In article , ArtKramr
wrote:

What a disgusting bunch of liares those Neocons are.


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

Now we have Artie chiming in...

And, ya know what, Artie, based on the logic that you have shown
elsewhere lately, neither one of these guys should be President of the
United States because the military experience of both men does not
include flights over Europe as a bombadier in a B-26 so they both are
obviously spineless, coward, wannabes.

What I find so off-****ing in this whole thing is that my worse dream
seems to be coming true...

You see, I'm a Kerry supporter. A few months ago, it seemed to me that
the race was Kerry's to win- unless he screwed up. It now appears to me
that he has. Damn.

Here's my thoughts on the military situation on these two guys. Take it
or leave it and **** ya if ya can't take a joke. John Kerry won some
medals. Seems to me that he earned them. But, in and of itself, medals
don't mean a heck of a lot except that a man did something exceptional
on a particular day. He may or may not be of overall greater
character. The awards could be a symbol of a man's inner gallantry and
character. I choose to view it this way. However, they could mean that
a criminal, amoral ******* sucked it up and did something right on a
particular day.

About medals in general, I have to differ to my friend, Ray. He
started as a groundpounder back in Korea as a 19 year old kid and,
using his GI Bill, became a teacher but eventually reentered the
Reserves because he just plain liked the Army.and being a soldier. He
eventually was the 'oldest drill sergeant in the Army' at age 56 and
then retired out of the Army as a first sergeant at age 62. He was in
at the beginning of Desert Storm and, as one after another of his drill
sergeants was called active, he prepared himself to go even though he
was an old man who had clearly done his duty in the past. A soldier
serves and he was getting ready. He cried when he retired. Not that he
was happy but that he was sad that he could no longer be a soldier.

Not sure if Ray won any medals other than the basics because he never
talked about them and I never saw any on his memento boards he has up
in his house. Seems as well as combat, he really shined at dealing with
all the government paper that the Army generates. As a paper pushin'
soldier, he said he pushed through lots of awards that may or may not
have been earned. He said that the basic rule on awards is that the
'worse the war is going, the more medals are awarded". He gave me some
figures which I don't have to share right now but it was amazing to me
the number of medals given out in Vietnam as opposed to Korea and WWII.

Kerry's medals may or may not mean ****. I think that they do but you
are quite welcome to disagree with me. Seems that the strategy to focus
on military experience has backfired badly on his campaign. This
cockamamy thing on 60 Minutes trying to paint the drunken fratboy of a
man that was W as a young man as some sort of AWOL Daddy's boy. is
ludacrous. If you are going to make charges, at least make sure that
they are relly true and substantiated. Geez, he probably was and many
others used influence or class or raw brains to get out of active
service. Do the names Dan "Mr. Potatoe Head" Quayle and Bill "I got
the brains to get into Oxford" Clinton ring a bell? And, to think, the
American people elected Clinton to be Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces- twice! If you don't call that military service, you don't
believe in the fundamental idea of a civilian controlled military as
provided by the Constitution.

Which leads me to W. I didn't vote for him but it seems by our American
system, very few more people voted for him as for my man Gore and W
became President. By definition, W is commander of the military and, as
military service goes, that's enough for me. Personally, I am against
him for his decisions now as commander in chief and not as a guy who
may or may not have ditched some drills 30 years ago. (I guess when
your old man is a Senator, head of the CIA and rich as all hell, you
kinda get a feeling of entitlement to a few Mulligans, much like Bubba
used to do frequently on the golf course.)

I hope I've laid out the background of my off-****edness. I think the
"Swift Boat Veterans" stuff was and is a diversion to change the
subject from W's performance as President and Commander in Chief. This
new stuff about W's service should never have been brought up because I
don't know if it makes any difference. And the fact that there is a
really good chance that the documents were complete bull**** makes it
even worse. I'm not happy with Kerry but I sure don't like the
direction W has us going.

Remember when I said it was my opinion the the race was Kerry's to
lose? I'm afraid he has just screwed the pooch.

ObAviation: I'm riding my motorbike up Whidbey Island today and hope I
see some cool Navy stuff flying overhead as I go by the Naval Air
Station.

raoul