Master CraftsMon

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, January 30, 2006 at about 11pm CST - Segment 4

Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, January 30, 2006 at about 11pm CST
Segment 4

Symbols... Everything is symbols... When I see something and you do not, should I tell you what and why I interpret a symbol differently than you do? I say I should so that there is a possibility that you can at least understand that I have come to my conclusions honorably. You have to understand something. If I am lying, that is one thing, but if I am mistaken, that is quite another.

The tree falls in the forest and produces a sound. If you refuse to acknowledge that a sound, any sound was produced, then I have a problem with that.

Didn't you ever wonder why the military dropped on John Forbes Kerry so harshly? At least that is what it looked like. What was it that Kerry did that made them so angry? I'm not just talking about the Vietnam veterans, but military presently under arms. I have always found it fascinating that the leaders of the Left have always defined the symbol called military as unthinking ant like people. The symbol military for the Left has always been that of people who will not accept new ideas and of being set in their ways.

The United States military is the most independent thinking of all the militaries of the world. We expect our warriors to think for themselves and get the job done. Even the British military relies less on individual initiative than we do. Because the Left has for the last 30 years described the symbol called military as unthinking ant like people, the actual United States military has little love for the Left.

You individually may have a different definition of the symbol called military, but that has nothing to do with the leadership of the Left, nor the activist base. Again, go look at moveon.org, the dailykos and the democratic underground and post a positive article about the military as independent thinkers and you will be inundated by hate email.

Now... I want you to understand something. Throughout today's program I have thrown out my interpretations of the symbols of the Left. If you ARE part of the Left, you have become angry, because you think I am being unfair to you personally. It looks like I am tarring you with a brush that does not apply to you. Just as you are upset about how I am depicting the Left, think how the military feels about John Forbes Kerry. The upset you are feeling for me is the upset they feel for Kerry.

John Kerry assumed the symbol called hero and asked the military to accept that symbol as applying to him. To the United States military the symbol called hero has a specific definition. The biggest part of that definition is that the individual called hero has to sacrifice self for the unit. By that definition Kerry was not a hero, because all of his awards appear to be for actions where he was the only one who benefitted.

Let me tell you the story as I get it. John Forbes Kerry was born poor by his standards. While his rich relatives had 50 foot yachts, he had a 40 foot sloop. The Forbes's had made all their money in the 1850's. As the great-grand child of one of the Forbes's the money was thinning out. Kerry determined that he was going to better himself, because he was entitled. He got it into his head that he was John F. Kennedy, because his initials were the same as JFK. No, that makes no sense, but when you are young you can get weird ideas like that. In college, Kerry had a problem, he was eligible to be drafted. To avoid the draft, he enrolled in the inactive reserves of the Navy. He was against the war in Vietnam and did not want to go. To his horror he was activated. He served on some really big ships. It looks like that he became disenchanted by that because he needed something more dashing to put on his resume in order to become President. The closest thing to a PT boat that the Navy in the 1960's had was a Swift Boat. Remember, he wanted to be like John F. Kennedy. JFK made his name on PT boat. Kerry thought he needed something like that to become President. The swift boats were small and were there in Vietnam to interdict off shore infiltration and resupply of the Vietcong. Kerry volunteered for them expecting to have no direct face to face encounters with the enemy. I mean, it's one thing to fight someone at a 100 yards with fifty caliber machine guns and fighting someone at 20 feet with rifles. Unfortunately for him, during the time Kerry was in training to command a swift boat, the Navy decided to use the swift boats as the brown water Navy. They were then up close and personal with the fighting. When Kerry joined his unit of swift boats, he volunteered to do the paperwork for the unit. No one wanted to do that job, so he got the job. During the time he was on the unit he set out to make home movies of himself doing heroic looking things to further his career in politics. It looks like Kerry put himself in for four Purple Hearts and a Silver Star. Three of those Purple Hearts are in massive dispute because they we flesh wounds. The rule was that, if someone got four Purple Hearts they were sent back to the States. It looks like Kerry gamed the system by putting himself in for those awards.

Now, when Kerry got back home, he helped put on the Winter Soldier conferences in Chicago. These conferences made the case that war crimes were done by our warriors in Vietnam. Kerry also testified in front of the Senate that war crimes like rape, pillaging and murder occurred regularly in Vietnam. On top of that Kerry met with representatives of North Vietnam in Paris.

Kerry met John O'Neill on the Dick Cavett TV show in 1971. They debated. Kerry lost massively and his political career was set back by five or six years. In the years between 1971 and 2004, Kerry married twice, both to rich women. In his years in the Senate, Kerry got a reputation of being a lightweight. He led no floor fights, he sponsored no major legislation. He was always asking the head of the Senate to cut a deal on Fridays, so he could get off and party. In short, he marked time until he could run for President. He did not prepare himself to be President by undertaking hard tasks and gaining experience. No, he was entitled. There are numerous stories of Kerry saying, "Do you know who I am?"

