Arab Spring, Syrian Fall, Winter Soldier: The Stunning Hypocrisy of John Kerry

1006356_511923408888958_1454961818_nWith so much attention on the boiling situation in Syria, and the hard push by Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to go to war, I couldn’t help but think of John “I served in Vietnam” Kerry’s history of political posturing and incredible hypocrisy.

Many democrats are hypocrites especially when it comes to war.   In the twentieth century, every major war has been led by a democrat in the white house with the exception of the Persian Gulf Conflict, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

During the First World War, the US entered under Wilson, World War 2, under Roosevelt, Korea was under Truman and Vietnam, Johnson. People claim that republicans in congress gave the consent, but between 1945 and 2009, republicans have held the majority in both houses a total of 6 times, and during those years, many times the democrats held a filibuster proof majority, especially during the Vietnam War, at one point in the 70s, there was a 74-16 democrat majority.

I’m not old enough to have been around during the Vietnam debates and Congressional hearings, nor the vehement speeches from many on the left including Jane “Hanoi Jane” Fonda, but recently I was working on another project about hypocrisy on the left, and listened to many of these speeches for the first time.

I know his “Winter Soldier” speech still brings up painful and contentious thoughts on the Vietnam War, but reading Kerry’s speech, made while men were still over there, it really needs to be revisited in light of how he is pushing so hard for war in Syria now.

Talking about veterans back from the war, Kerry began by highlighting atrocities done:

“They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do…  They told the stories at times they 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 countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.”

Talking about the feelings of some veterans coming back, Kerry went on to say that the US “created a monster” and that “We are angry because we feel we have been used in the worst fashion by the administration of this country.”

He mentions a speech by Vice President Spiro Agnew, and his anger at men coming back: “So many of those best men have returned as quadraplegics and amputees, and they lie forgotten in Veterans’ Administration hospitals in this country which fly the flag which so many have chosen as their own personal symbol.”

Let us come back to the present for a few minutes.  Kerry’s Winter Soldier testimony was not the only time he has denigrated our troops during a time of war.  Back during the Bush Administration, and the war in Iraq, Kerry supposedly making a joke intended for GW, backfired as he so flippantly said that those unable to navigate the country’s education system “get stuck in Iraq.”  Our soldiers who were serving in Iraq at the time showed considerable class considering the degrading political rhetoric coming from politicians on the left.

In 2005, he said, “American soldiers [are] going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the… of the historical customs, religious customs.”

Kerry and other Democrats have said much about Bush’s handling of things after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on our Nation. He talked a good talk back then about troops being used in the worst ways, but how much worse is it to send our best to fight alongside with the same people whom attacked us and who are still fighting against our troops in other areas?!

Late August didn’t just come with more talk of war in Syria, but quietly ended by reaching the 2000th US soldier’s death in Afghanistan.  Approximately 1000 deaths occurred during the first Nine Years of the war. Over 1000 deaths have happened in just the past twenty-seven months after Obama’s policies.

Kerry talks about the horrific wounds suffered by so many who came back from Vietnam, yet he has said nothing, nor done nothing to speak out against all of our soldiers who have died because of Obama’s policies in Afghanistan, or the thousands coming home missing limbs and suffering traumatic brain injuries from all the IED attacks. Nor has the quality of care for our Veterans gotten any better, and still Kerry says nothing.

Back now to the Winter Soldier speech…One of the reasons Kerry says of much of the anger from vets returning was “about all that we were told about Vietnam and about the mystical war against communism…  We found that not only was it a civil war… They wanted everything to do with the war, particularly with this foreign presence of the United States of America, to leave them alone in peace, and they practiced the art of survival by siding With whichever military force was present at a particular time, be it Vietcong, North Vietnamese, or American… it didn’t matter how many American bodies were lost to prove that point. And so there were Hamburger Hills and Khe Sanhs and Hill 881’s and Fire Base 6’s and so many others.

