America and Her Soldiers Deserve Better From a U.S. Senator

It wasn’t a “botched joke” and it wasn’t about the President (who has the same Yale education as Sen. Kerry but with a slightly higher GPA). It was about American soldiers, it stunk and it wasn’t the first time. In 1971, under oath, Mr. Kerry gave uncorroborated testimony about solders that cut body parts off the Vietnamese and randomly shot at civilians. This year, he accused American soldiers of, “going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking the sort of customs of the – of – the historical customs, religious customs.”

It wasn’t a “botched joke” and it wasn’t about the President (who has the same Yale education as Sen. Kerry but with a slightly higher GPA). It was about American soldiers, it stunk and it wasn’t the first time. In 1971, under oath, Mr. Kerry gave uncorroborated testimony about solders that cut body parts off the Vietnamese and randomly shot at civilians. This year, he accused American soldiers of, “going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking the sort of customs of the – of – the historical customs, religious customs.”

American soldiers deserve better from a United States Senator, and in particular from a veteran.

Our men and women in uniform are an extraordinary cross-section of the “smarts” our country produces and an extraordinary cross-section of our racial, ethnic, socio-economic and religious identity. Watch and listen to them on the rare occasions the news media interviews them at any length in or about Iraq or Afghanistan. Whether high school or college graduates, whether studying for degrees while in service or using their GI benefits to study after they serve or using the military to enhance their technical or language training, they make the rest of us Americans look good. There is a reason our military leadership adamantly opposes a return to the draft – we wouldn’t field as skilled and motivated a force as we do now.

But what if you take Senator Kerry at his word that it was a “botched joke” about President Bush? He was talking to college students. He had an opportunity to appeal to their patriotism and love of country by suggesting ways to improve our foreign and defense policy. He had the opportunity to talk about the threats to our security and our homeland and encourage them to find ways to make the world a better place. He had an opportunity to elevate them and himself. He didn’t.

He descended instead into the gutter that has prevented any actual discussion this election year of North Korea, Iranian nuclear weapons, the future of America’s deterrence or its alliances abroad. Or discussion about China and Russia as competitors, our improving relations with India or our declining ones with Turkey. Or the need for a larger army or reduced commitments – maybe giving up South Korea for Darfur.

Mr. Kerry says in his own defense that he was using the platform to take a crude and ugly potshot at the President. Yuck, but it’s not the first time for that either.

In October, Sen. Kerry told talk show host Bill Maher that he took his wife to Vermont for her birthday. Maher said, “You could have went (sic) to New Hampshire and killed two birds with one stone” (referring campaigning for the 2008 nomination). Sen. Kerry replied, “Or I could have gone to 1600 Pennsylvania and killed the real bird with one stone.”

“T’aint funny, McGee.”