John Kerry started his bid for the Presidency and used his service in Vietnam as the center point of his campaign. He was trying to convince the moderates and conservatives that he was qualified based on having four Purple Hearts and a Silver Star. He had to do that because he had done nothing of consequence in the Senate or for that matter in all of his life.

All right, again, why did O'Neill and the Swift Vets go after Kerry? If you believe that it was partisan politics, I don't see that. Kerry smeared Vietnam veterans in the 1970's. He said explicitly that the military in Vietnam committed war crimes. In 2002, when he started his campaign, if Kerry proudly proclaimed his opposition to Vietnam and explained why he had done all the things he did after coming back to the United States, it is unlikely that the Swift Vets would have attacked him. Kerry instead claimed to have been a hero in Vietnam.

Okay. Let me go over the symbols that the military saw in Kerry's actions.
o Kerry went into the naval inactive reserves in the Vietnam era. That was
a symbol to the military. It means that he was against the war.
o He became a company clerk and then put himself in for awards. That's a
symbol. It means that he worried more about himself than the unit and
misused a position of trust to help himself.
o When he got back from Vietnam, Kerry lied about his band of brothers. That's
a symbol. It means that he was never loyal to his unit during his time in
Vietnam.
o During the time period of 1971-2002, Kerry married two rich women and ran
for public office. While he was in public office he left no real legacy. He
did little. That's a symbol. It means laziness, either physical or mental.

All of those things mean that Kerry was NOT a hero by the standards of the military. Kerry worried about himself not his band of brothers. Had Kerry run on his record in public office, then this wouldn't have come up. The problem here is that Kerry explicitly said he was a hero based on what he considered truthful symbols, the four Purple Hearts and the Silver Star.

We can talk all night as to whether all of what I have said about John Forbes Kerry is true, but it matters little. The symbols he puts out says to the military that he is lying.

One small thing that people have missed and refuse to think about. Kerry could silence his critics by revealing his entire file from his time in Vietnam. In order to open a person's military record to the public, an individual has to file what is called a form 180. If Kerry filed a form 180, everyone could see all the information about his service in that time period. George W. Bush has filed a form 180. John O'Neill has filed a form 180. Every person involved in the Swift Vet organization has filed a form 180. Why hasn't John F. Kerry? He has promised to on numerous occasions, but never has. Again, that is a symbol. It means that he has something to hide.

As I said above, Kerry in fact met with the North Vietnamese in Paris sometime after coming back from Vietnam. He was still in the military reserves. The meeting was against the law. The feeling by many is that Kerry had a less than honorable discharge in the 1970's. You might ask, "How can he have gotten a less than honorable discharge, then now have a honorable discharge?" The answer is that President Jimmy Carter had the military go back and expunge a large number of dishonorable discharges in the 1976-1980 period. The indication that there is a problem is Kerry's Silver Star. There were three different versions of the award, each signed by a different person. That makes no sense unless there was something odd about Kerry's service record.

All right. All of the last few minutes are an attack on John Forbes Kerry. Maybe so, but I wanted to explain to you why many people in the military hate Kerry. Regardless of what the truth is, that IS what the military is seeing. Until Kerry dispels those symbols, that is how he will be viewed.

I will say this about Kerry since the 2004 election. He has been bestirring himself. He has made speeches, he has advocated plans of action. He has done SOMETHING for a change. My only problem with all these positions and plans is that Kerry very carefully comes down on both sides of every plan of action... within the same speech. That symbol to me, means that Kerry is crazy. I mean, he gave it his best shot to becoming President and he failed. He is so stunned by that major failure he has... I have no idea what he is doing. If I am unable to understand what someone is babbling on about, then people like Kerry sounds crazy to me.

There's one other symbol I want to show you. Vietnam as a symbol. Vietnam is a symbol of failure, triumph, sorrow and evil. The central to the case that Vietnam is an evil symbol is that atrocities occurred in Vietnam. That in fact our military raped, pillaged and murdered civilians with malice in their hearts. The big question I have is where are the books detailing all the atrocities that happened in Vietnam. I mean, Vietnam, the nation, is open to tourism. The Vietnamese government has thrown open their records. Why hasn't some industrious individual gone over there and dug through the files to find all the atrocities done by the United States military? After World War II, there were numerous books on the atrocities that the Allies did. Where are the books that detail in loving detail how awful we acted in Vietnam? That one piece of absent evidence causes me to think that Vietnam is assigned the wrong symbol.

Look... I have tried to show you the symbols I am seeing surrounding Kerry. I have made my case based on symbols, but I care little whether you believe me. I want you to simply think about this problem between the Left and the Right. There is no debate. The Left looks at its symbols and defines them one way and the Right looks at the same set of symbols and defines them another way. It is impossible to debate when there is no common definition of the same symbol. Look around you at all the talk shows right now. Does ANYONE actually debate on these programs? No, the people on the shows shout at each other and attempt to grab face time. That's not debate.

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