Boston Globe Broaches Controversy Surrounding Kerry's First Purple Heart

Hokey Smokes, Bullwinkle!

I must admit, Faithful Reader, that I'm verily astonied to find this BG article, today.

John F. Kerry's tour of duty in Vietnam, distinguished by Silver and Bronze stars and the close-range killing of an enemy fighter, is highlighted in his campaign ads and cheered on the trail. Even the campaign of President Bush, who did not see combat, hasn't tried to make an issue of his opponent's service record.

But as the presidential campaign heats up, some Vietnam veterans are using the Internet and talk radio to question the Democratic candidate's military record. They complain that Kerry's three Purple Hearts were for minor wounds and that he left Vietnam more than six months ahead of schedule under regulations permitting thrice-wounded soldiers to depart early.

A review by the Globe of Kerry's war record in preparation for a forthcoming book, "John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography," found that the young Navy officer acted heroically under fire, in one case saving the life of an Army lieutenant. But the examination also found that Kerry's commanding officer at the time questioned Kerry's first Purple Heart, which he earned for a wound received just two weeks after arriving in Vietnam.

"He had a little scratch on his forearm, and he was holding a piece of shrapnel," recalled Kerry's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Grant Hibbard. "People in the office were saying, 'I don't think we got any fire,' and there is a guy holding a little piece of shrapnel in his palm." Hibbard said he couldn't be certain whether Kerry actually came under fire on Dec. 2, 1968, the date in question and that is why he said he asked Kerry questions about the matter....

The Globe asked Kerry's campaign whether the Massachusetts senator is certain he was under enemy fire and whether he recalled that a superior officer raised questions about the matter. The campaign did not respond directly to those questions. Instead, Meehan said in a prepared statement that Kerry "received the shrapnel wound early in the course of that combat engagement." Meehan also provided a copy of a medical report showing treatment for a wound on Dec. 3, 1968. The Purple Heart regulation in effect at that time said that a wound must "require treatment by a medical officer."

Nearly three months later, a document was sent to Kerry informing him that he would receive a Purple Heart "for injuries received on 2 December 1968." The Naval Historical Center, which could not locate a copy of the original card for the incident, nonetheless confirmed that Kerry did receive the Purple Heart....

Let the mainstream-media feeding frenzy begin!

Yeah. Sure. Right.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 04/14/04 06:43:48 PM
Categorized as John Kerry & Media.

Backers of Loser Gephardt Urge Cadaver to Come Out of Senatorial Tomb

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCLIX

Weren't the unions going to win Iowa for Richard Gephardt?

Am I the only one who thinks this is hilarious?

Democrat John Kerry "doesn't warm anybody up," while President Bush is seen as likable and strong, according to focus groups of undecided union voters conducted for the AFL-CIO.

Organized labor must help Kerry create an emotional bond if fence-sitting members are to vote for him in November, according to the results. The focus groups were conducted last month in St. Louis and Philadelphia by Lake Snell Perry & Associates, a Democratic firm.

Though very early in the race, the focus groups highlight the work facing organized labor as it tries to energize and mobilize voters for Kerry.

Results show that Kerry's reputation for aloofness remains a hurdle for the presumptive Democratic nominee — even among his party's core constituencies. And despite the acidity labor leaders direct toward Bush and his policies, the president still appeals to a segment of union members, namely the Reagan Democrats.

Bush was viewed as a likable and strong, "with a nice family and good moral values," according to a memo detailing the findings of undecided and independent union voters.

Labor's research shows that constant communication from their unions can move these voters firmly into the Democratic fold. Union leaders are putting unprecedented emphasis on them, betting those members in battleground states will help them oust Bush in November.

Union swing voters are a small slice of the labor federation's 13.1 million membership, said AFL-CIO spokeswoman Lane Windham.

"Our job is to make sure that they have the information to make decisions based on the issues," she said,

In 2000, Bush won 37 percent of union household voters to Al Gore's 59 percent, according to exit polls. Those voters made up 26 percent of the electorate. The Bush administration's efforts to reach out to conservative, hard-hat unions will pay off in November, said campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel.

"Labor union members will support President Bush because they, like other voters, will focus on leadership," he said. "President Bush has worked to create jobs for all Americans by growing the economy."

