Kerry opposed volunteer army in 1972 for same reasons as his gaffe

AP/NY Times:

During a Vietnam-era run for Congress three decades ago, John Kerry said he opposed a volunteer Army because it would be dominated by the underprivileged, be less accountable and be more prone to ''the perpetuation of war crimes.''

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Kerry apologized Wednesday for the 2006 campaign trail gaffe that some took as suggesting U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq were undereducated. He contended the remark was aimed at Bush, not the soldiers.

In 1972, as he ran for the House, he was less apologetic in his comments about the merits of a volunteer army. He declared in the questionnaire that he opposed the draft but considered a volunteer army ''a greater anathema.''

''I am convinced a volunteer army would be an army of the poor and the black and the brown,'' Kerry wrote. ''We must not repeat the travesty of the inequities present during Vietnam. I also fear having a professional army that views the perpetuation of war crimes as simply 'doing its job.'

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This is one reason why his comments did not sound like a joke. He really believed this stuff until it effected his political viability. While he now disavows his 1972 statements, he still has not disavowed his 1971 statements that slandered the troops and called them war criminals. The Swift vets were right to criticize those statements. Since I was a Marine lieutenant during the Vietnam war, I have personal knowledge that Kerry's charges were untrue and slanderous.