of course he was dissing the troops with his unbelievably lame “get smart or get stuck in iraq” remark. does he know that people actually volunteer to go to iraq, and that many of them feel they have no choices in life but to do so? that’s a whole other discussion — as is his support for and/or opposition to the iraq war (if it’s tuesday he must be opposed; wednesday? who knows?).
just to be clear — i worked on kerry’s first campaign for congress in 1970 (when it appeared that he actually believed in something and had something to offer), have been a vehement opponent of this and other bush wars from the start, and believe that whatever kerry stood for back in 1970 is ancient history since he clearly believes in nothing but himself now.
suddenly kerry shows some fight in lashing back at the republicans — who now have red meat for the midterm races? where was he 2 years ago? and i believe he does owe an apology — if not to everyone who listened in stunned disbelief to his “joke” that was in such bad taste, then to the service people to whom he showed such disrespect. this guy is a disaster and if he succeeds in winning the nomination for prez then the dems clearly deserve what they get.
I don’t believe that for a second, and neither do you (and neither, frankly, does anyone else). He screwed up a weak joke that made it sound like he was. But he wasn’t, and you know it.
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Furthermore, no one “supports” what he actually said. But he’s explained why it came out the way it did, and it’s a perfectly believable explanation. Personally, I think he should have handled his response differently, as I’ve explained in other threads on this topic, but that’s water under the bridge.
please don’t tell me what i do or don’t believe. what he said was disrespectful of the troops — whether he meant to be or not — and he owes them an apology. and yes i do believe that.
I’ll stand by what I said: I don’t believe that anyone actually thinks that John Kerry actually doesn’t respect the troops or doesn’t think they’re well educated or whatever. But as to whether he should apologize to the troops for screwing up his line such that it came out the way it did, that’s a different matter. Personally, I think it might not have been a bad idea, and it would have defused the controversy somewhat. Charley disagrees.
I think the real issue is Kerry’s continuing support of the Shift key, which mlek clearly opposes.
I believe Kerry delivered the line he intended, and mlek has paraphrased it well — “get smart or get stuck in Iraq”. I don’t think he meant to show disrespect, but I do think he meant what he said.
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And David, while your own view has been consistent, you just yesterday seemed to accept that another interpretation was possible:
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…and then later in that same post:
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He screwed up a joke and the Republicans have been able to make more out of it because some people do not care what the truth is; they just want something to rant about. Do you even know any service people?
of course republicans don’t care what the truth is and make things up out of thin air — everyone knows that! except, apparently for john kerry, who’s a jerk for giving them something to froth about. i hope this ends up sinking any chances of another tortuous kerry presidential campaign.
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not that it’s any of your business but i have a cousin doing his 3rd tour in iraq. and yes, i know him well. but thanks for your pompous, self-righteous question.