Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Why Kerry Vietnam reports should not be regarded as reliable

From John O'Neill's interview with David Limbaugh:

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... In January of 1969, Kerry’s boat shot up a sampan that had a mother, father and baby and child on it. They killed the father and the child. The mother and baby were saved. Kerry has had various and differing accounts of this. On one occasion, he says that heordered the gunner to fire warning shots and the gunner, instead, opened up. I believe that account is false because you would never fire warning shots with heavy caliber weapons. The gunner has the most sensible account and indicates generally that because Kerry was not manning the radar and gave no warning, the sampan came very close to the boat and they were left with a quick life and death decision that they had to make in Kerry’s absence. There would have clearly been an inquiry if people found out about this particular event, but most important is the report that Kerry himself authored and sent to superior authorities that went all the way up the change of command.

Keep in mind that in Tour of Duty and in all accounts, Kerry has always admitted that there were four people, husband, wife, baby, mother. Instead of reporting that and reporting the dead child, whose face he said would be with him forever, in his report prepared that night, Kerry described for his superiors a tremendous success. The dead child is gone from the report. In place of the dead child are five VC who were trying to flee from the boat who were shot and killed. A whole VC squad that never existed in the real world. The child who did exist--he is omitted from the report. The mother and baby become VC captured in action. --And the 1000 lbs. of rice that was actually on the sampan now becomes 5,000 lbs. of rice. Impossible for a small sampan. That report goes back to headquarters. People are thrilled with the victory. It goes all the way up the chain of command. It is listed as one of the great accomplishments of our squadron and he receives a congratulatory message by people who have absolutely no idea of the scam he has pulled off. His only defense so far that I have heard is that since he didn’t sign the report, he can’t identify it as to whether it is his report. The report is in Navy Archives. It is from his boat. It’s from the night in question. It’s clearly an authentic report. It was first located by the Boston Globe. He has refused to answer all questions on that report. We are all very much ashamed of what he did. This is not something that occurred commonly. But it is difficult if Kerry turned a terrible human tragedy into a big victory.

By Kerry's own admission the report on this incident is fraudulant. That is why the media's belief that reports on the March 13 episode where Rassmann was rescued are some how dispositive is so lame. What keeps emerging is that Kerry was serial fabricator who is eager for self agrandizement and eager to avoid responsibility when things go wrong. It is funny to see him talking about Harry Truman's sign "The Buck Stops Here," and then see how he not only avoids responsibility by turns himself into a hero. The man is absolutely shameless.

Steve Gardiner who was on Kerry's boat and fired the fifty calibers rounds that did the damage confirmed O'Neill's account in and interview with Roger Hedgecock on the Rush Limbaugh show today. Gardiner is also the person who blew Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia story out of the water. He was on the boat then and along with other crewmen confirmed the boat was not in or near Cambodia in Christmas 1968.

Update--Kerry admitted in 1971 that he filed misleading reports

CNS News:

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's 1971 testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reveals that the then anti-war activist admitted to writing many of the battle reports during his four months of combat in Vietnam.

Kerry told the committee on April 22, 1971, "...I can recall often sending in the spot reports which we made after each mission..."

Kerry also said that many in the military had "a tendency to report what they want to report and see what they want to see."

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According to the testimony , which is available in the Congressional Record, Sen. Symington asked Kerry, "Mr. Kerry, from your experience in Vietnam do you think it is possible for the President or Congress to get accurate and undistorted information through official military channels.[?]"

Kerry responded, "I had direct experience with that. Senator, I had direct experience with that and I can recall often sending in the spot reports which we made after each mission; and including the GDA, gunfire damage assessments, in which we would say, maybe 15 sampans sunk or whatever it was. And I often read about my own missions in the Stars and Stripes and the very mission we had been on had been doubled in figures and tripled in figures.

Kerry later added, "I also think men in the military, sir, as do men in many other things, have a tendency to report what they want to report and see what they want to see."