The focus groups found that Bush mostly escapes blame for the economic downturn and subsequent unemployment. But participants wondered if he had plans to deal with such issues. They also had "creeping doubts" about Bush's trustworthiness, such as the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and whether he really cares about working people, the findings said.

Meanwhile, most knew about Kerry's Vietnam record. It shows strength and inoculates on values, but Democrats "shouldn't obsess about it," the findings cautioned. Some participants found his role in protesting the war upon his return as negative.

"Seeing Kerry talk is important and reassuring — but he doesn't warm anybody up," the memo said. "Any mail pieces need to fill in facts and help build an emotional bond."

Kerry still must be introduced to many general election voters, said Stephanie Cutter, his campaign spokeswoman. "At the end of the day, voters are going to care about who is going to put the economy back on track. By and large, across the country, voters believe John Kerry is the only person to do that."

Democrats need to quickly "fill in a lot of information on Kerry" to protect against Bush attacks, according to focus group findings. The Bush campaign's portrayal of Kerry as a flip-flopper has started to stick.

"If possible, find more pictures of Kerry with working people and/or families to warm him up," findings said. "'Strength' pictures are also good to use."

Bush and Kerry are about even on who is more popular with the public, with about half seeing each favorably. But when voters were asked in a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll which of the two is better described as a "strong leader," Bush was picked over Kerry by a 2-to-1 margin.

Bush's down-home style played well with some voters in 2000 in contrast to a buttoned-up Gore. But some experts think personality and likability are less important in this election.

Those issues matter a lot "in what we call small-issue elections," said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist. "2004 is the ultimate big issue election. People are going to be voting on Iraq, the war and the economy, period."

The AFL-CIO will spend a record $44 million on get-out-the-vote efforts, concentrating heavily on battleground states. Florida, Ohio and Missouri top that list.

The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes.

Results show that Kerry's reputation for aloofness remains a hurdle for the presumptive Democratic nominee — even among his party's core constituencies. And despite the acidity labor leaders direct toward Bush and his policies, the president still appeals to a segment of union members, namely the Reagan Democrats. That comes about as close to saying No Republicans belong to unions as you could get without coming right out and saying it.

This is as good a time as any to remind you, Faithful Reader, that for many, many groups (including a lot of unions), John "F" Kerry is the second, if not third, choice for presidential nominee, coming after Richard Gephardt, and/or Doctor Howard "Cliff" Dean, and/or the other Democratic candidates.

P.S. "Aloofness"? What a delicate, diplomatic way of putting it, no?

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 04/14/04 05:55:29 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode.

It's New City-Journal Time Again

It's that time again. Your Humble, Faithful Blogster has been informed by no less than the Senior Editor himself of City Journal that the latest issue is now available. I haven't look at anything in depth, so here follows Brian Anderson's synopsis.

· American technological superiority is key to winning the long, unconventional struggle ahead, but as Heather Mac Donald's jaw-dropping "What We Don't Know Can Hurt Us" recounts in vivid detail, a determined band of left- and right-wing privacy advocates are having destructive success in crippling and even shutting down some of the government's most promising efforts to draft our technological know-how into the service of national security. Since the advocates have argued by half-truth and innuendo, much of what the press has reported about the government's efforts to understand and analyze the vast amount of electronic data now available is false. Mac Donald's account of the reality of these complex matters, drawn out with crystalline clarity, will astonish — and disturb — you, and is certain to change the national debate.

· Victor Davis Hanson's bracing "The Fruits of Appeasement" takes up the theme of how irresolution here at home is our greatest impediment in the current war. When, 25 years ago, President Carter let Iranian Islamofascists hold U.S. hostages with impunity, he set going a chain of inaction that emboldened the terrorists to fantasies of power that led to 9/11. We were going to have to stop the terrorists eventually, by remaking the conditions that spread them all over the Middle East. Hanson brilliantly explains what took us so long — and why it would have been much better to act with dispatch.

· Is there any feature intrinsic to Muslim culture that makes it liable — not fated, only liable — to produce such deformities as the death cults that terrorism has loosed upon the world? Theodore Dalrymple, who with many Muslims among his psychiatric patients in a large British city has privileged insight into the explosive pressures that can result when Islam meets Western modernity, provides some profound answers — worth considering carefully as we strive to reshape the Middle East.

