LTE in Kansas defending Kerry

[Mass]

http://cjonline.com/stories/020708/opi_244573701.shtml

Letter: Truth about Kerry
Published Thursday, February 07, 2008

This letter is not intended to be political in any way. My purpose is to correct the statement attributed to John Kerry by Bill Barnes in his letter Jan. 30.

The statement by Mr. Barnes was as follows: "Hero or not, Kerry returned to the U.S. and turned against his fellow soldiers, calling them rapists and murderers."
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The statement in question was made before the Senate Foreign Relations committee on April 22, 1971, as follows: "I am not here as John Kerry. I am here as one member of the group of 1,000, which is a small representation of a very much larger group of veterans in this country, and were it possible for all of them to sit at this table they would be here and have the same kind of testimony.

"I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command. ... 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."

Kerry was quoting statements made at Detroit by other veterans.

As a World War II vet, I don't want the service of any veteran maligned but unfortunately, Kerry, the holder of a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts, has had many statements attributed to him that he never made.

JACK BARRON, Topeka

[Luftmensch067]

1. The plain truth

It's amazingly good to see it written.

[karynnj]

2. Really nice letter - especially as it comes from a WWII vet

[Democrafty]

3. The fact that Mr Barron didn't even write this to be political

just shows how much these lies are a knife in the collective back of our veterans, and do nothing but hurt our country.

[wisteria]

4. This was a very thoughtful and moving letter. Thanks for posting it. n/t