Is Kerry fit for Office?
Chuck Ruggiero, Watertown, NY
(Used with permission of author. ecr
Originally published at http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/showthread.php?p=102927#post102927)

As the 2004 Presidential election begins to draw near, I find it imperative to raise a
point I have not seen anywhere in the media. This message will be lengthy, but will make
some excellent points.

John Kerry, and his accomplices in the media, assert that Kerry is eminently qualified for
election to the Office of the President of the United States for two reasons:

1. He is a legitimate "war hero", which ostensibly makes him fit to serve as Commander in Chief
2. He serves as a US Senator from Massachusetts, with nearly two decades of elected service

I would like to examine both of these points in detail. As to the first claim that Kerry is a
"war hero", and therefore merits election to the Presidency, the argument is a sham. I find it
hilarious that Kerry's front men and accomplices in the media would tout his Vietnam service as a
basis for his qualification to serve as President. The idea that the liberal establishment which
derided Vietnam veterans for decades has suddenly realized what great Americans Vietnam vets are,
is totally ludicrous.

Case in point: Rear Admiral (Ret.) James B. Stockdale:

Jim Stockdale served 37 years in the Navy, and was a combat pilot. Shot down over North Vietnam, he
was imprisoned at the infamous Hoa Lo prison. He was a prisoner for eight years, spending four years
in solitary confinement, and two years in leg irons. He was brutally and savagely tortured on 15 separate
occasions, suffering severe physical consequences.

Admiral Stockdale was awarded the Medal of Honor, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Distinguished
Service Medals, four Silver Star Medals, and two Purple Hearts. However, he is most remembered for his
ill-fated position on the Ross Perot ticket in 1992, where Stockdale was the Vice-Presidential candidate.

Stockdale was brutally lampooned and ridiculed by many in the mainstream media, particularly in print
media, as being inarticulate, unintelligent, and uninformed. In fact, Stockdale had served as a college
professor, was President of the Naval War College, and held 11 honorary Doctoral Degrees. Hardly an
unintelligent man! Most Americans do not know why Stockdale was Awarded the Medal of Honor, so here's the
offical citation:

"Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while
senior naval officer in the Prisoner of War camps North Vietnam. Recognized by his captors as the leader
of the Prisoners of War resistance to interrogation and in their refusal to participate in propaganda
exploitation, Rear Admiral. Stockdale was singled out for interrogation and attendant torture after he
was detected in a covert communications attempt. Sensing the start of another purge, and aware that his
earlier efforts at self disfiguration to dissuade his captors from exploiting him for propaganda purposes
had resulted in cruel and agonizing punishment, Rear Admiral. Stockdale resolved to make himself a symbol
of resistance regardless of personal sacrifice.

He deliberately inflicted a near-mortal wound to his person in order to convince his captors of his
willingness to give up his life rather than capitulate. He was subsequently discovered and revived by
the North Vietnamese who, convinced of his indomitable spirit, abated in their employment of excessive
harassment and torture toward all of the Prisoners of War. By his heroic action, at great peril to himself,
he earned the everlasting gratitude of his fellow prisoners and of his country. Rear Admiral. Stockdale's
valiant leadership and extraordinary courage in a hostile environment sustain and enhance the finest
traditions of the U.S. Naval Service."

Kerry and his acolytes claim that he is a "war hero", but Stockdale was a LEGITIMATE hero who was awarded
the Medal of Honor. However, that made no difference to the media in 1992, because Stockdale was not
"their candidate". Stockdale is not the only example of the hypocrisy of the left when it comes to war hero
candidates.

Consider the fate of Senator Robert Dole:

Bob Dole, a native of Russell, Kansas, served his nation with distinction and honor; as a soldier in
World War II, and as a United States Senator. Those who served with Bob Dole would tell you of his candor,
his intellect, and his incredible sense of humor. However, when running against then-President William
"Benedict" Clinton, Dole was painted by the left and their media accomplices as "too old", "not with it",
and "stodgy". Dole was nothing of the sort.

