Kerry Said it Best, and we need to repeat it over and over.

[Ioo]

"You can support the warrior without supporting the war"

The American Legn is looking to make any anti war protest into an anti troop protest.

So we need to repeat this over and over

Thanks for letting me vent...

[ohtransplant]

1. Yes he did.

Right again JK.

[LittleClarkie]

2. He also said in reference to Bush's crusade for Intelligent Design

How about some intelligent design in Iraq, Mr. President.

Your point is well taken. The Repubs say they support the troops, but they mean as a backdrop so that they look patriotic, as opposed to making sure they have armor and benefits, or even enough troops to do the job so that they don't die needlessly for lack of help and stability.

[mconvente]

15. ha nice quote there from JK n/t

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

3. Supporting the troops means defending them aginst leaders who put them in

harm's way purely for their own political interests.

[Robeson]

14. Yup.

[AValdoux]

4. I heard Kerry was at Gonzo's funeral

Everytime I hear something cool about Kerry it makes me want to cry. He could have been our president. I know there are things I didn't agree with him on, but what a different world we would be in right now.


AValdoux

[LittleClarkie]

5. He was? Aw, good. They were friends, after all

Kerry joked about Gonzo being his vice-president. Gonzo said he would do everything in his power short of roaming the streets with a meat hammer to get John elected.

If Hunter like a politician, you knew he had to be alright. I miss that old druggie.

[blm]

7. Kerry and Thompson were friends for over 30 years.

There's no bullshitting Thompson....he was way too savvy...and he loved John Kerry.

[wicket]

9. Yup, he was there

[Crunchy Frog]

6. I think it was originally Trent Lott who said that (during Kosovo).

But I'm glad to hear Kerry saying it.:)

[LittleClarkie]

10. I'll have to go back and check, but I think it Kerry 1971

who said that. It was a good speech he gave to Congress.

On edit: I can't find it, but here's a part that's brilliant and almost moves me to tears from his testimony.

"Where is the Leadership?
We are also here to ask, and we are here to ask vehemently, where are the leaders of our country? Where is the leadership? We are here to ask where are McNamara, Rostow, Bundy, Gilpatric and so many others. Where are they now that we, the men whom they sent off to war, have returned? These are commanders who have deserted their troops, and there is no more serious crime in the law of war. The Army says they never leave their wounded.

The Marines say they never leave even their dead. These men have left all the casualties and retreated behind a pious shield of public rectitude. They have left the real stuff of their reputation bleaching behind them in the sun in this country.

Finally, this administration has done us the ultimate dishonor. They have attempted to disown us and the sacrifice we made for this country. In their blindness and fear they have tried to deny that we are veterans or that we served in Nam. We do not need their testimony. Our own scars and stumps of limbs are witnesses enough for others and for ourselves.

We wish that a merciful God could wipe away our own memories of that service as easily as this administration has wiped their memories of us. But all that they have done and all that they can do by this denial is to make more clear than ever our own determination to undertake one last mission, to search out and destroy the last vestige of this barbarous war, to pacify our own hearts, to conquer the hate and the fear that have driven this country these last 10 years and more and so when, in 30 years from now, our brothers go down the street without a leg, without an arm or a face, and small boys ask why, we will be able to say "Vietnam" and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory but mean instead the pace where America finally turned and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning. "

[Crunchy Frog]

12. If it was in '71, then it definitely predates Lott.

I guess that Lott has probably stolen everything clever that he ever said.

That is very moving. I wonder if a video of the full testimony is available anywhere. I think they showed a little bit of it in Going Upriver.

[LittleClarkie]

13. They showed quite a bit in Going Upriver

So it must be taped somewhere.

Someone else in the thread confirmed it was 2003, not 1971, when Kerry said you can support the warrior without supporting the war.

But I still like that part of the testimony. Had me in tears at that movie seeing it spoken, esp after the movie itself had reminded me so much of Iraq.

[second edition]

8. I like the way this sounds! I'm going to start using it! n/t

[globalvillage]

11. From March 2003

'Hate The War, Not The Warrior,' Kerry Says
Senator Continues Campaigning, Despite War

<snip>

"Remember that we do not make the mistake that was made in Vietnam. Do not confuse the war with the warriors," Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, said.

<snip>

Kerry said Bush needs to have the same enthusiasm for solving the problems of health care, energy, and the economy, that he has for the war on terror.

But Kerry is in a unique position to criticize the war. He was a decorated Naval officer in Vietnam and was among the most outspoken critics of that war when he returned.

"Saddam Hussein needs to be disarmed," Kerry said, "But he needs to be disarmed, in my judgment, by building the strongest coalition possible, by doing the best diplomacy possible, and by exhausting all the remedies available."


http://www.thewmurchannel.com/iraq/2059290/detail.html

[hippiegranny]

16. They need to rename themselves

The Bush Legion
or perhaps
The Republican Legion

They are not representing at least half of Americans.