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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! August 9, 2004 Kerry to the Military: Help is on the WayBy GreyhawkHelp with that decision on who to vote for, at least. For the benefit of those wondering about Kerry's future relationship with the military, the Stars and Stripes sent a reporter to one of Senator John Kerry's campaign whistle stops in Missouri: On a picturesque farm north of Kansas City, the Democratic hopeful and running mate Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., spoke of reducing America?s dependence on foreign oil and answered questions from the 100-plus supporters on hogs, health care and campaign promises versus real change. The above link leads to a brief story and an edited transcript of the interview, but Stripes has also thoughtfully published the full text (we'll assume it's verbatim) of the conversation with the candidate here. Stripes: You said during your speech sir that never again would U.S. troops operate, or be hostage to a lousy energy policy -- The question "Then why bring it up?" remains unasked. Like most of Kerry's slogans and claims, "hostages to oil" doesn't hold up well under scrutiny. Fortunately for him, the mainstream media seems disinclined to provide that scrutiny, and the Stripes reporter at times seems reluctant to challenge the Senator too. But credit Kerry with knowing the script, even if it's Gigli bad. One by one, Kerry gets his talking points in. The answer to this: Republicans are much better suited to handle defense issues. How do you counter that? Is a laundry list, a litany of talking points. I'll reformat as such without any additional editing: My record counters that, and my friends counter that. My message to the troops over there? 1) Help is on the way. Help is on the way in every respect. 2) The Guard and the Reserves have been overstretched. 3) [The Bush team] have conducted a back-door draft by the stop-loss provisions and the lengthy deployments. 3a) People have been overextended, and stretched too thin. 4) They went into Iraq in a brilliant military strategy, which we all adopted and supported, 4a) but they didn?t have a plan to win the peace. 5) They didn?t bring other [countries] to our side. 6) They didn?t give our troops all the equipment ? the body armor and the armored Humvees, and things they need and deserve. 3a, if you missed it before) And I believe they didn?t go in with enough people to make it secure. 6a) So I think our troops are at a greater risk than they had to be, 5a) and I think we have borne greater costs than we needed to. Still answering the same question, he continues: Furthermore, I have a plan for a Military Families Bill of Rights. My Military Family Bill of Rights will provide greater guarantees with respect to education, health care, deployment schedules, and pay. Unasked question: Thus countering 30+ years of Senate records? I mean really, isn't the "Bill of Rights" attached to the US Constitution enough? And if we don't elect you, will you fight against these rights? But I'm interrupting, because the Senator still isn't done with the "Republicans are better" question: And I think we can do a better job of helping our troops. I?ll make sure that they have state-of the-art equipment. I will make sure we can actually grow the military. I?m going to create two new active divisions in the Army. I?m going to double the number of special forces troops we have to fight terror. While you're at it, as an NFL fan I'd like you to double the number of teams in the league too. Without lowering the quality of players, of course. Perhaps misreading his audience completely, Kerry gives an unfortunate reminder that Democratic presidents have led the nation into more wars than republicans have, and concludes with an homage to carpet bombing as orchestrated by the previous Commander-in-Chief: There?s a great tradition of Democratic presidents who?ve led us in war. From Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, to President Kennedy ? Bill Clinton who, managed to do Kosovo without any casualties at all. Later Kerry credits Clinton with building the military that won the war on terror. This lengthy diatribe may explain the reporter's reluctance to ask the additional questions that Kerry's answers beg. The Senator seems to subscribe to the old adage "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance..." But kudos to the Stripes correspondent for not letting the candidate off the hook too easily. Later in the interview, Kerry states he'd bring the troops home "earlier" then the 3 to 5 years estimated by General Franks, prompting this follow-up question and full throttled reverse: Stripes: So you can guarantee that we?ll have a substantially reduced force within a year? Two years? How? Well, (ahem) of course, Kerry's going to use "the power of my own diplomacy" to bring "people to the table". Kerry: The very first thing I will do, as soon as I?m sworn in as president ? I?ll even begin the process before that, but I will not be empowered to do anything until I take office, is to convene an international conference, with the Europeans co-chairing, and the Arab countries co-chairing. And we will bring people back to the table they used to be at, before this administration proceeded unilaterally. Anyone remember that table? Oh, and memo to Kerry campaign staff: phone the LA Times. Meanwhile the Senator drones on: I will seek a much greater for a much greater of level of both NATO and other-nation involvement in the training of Iraqi troops and Iraqi security [forces]. We?ll provide greater Iraqi security on the ground and reduce the burden on our own troops. Memo to NATO: Slow down! Not until after November! Memo 2 to Kerry staff: Phone LA Times yesterday! Some comments are ignored perhaps because they are obvious throw away campaign rhetoric, but I'd really like a better explanation of this remark: Look, there?s a bottom line here: Nations respond according to some of their own political realities. Leaders in other countries now have a very price ? to deal with this administration. We need a new president who can change the climate for those leaders. I can do that. With a high commissioner, who helps manage the involvement of these other countries, so it?s not an American occupation. And that will greatly reduce the risk to the soldiers in Iraq. High Commissioner? Is that as replacement or in addition to the Iraqi government? Is that a UN function, or something else? And given this recent story: UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 4 -- U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that efforts to assemble an international peacekeeping force to protect a future U.N. mission in Iraq have stalled, requiring U.S.-led forces to provide security for the foreseeable future.I'm afraid I'm going to ask for more than "I know I can do it" for an answer. Because you're not the Little Engine That Could. Read the full interview. And vote this November. Posted by Greyhawk / August 9, 2004 9:24 PM | Permalink 2 TrackBacksEuropeans and Arabs co-chairing? France, the most anti-Semitic and anti-American country on the continent? Spain, a country that has already surrendered to terrorism and plans to pay protection money to its Muslim minority? The Saudis? I thought we w... Read More It seems John Kerry has just as much trouble remembering his words as his wife does. At least he didn't tell anyone to shove it though: “John [Edwards] and I are going to put in place the principle, very simple:... Read More 3 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
Everything he said led to another question and none of the 2nd tier questions were answered. Well, unless you look at his past and his record that is.
BTW - loved the NFL comparison. Perfect!!!
I think I can, I think I can. Ha
f
Sad to say, it is about oil. I can't tell you what to think, but I think it's about oil. Even though I would not trade my kids life for our energy policy, that's what's happening now. No sabre rattling can change that.
You think is's not oil? You think it's human rights? Then why aren't we in Sudan right now? No oil there.
Yes, I support a man who's been in combat, who knows the fear and the pain. He'll know what he's about to send your kids into.
And he'll think twice before he does it. I appreciate that.