Dole was also a LEGITIMATE war hero. Please read the following statement, found on the Bob Dole Official
Website:

"In 1942, Bob Dole joined the Army's Enlisted Reserve Corps to fight in World War II. He became a second
lieutenant in the Army's 10th Mountain Division. By April of 1945, he was fighting the Nazis in the hills
of Italy where the action was fast paced. One of the platoon's radio men was hit. Bob Dole crawled out of
his foxhole to help him, but it was too late.

Suddenly, while trying to assist the downed radio man, Dole was hit by Nazi machine gun fire in the upper
right back and his right arm was so damaged that it was unrecognizable. Dole was immediately given morphine
by an Army field medic to alleviate the pain, and his forehead was marked with an "M" in his own blood to
alert medics. He was not expected to live.

Dole waited nine long hours on the Italian battlefield before he was finally taken to the Fifteenth
Evacuation Hospital. After a brief stay in a field Army hospital in Italy, he was transported back to the
United States and to Topeka's Winter General Army Hospital, where he continued his painful recovery and
endured a kidney operation. Then, he was transferred to Percy Jones Army Medical Center in Michigan, where
he survived his second brush with death -- blood clotting. He was a patient in that hospital along with
Phillip A. Hart, whose name graces one of the U.S. Senate office buildings, where Bob Dole occupied an
office.

Eventually, he returned to Percy Jones Army Medical Hospital for extensive therapy on his rebuilt arm. It
took about three years and nine operations for Bob Dole to rehabilitate. He learned to strengthen his
injured arm, and also had to learn how to write with his left hand, as the doctors could not rebuild the
excessive damage done by the Nazi machine gun fire.

Bob Dole was twice decorated for heroic achievement, receiving two Purple Hearts for his injuries, and the
Bronze Star Medal for his attempt to assist the downed radio man."

Dole also had a distinguished academic and political history before coming to the US Senate. He earned his
undergraduate and law degrees from Washburn Municipal University in Kansas, in 1952. Dole served in the
Kansas State Legislature from 1951 to 1953. He was elected to the position of the Russell County Attorney
and served there until 1960. He then was elected to the US House of Representatives, holding the position
of Congressional Representative until 1968, when he was elected to the US Senate. He remained a Senator
from Kansas until his Presidential bid in 1996. In that year, on June 11th, he did the HONORABLE thing,
and resigned from the Senate, understanding that it was unethical to run for President and deprive the
people of Kansas their right to full-time representation in the Senate. (Are you listening, Joe Lieberman
and John Kerry?).

Dole was a decent, honorable, well-educated man who also happened to be a LEGITIMATE war hero, yet this
gained him no favor with the leftist media and the anti-Republican movement.

Dole and Stockdale had things in common. They were veterans of combat who served with distinction. Unlike
Kerry, none of their former comrades-in-arms have ever come forward to dispute the legitimacy of their
distinguished war records. Contrast that with the uproar caused by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and
their claims that Kerry did not legitimately earn the reputation in combat that his political handlers
assert.

Dole and Stockdale also do NOT have something in common with Kerry; neither of these LEGITIMATE war heroes
returned to America and gave aid and comfort to the enemy as Kerry did. Kerry served as a leader of Vietnam
Veterans Against the War. After deciding not to run for political office in 1970, Kerry actually traveled
to Paris, France, and met with representatives from the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese government. His
anti-war activism was used as propaganda by our enemy to defeat the US war effort. REGARDLESS of how you
feel about the Vietnam war, Kerry took these actions at a time when US Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors and
Marines were fighting, and dying, in Vietnam. There is a commercial website where you can actually purchase
copies of Kerry's war record, V.V.A.W. surveillance by the FBI, and copies of CIA reports. Find this
information at: <http://www.paperlessarchives.com/john_kerry.html>

All of this brings me to my main thesis, which is that Kerry's war service, disgraced and negated by his
anti- war, ANTI-AMERICAN activities, gives him no legitimate claim to the Presidency. As for his record
in the US Senate: What record? What are his MAJOR accomplishments? Are there any?

