, and no matter how much money we have to spend.

I'm sorry, this man has shown very poor judgement when it comes to war. Did he really not know that we should not be going half way around the world (vietnam) and killing thousands of people, merely to stop them from having a governmnent that we disapproved of? And what about gulf war 1? He opposed that war, even while Sadaam was invading kuwait, and his use of chemical weapons was a much fresher memory. Now we are told, he really opposed this war, he was only voting to give bush approval to go to the UN???? Please!!! Kerry thought that GEORGE BUSH wouldn't do anything without UN approval???? The man who made it clear from the very first day of his presidency that he had nothing but contempt for the UN? Well, i guess if kerry thought Bush was telling the truth in his doomsday rantings about sadaam and if he thought that Bush wouldn't go to war without UN approval, i guess there might be some people out there naive enough to believe Kerry.