Our second cover package looks at some hugely encouraging social changes here at home:

· In "It's Morning After in America," Kay S. Hymowitz traces how our culture, after the turmoils of the 1960s, has begun to right itself, as a flood of new data makes startlingly evident. Hymowitz lays out the eye-opening numbers and, more important, explains what the numbers mean. The sixties antics produced wreckage in families, in poor communities, and in individual psyches. Pragmatic Americans, seeing and disliking these results, adjusted, making big changes in their views and their behavior — on everything from love and marriage to work and politics — that augur well for the American future.

· As Harry Stein's wickedly funny "Daytime TV Gets Judgmental" shows, even daytime television, voyeuristic and exploitative as it is, registers these positive shifts. From the trashy Jerry Springer Show at one extreme to Dr. Phil on the other, daytime programs are providing ongoing evidence of a growing resurgence in this country of higher standards of decency or morality.

Other fascinating stories in the Spring issue include Steven Malanga on the meaning of the war on Wal-Mart and on the convention center shell game, and Theodore Dalrymple on the death of childhood.

And I'm still wondering what the "Q" stands for in James Q. Wilson. :-)

See also The New City Journal Is Out.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 04/14/04 05:37:37 PM
Categorized as Literary & Social/Cultural.

"Our Soldiers in Iraq Aren't Heroes"

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCLVIII

One may surmise that the decrepit Andy Rooney is planning a run for the Senate on the Democratic ticket.

Most of the reporting from Iraq is about death and destruction. We don't learn much about what our soldiers in Iraq are thinking or doing. There's no Ernie Pyle to tell us, and, if there were, the military would make it difficult or impossible for him to let us know.

It would be interesting to have a reporter ask a group of our soldiers in Iraq to answer five questions and see the results:

1. Do you think your country did the right thing sending you into Iraq?

2. Are you doing what America set out to do to make Iraq a democracy, or have we failed so badly that we should pack up and get out before more of you are killed?

3. Do the orders you get handed down from one headquarters to another, all far removed from the fighting, seem sensible, or do you think our highest command is out of touch with the reality of your situation?

4. If you could have a medal or a trip home, which would you take?

5. Are you encouraged by all the talk back home about how brave you are and how everyone supports you?

Treating soldiers fighting their war as brave heroes is an old civilian trick designed to keep the soldiers at it. But you can be sure our soldiers in Iraq are not all brave heroes gladly risking their lives for us sitting comfortably back here at home.

Our soldiers in Iraq are people, young men and women, and they behave like people - sometimes good and sometimes bad, sometimes brave, sometimes fearful. It's disingenuous of the rest of us to encourage them to fight this war by idolizing them.

We pin medals on their chests to keep them going. We speak of them as if they volunteered to risk their lives to save ours, but there isn't much voluntary about what most of them have done. A relatively small number are professional soldiers. During the last few years, when millions of jobs disappeared, many young people, desperate for some income, enlisted in the Army. About 40 percent of our soldiers in Iraq enlisted in the National Guard or the Army Reserve to pick up some extra money and never thought they'd be called on to fight. They want to come home.

One indication that not all soldiers in Iraq are happy warriors is the report recently released by the Army showing that 23 of them committed suicide there last year. This is a dismaying figure. If 22 young men and one woman killed themselves because they couldn't take it, think how many more are desperately unhappy but unwilling to die.

We must support our soldiers in Iraq because it's our fault they're risking their lives there. However, we should not bestow the mantle of heroism on all of them for simply being where we sent them. Most are victims, not heroes.

America's intentions are honorable. I believe that, and we must find a way of making the rest of the world believe it. We want to do the right thing. We care about the rest of the world. President Bush's intentions were honorable when he took us into Iraq. They were not well thought out but honorable.

Bush's determination to make the evidence fit the action he took, which it does not, has made things look worse. We pay lip service to the virtues of openness and honesty, but for some reason, we too often act as though there was a better way of handling a bad situation than by being absolutely open and honest.

Tribune Media Services

The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes.

As has been pointed out elsewhere, 23 suicides in a year in that size population (about 130,000 military personnel serving in Iraq) is not out of the ordinary: and, considering where they are and what they must do, that's quite extraordinary.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 04/14/04 07:17:56 AM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & Media.

"Becoming Catholic"

Another former Methodist is coming home.

A young weblog is looking very good.

I wonder if Dale will notice. :-)

(Thanks, Amy.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 04/14/04 06:44:11 AM
Categorized as Religious.