Why is Kerry in public office at all? Kerry served in the US Navy as a Commissioned Officer. When entering
military service, all service members incur a "service obligation". At the time that Kerry was in the
military the service obligation was six years. Those of you who never served in the military need to
understand this concept as it existed at that time. The law has changed and now the initial service
obligation is eight years.

With a six year obligation, you were transferred to Reserve status if you did not serve all six years on
active duty. For instance, I served three years on my initial enlistment, and re-enlisted to extend my
active service. I therefore spent approximately four years on active duty, and spent two years in the
Reserve component, in inactive status. Upon leaving active status, I was discharged, and issued a
Department of Defense Form 214, Record of Separation from Active Military Service. However, even though
discharged, I was subject to recall as a reservist. I therefore held the rank I had earned on active duty,
as an inactive member of the reserve. It is critical that this point is understood: transfer to the
inactive reserve does not negate your remaining service obligation.

What does this have to do with John Kerry, and why am I writing this letter? Why doesn't John Kerry want
the American public to see his service records? Was he transferred to the Reserve component upon discharge?

Sadly, most Americans are ill-informed in historical and political terms. Therefore, you are asking
yourself what I am talking about, because you have no reference point. Well, I refer you to the Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which makes John Kerry INELIGIBLE TO HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE.

Please inform and educate yourself by reading Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment as it appears here:

"Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice
President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having
previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of
any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of
the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or
comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such
disability." (Emphasis added. ecr)

This clearly applies to Mr. Kerry. He had previously taken an oath as an "officer of the United States",
when he became a Commissioned Officer in the United States Navy. He gave aid and comfort to the enemy of
the United States by traveling as a private citizen to Paris and meeting with delegates of the enemy camp
to further his personal efforts to derail the American war effort to defeat communism in Vietnam. All for
PERSONAL POLITICAL GAIN. For those of you who practice relative morality, you can't have it both ways:
you can't claim it was an immoral war and should not have been fought, and still claim Kerry is a
"war hero" of an "illegitimate war". If the war was illegitimate, so is Kerry's claim to being a hero.
And Kerry, IN HIS OWN WORDS, stated that the war was not legitimate. Therefore, KERRY IS NO WAR HERO.

Further, I have checked the Congressional Record, and I can NOT find any record of a vote expunging
Mr. Kerry's traitorous acts on behalf of the enemy by a "vote of two-thirds of each House", as the
Constitution requires.

Should Mr. Kerry be impeached and removed from his current office, and barred from holding any position of
trust with the US Government? You'll have to decide that on the merits of my argument. It may not be
feasible to get an impeachment trial, or a two thirds vote in the House and Senate, but you can VOTE on
ELECTION DAY!

Again I ask you.....as I have in previous writings: Are you registered to vote? WILL you vote? Have you
gotten your friends of like political persuasion to register to vote? WHO are you driving to the polls on
election day?

Are you a parent? Only if you VOTE do you promote democracy and freedom for your children.
Are you a gun owner? Only if you VOTE is your freedom protected.
Are you sick of Hollywood's involvement in politics? Send their boy back to TAXachusetts.
Do you want a safer homeland? RE-ELECT BUSH.
Does honor have meaning in your life? VOTE for the party of decency and morality - REPUBLICANS

I urge you to pass message on to all your internet contacts. Post it anywhere you wish. I will stand by
my words: KERRY IS NO WAR HERO. I don't care how man medals he has. IN HIS OWN WORDS, he implies his
medals are no big deal anyway: . . ."back then, medals and ribbons were absolutely interchangeable"
(John Kerry said that when trying to explain the controversy over his throwing his medals away).

God bless what's left of America
Chuck Ruggiero