He continued :

Each day to facilitate the process by which the United States washes her hands of Vietnam someone has to give up his life so that the United States doesn’t have to admit something that the entire world already knows, so that we can’t say that we have made a mistake. Someone has to die so that President Nixon won’t be, and these are his words, “the first President to lose a war.”… We are asking Americans to think about that because how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”

So Mr. Kerry, you again disrespect a sitting president during a time of war, yet now you are willfully lying, and pushing hard for our Congress and Senate to do the very same thing you have accused others of doing- and all for politics. That is the worst sort of hypocrisy! You are more than willing to have American soldiers sent to a nation whom because of Obama’s administration’s highly suspect actions, has grown from a civil war into something that threatens the entire middle east, Israel and the US, you are willing to sacrifice our soldiers, in order to do what? Remove a dictator who while not a moral leader, at least kept a shaky hold on peace with Israel, and whose Christian population and other minority groups were pretty much left alone.  Who will you and others propose to prop up in Assad’s place once your terrorist rebels take him down, if they succeed? We see from Libya and now Egypt how well things have worked.  We are seeing what is happening to Christians in Syria now, yet you say nothing about the fact that those you desire our troops to fight alongside with are doing horrible things to innocent civilians, to borrow from your own words, in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan.

One more segment from the Winter Soldier speech if my readers can stomach it.  Kerry laments:

“We are here in Washington also to say that the problem of this war is not just a question of war and diplomacy… and so many other questions also, the use of weapons, the hypocrisy in our taking umbrage in the Geneva Conventions and using that as justification for a continuation of this war…  We are also here to ask, and we are here to ask vehemently, where are the leaders of our country? Where is the leadership? We are here to ask where are they (Leaders) now that we, the men whom they sent off to war, have returned? These are commanders who have deserted their troops, and there is no more serious crime in the law of war. The Army says they never leave their wounded. The Marines say they never leave even their dead, These men have left all the casualties and retreated behind a pious shield of public rectitude. They have left the real stuff of their reputations bleaching behind them in the sun in this country.”

Mr. Kerry, for someone whom as recently as yesterday was involved in a heated debate with  Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC)  about our potential military intervention in Syria, and when Duncan mentioned possible ties to the Benghazi terrorist attack on September 11, 2012, you seem to have forgotten that most important rule of Never leave a man behind when you  said this:  

“We’re talking about people being killed by gas and you want to go talk about Benghazi and Fast and Furious…  We don’t deserve to drag this into yet another Benghazi discussion when the real issue here is whether or not the Congress is going to stand up for international norms with respect to dictators…”

You never did answer fully Rep. Duncan’s questions. Interesting, no one is denying that people are being gassed but do question the source whether it really is Assad as you claim, when more evidence shows it may have been done by the rebels. 

One more thing; you certainly showed your true feelings about 4 dead Americans in Benghazi. You seem to echo your predecessor’s thoughts… “What difference at this point does it make?!”

It makes all the difference considering the facts that weapons were transferred from Libya to Syrian rebel terrorists and that 4 men died while the administration watched. It matters that the families still have yet to know the truth one year later.  And it most certainly matters that on the fast approaching Anniversary of 2 separate 9/11’s,  the first in 2001 which now we may be heading into another war to fight with the same people who perpetrated that attack on our country, have been armed and aided by our government which led to the attack in 2012 in Benghazi.

Carolyn Elkins

Carolyn Elkins' PolitiChicks articles have been shared by Mark Levin, NewsBusters and New Media Journal. She writes about everything from military issues, the Middle East, Islam, politics to the Founding Fathers. Carolyn is a guest writer on The Right Scoop and PolitiBrew under the name American Duckie. Born in Canada, but now a proud U.S. citizen, Florida PolitiChick Carolyn is an unapologetic Christian and Constitutional Conservative. She studies the Founders and their writings, and uses what she learns to try and educate others. Carolyn is the founder of the Constitutional Freedom Party, a completely grass roots organization whose foundation is on God and the Founder's intent for a Constitutional Republic. Carolyn is married with one child and has taught American Government and Constitution to her home school co-op group of 12- 14 year olds. You can visit her via the Constitutional Freedom Party blog or on twitter @ABiCduckie and @CFP4US

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