Kerry Trying to Cut Off Vietnam Discussion

John Kerry (search) is now trying to cut off any campaign discussion of his Vietnam years.

He has been happy to parade his band of brothers around on the campaign trail in the primaries, but when President Bush's team brought up his votes on defense and intelligence funding over the years — Kerry cried foul, claiming the Republicans have no right to question the defense votes of a decorated Vietnam vet... to be more precise, claiming people who didn't go to Vietnam have no right to question the votes of someone who did.

This will sound familiar to anyone of the Vietnam era age. Some people who did did serve there and did put their lives on the line refuse to believe that anyone who didn't has any right to disagree with them about anything having to do with defense or the military. This argument is as old as the war itself.

Kerry is also trying to cut off any discussion about what he did when he came back — testifying before Congress that his fellow soldiers had committed war crimes, killing innocent civilians, destroying villages on a whim, brutalizing the Vietnamese for no better reason than they could.

I would remind the senator that some people who opposed the war and avoided the draft never said such things about American soldiers, and when they heard others say such things, never believed they were true.

Yet he said it, and evidently he believed it.

I've heard from many Vietnam vets outraged by his statements back then.

Kerry may want to cutoff the discussion, but I don't think it will work.

That's My Word.

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