Schadenfreude Wrote:BearcatCarl Wrote:Thanks for making my point. The context was that all soldiers had committed atrocities, and officers were fully aware.
Read it again. He never once said "all soldiers."
Here are the first two paragraphs of his testimony:
I would like to talk on behalf of all those veterans and say that several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged, and many very highly decorated, veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. These were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.
He is clearly referring to the testimony offered in Detroit. Everything that follows springs from that.
Quote:Now, if Kerry (higher up the food chain in a CO capacity) had cited specific examples, named names, and given specific places where atrocities had occured and been condoned, you might be onto something.
He offered, by way of reference, the testimony offered by more than 100 veterans in Detroit.
2 things:
I'm failing to see the specific examples cited by these 100 veterans. Even if you assume they had specific examples and named names...why was Kerry speaking for them? Didn't Kerry see these atrocities committed himself? If not, what made him an authority to speak on it, in the absence of first hand knowledge?
Because using the liberal theory of approximation concerning the Swifties (espoused by you in previous posts), if Kerry wasn't in the same unit as people committing atrocities, if he wasn't within a 5 yard radius of where atrocities occurred...then he has NO credibility to speak on the topic. Right?
YOU read it again:
I would like to talk on behalf of all those veterans and say that several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged, and many very highly decorated, veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. These were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.
Not isolated incidents.
Committed on a day to day basis.
Full awareness of "officers" at all levels of command.
If this isn't a sweeping generalization, then there is no such thing.
But again, since we've both denounced the Swifty ads (mighty big of you), based on their "lies" and the fact that only the people that were on the boat, within 5-10 yards of Kerry at any given time, have credibility on the issue - we now must agree that Kerry had ABSOLUTELY NO credibility on the subject of atrocities committed in Vietnam.
I eagerly await Senator Kerry's humble apology to the legions of soldiers and officers he falsely implicated.
