Under The Same Sun: He Can Shoot! He can Kill!

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October 21, 2004

He Can Shoot! He can Kill!

The goose was armed, strong and not wearing a loin-cloth:

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said he bagged a goose on his swing-state hunting trip Thursday, but his real target was the voters who may harbor doubts about him.
Kerry returned after a two-hour hunting trip wearing a camouflage jacket and carrying a 12-gauge shotgun, but someone else carried the bird he said he shot.

...

Kerry adviser Mike McCurry said it's important in the final days of the campaign that voters "get a better sense of John Kerry, the guy."

That means the Democratic senator is spending some of the dwindling time before Election Day hunting, talking about his faith and watching his beloved Red Sox.

Tough enough to kill a goose now and tough enough to have killed a "gook" back then: the credentials our presidential candidates try flaunt in order to appeal "to voters who may harbor doubts." Don't you feel reassured?

Speaking of Abu Ghraib convictions today, let me take the opportunity to publish more of young John Kerry's testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Commitee on the issue of responsibility and guilt in atrocities in response to a question of Lieutenant Calley of the My Lai massacre:

Senator Pell: ... Finally, in connection with Lieutenant Calley, which is a very emotional issue in this country, I was struck by your passing reference to that incident.
Wouldn't you agree with me though that what he did in herding old men, women and children into a trench and then shooting them was a little bit beyond the perimeter of even what has been going on in this war and that that action should be discouraged. There are other actions not that extreme that have gone on and have been permitted. If we had not taken action or cognizance of it, it would have been even worse. It would have indicated we encouraged this kind of action.

Mr. Kerry: My feeling, Senator, on Lieutenant Calley is what he did quite obviously was a horrible, horrible, horrible thing and I have no bone to pick with the fact that he was prosecuted. But I think that in this question you have to separate guilt from responsibility, and I think clearly the responsibility for what has happened there lies elsewhere.

I think it lies with the men who designed free fire zones. I think it lies with the men who encourage body counts. I think it lies in large part with this country, which allows a young child before he reaches the age of 14 to see 12,500 deaths on television, which glorifies the John Wayne syndrome, which puts out fighting man comic books on the stands, which allows us in training to do calisthenics to four counts, on the fourth count of which we stand up and shout "kill" in unison, which has posters in barracks in this country with a crucified Vietnamese, blood on him, and underneath it says "kill the gook," and I think that clearly the responsibility for all of this is what has produced this horrible aberration.

Now, I think if you are going to try Lieutenant Calley then you must at the same time, if this country is going to demand respect for the law, you must at the same time try all those other people who have responsibility, and any aversion that we may have to the verdict as veterans is not to say that Calley should be freed, not to say that he is innocent, but to say that you can't just take him alone, and that would be my response to that

I wonder what that young man would say if he were to learn that, three decades later, he would run a presidential campaign on the premise of that his actions in Vietnam constituted a proper defense of his country. One of the favorite soundbites of current Kerry is just that: "I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as President," Kerry keeps repeating. Here's what he had to say about whether America needed defending from Vietnam then:

In our opinion, and from our experience, there is nothing in South Vietnam, nothing which could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America. And to attempt to justify the loss of one American life in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom, which those misfits supposedly abuse, is to use the height of criminal hypocrisy, and it is that kind of hypocrisy which we feel has torn this country apart.

Que manly, shooting a goose from a distance with a 12 gauge. Almost as manly as bombing a city from a helicopter gunship. Not as manly as giving the orders though, that's the most macho of them all.

I wonder the bird he killed was a Canada Goose as those often mate for life.

In addition to hunting, Kerry will also talk about faith, the Red Sox, price of milk, NASCAR, low-carb diets, Britney Spear's marriage and whatever else his advisors think that he should talk about:

The last time Kerry went hunting was October 2003 in Iowa, a state where he was trailing in the Democratic primary but came from behind to win.
Hunting is of particular interest in several of the states that are still up for grabs in the presidential race. Kerry bought his hunting license last Saturday in one of the most critical — Ohio, which has 20 electoral votes. ... Kerry plans to deliver a new speech on faith this weekend in Florida, McCurry said, focusing on an explanation of his values. "The fact that Senator Kerry is a person of faith is something that might help voters who are undecided," McCurry said. ... At a town hall meeting Saturday in Xenia, he talked about taking his rosary into battle during the Vietnam War. "I will bring my faith with me to the White House and it will guide me," Kerry said.

On a practical note, I'm not even sure this charade is good political strategy. This is exactly why very few people like Kerry: he will pander to no end without a hint of shame. Is this really the week to remind people Kerry will pull any stunt deemed necessary by his advisors to give you the impression that he is indeed what they think you want him to be?

Posted by zeynep at October 21, 2004 12:37 PM

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At the urging of Zeynep Toufe at Under the Same Sun, I read all of John Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony. As Zeynep says, it's kind of amazing. Kerry doesn't just condemn the Vietnam war; he speaks of its origins in... [Read More]

Tracked on October 23, 2004 02:55 AM

Comments

Here's the thing - he isn't just pretending. This IS who he is. One problem with the left, or progressives, or liberals, or whatever term you want to choose, is that they insist on projection, thinking that Kerry (or Clinton before him) is "really" antiwar, or for reigning in corporate power, etc., but he's just "pretending" or "pandering" to get elected. Would that it were so.

Posted by: Eli Stephens at October 22, 2004 11:30 AM

Kerry is a politician, which means he can't be trusted, which means he is pandering virtually all the time, and the nature of that pandering is contingent upon where he is speaking and when he is speaking and to whom he is speaking. Who knows who the "real" Kerry is? And so what happened to that 1971 Kerry who so clearly verbalized the criminal hypocrisy that permeated the Vietnam War, permeates the current Iraqi occupation, and has permeated every war in which this country has ever been involved? Where is that guy? Has he been compromised and corrupted by exposure to corporate lobbyists, the business world, and corporate American government service? It would seem so, and it would seem probable that he is this shallow, pandering individual that we see now in 2004. To which I declare "F" this 2004 guy and PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE bring back that 1971 guy. This 2004 guy will only make matters worse if that is possible, but that 1971 Kerry might be able to effect some actual changes in today's political climate, and he is someone progressives could support. Instead this 2004 John Kerry seems to be another lost Democratic Party cause for progressives. Time is running out for our species. We can't keep electing such corrupt and ineffectual politicians if we ever hope to escape the insanity that grips our society.

Sincerely,
Old & In The Way

Posted by: Phil Cicchi at October 22, 2004 04:51 PM

For this "horrible, horrible, horrible thing" that Calley did, he was "punished" by being kept under "house arrest" in a trailer for two years!

Posted by: Ralph at October 22, 2004 07:04 PM

It is quite sad. Kerry was at one time a thoughtful man motivated by justice. Square as hell, but you couldn't have everything (and by square I also mean full of belief that you could participate in government and make it do right). I don't know where it went.

Certainly in my 22 years living in the Boston area, I didn't see much that made me impressed with him as far as representing us.. Especially union people.. but he was energetic at investigating corruption (BCCI etc)..

but I have no faith in him to represent what I care about. A person who did represent that would never get elected in the US anyway, at least not on the national level.

Posted by: ripley at October 23, 2004 05:46 PM

Posted by: texas holdem at March 12, 2005 05:42 PM

Under The Same Sun

reflections on a world where the sun never sets

October 21, 2004

He Can Shoot! He can Kill!

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