PolySciFi Blog

In response to this post. My words in black, Matt's in blue.

On the Sherwood accusing Kerry of being a war criminal.

1. Note Kerry used "we" in his statement that Sherwood responded to. Thus it's perfectly fair for Sherwood to assign those actions to Kerry.

KERRY VOICEOVER: "We are more guilty than any other body of violations of those Geneva Conventions, in the use of free fire zones, harassment interdiction fire, search and destroy missions, the bombings, the torture of prisoners, the killing of prisoners, accepted policy by many units in South Vietnam."

SHERWOOD: Wait a second, I asked myself, did I hear that right? Was I or my fellow marines being accused of the same atrocities John Kerry had committed?

2. Note that when Kerry did not use "we" Sherwood did not accuse Kerry of commiting those crimes.

SHERWOOD: Later in his testimony he claimed that American soldiers [note Sherwood is not saying Kerry committed the following atrocities] in Vietnam were guilty of even more heinous acts of barbarism:

KERRY VOICEOVER: "...they had personally raped, cut off ears, cot off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam."

3. Further note that Kerry himself has claimed that he personally had violated Geneva Conventions and not just in the context of representing the Winter Soldiers which his "We" can be interpreted as in his Senate testimony. (link)

MR. RUSSERT: Before we take a break, I want to talk about Vietnam. You are a decorated war hero of Vietnam, prominently used in your advertising. You first appeared on MEET THE PRESS back in 1971, your first appearance. I want to roll what you told the country then and come back and talk about it:

(Videotape, MEET THE PRESS, April 18, 1971):

MR. KERRY (Vietnam Veterans Against the War): There are all kinds of atrocities and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free-fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50-caliber machine guns which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search-and-destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare. All of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free-fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals.

(End videotape)

I really don't understand what your (or Stevens' or the left's in general) beef is with accusing Kerry of what Kerry himself claimed he did.

But they all also seem to agree that we lost the war *because* of the anti-war movement in America, and that if not for the actions of John Kerry, we would have *won* the war in Vietnam by 1970. That's crazy talk.

Without the anti-war movement, yes I do believe we would have won the war. As the Tet offensive occured in 1968 and was a crushing military defeat for the communists, 1970 seems to be a reasonable timeline to me. However, Tet was also an energizing moment for the antiwar crowd and public opinion turned and public opinion and particularly the antiwar movement cost us the war. 1970 further seems reasonable as the Tet reaction is the primary reason that Westmoreland did not get his requested 200,000 extra troops.

Kerry (who, after all, singlehandedly created the popular image of the Vietnam war)

Kerry was a major leader of the antiwar movement. The Winter Soldier testimony was a MAJOR event in the Vietnam anti-war movement and fueled a lot of the antipathy that the public felt towards the soldiers. Should you doubt the importance of the Winter Soldier testimony, I fully believe that Winter Soldier is why Kerry got in the Senate and why Kerry is running for President today. Attributing significant portions of the antiwar image of Vietnam to Kerry's actions seems perfectly fair to me.

As a side note, I would kinda like to see Apocalpyse Now set on Mars. Crossing the plot with Total Recall would be doubly cool.

We couldn't get through a year in Iraq without torture and rape; does he really think we made it through 12 years in Vietnam?

An isolated incident is very different from the daily basis that Kerry accused the US military of during Vietnam. Unless you believe that there was/is widespread torture and rape in Vietnam and Iraq. And whether or not you believe that to be the case, how is that accusation not an indictment of the American people as a whole?

Anyways, here's another review of Stolen Honor from a Democrat who lives in L.A. with a different view of the merits of the material (though not of the quality of the film making).

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