John Kerry's Full Medal Jacket-- Lies of Ribbons or Ribbons of Lies? Fault of Memory or Memory of Fault? Medals for Metal or Metal to Meddle? Yes, no, maybe.

April 26, 2004: #01 Political Satire/Commentary where satire is always commentary but commentary isn't always satire™
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John Kerry's Full Medal Jacket-- Lies of Ribbons or Ribbons of Lies? Fault of Memory or Memory of Fault? Medals for Metal or Metal to Meddle? Yes, no, maybe.·

Today ABC News authored a report about John Kerry's claims about his medals and broadcast a video-tape of a 1971 television interview of Kerry clearly implying, if not explicitly asserting, that as part of an anti-Vietnam War protest, he had thrown his medals away "over the fence in front of the Capitol." According to the report's description of the interview:

"I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals," Kerry said in an interview on a Washington, D.C., news program on WRC-TV called Viewpoints on Nov. 6, 1971, according to a tape obtained by ABCNEWS."

Kerry was asked if he gave back the Bronze Star, Silver Star and three Purple Hearts he was awarded for combat duty as a Navy lieutenant in Vietnam. "Well, and above that, [I] gave back the others," he said. [Quotation from ABC News report]

The same ABC News report also recited a history of news accounts of Kerry's statements on the subject in the decades since then:

Calling it a "phony controversy" instigated by the Republican party, Kerry said on Good Morning America today [April 26, 2004] that he has always accurately said what took place. "I threw my ribbons. I didn't have my medals. It is very simple."

***

But in 1984, when he first ran for the U.S. Senate, Kerry revealed he still had his medals. According to a Boston Globe report on April 15, 1984, union officials had expressed uneasiness with Kerry's candidacy because he had thrown his medals away. Kerry acknowledged the medals he threw away were, in fact, another soldier's medals. He reportedly invited a union official home to personally inspect his Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts, awarded for his combat duty as a Navy lieutenant.

***

And in 1988, Kerry again clarified his statement by saying he threw out ribbons he had been awarded for three combat wounds, but not his medals. "I was proud of my personal service and remain so," he told the National Journal.

Eight years later in 1996, Kerry said while he did throw out his ribbons, he didn't throw out his own medals because he "didn't have time to go home [to New York] and get them," he told The Boston Globe.

***

The statement directly contradicts Kerry's most recent claims on the disputed subject to the Los Angeles Times last Friday. "I never ever implied that I did it, " Kerry told the newspaper, responding to the question of whether he threw away his medals in protest.

"I'm proud of my medals. I always was proud of them," he told Jennings in December, adding that he had only thrown away his "ribbons" and the medals of two other veterans who could not attend the protest.

[Quotation from ABC News report]

Was a Vietnam veteran such as Kerry, having been traumatized by facing combat for his country, entitled to "throw away" some, or all, of the "medals" and/or "ribbons" he earned in such combat as a way of protesting what he considered an unjustified war? Of course he was. Should it be understandable that such young man at the time may have unwittingly or purposely described his actions in a misleading way? Of course. Would such mistake be forgivable? Of course.

John Kerry's Full Medal Jacket.

I'm Kerry, whose favorite tactic,
political squash with a racket,
allows me to pose
in customized clothes
including my Full Medal Jacket.

It's true I've been claiming I never
had claimed or implied that I severed
my ownership of
the medals I love
despite claims I made such endeavor.

Though tapes of my conduct belie
what now I so strongly deny,
a hero like me
you ought to believe
instead of your own ears and eyes.

But even if most voters don't
vote "yes" for my nuancing tones,
a job I could win
like Teller with Penn--
"Voilà, see 'em now, now you don't."

Could Kerry's current memory be playing tricks on him? Of course it could. Could Kerry's current statements be manifestations of dissembling? Of course. Does his status as a war hero confer upon him immunity from questions seeking to elicit whether the former or latter hypothesis is correct? Of course not. Since ABC News, not the Bush campaign, discovered and released the 1971 video tape and then asked questions about it, is Kerry entitled to treat the ABC report as an "attack" on him "by President Bush"? Of course not.

--Jim Wrenn, Editor@PoliSat.Com.

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