[US2004] Bush vs Kerry -6-

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Op vrijdag 27 augustus 2004 15:51 schreef CeeJee het volgende:
Ze zoeken nog stemmentellers in Florida.

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Op vrijdag 27 augustus 2004 15:29 schreef UnderWorld_ het volgende:
En verder ...

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Op vrijdag 27 augustus 2004 16:02 schreef PJORourke het volgende:

[..]

Ik bied me aan. Te koop aan de hoogste bieder, zolang het maar geen Democraat is.

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Op zaterdag 28 augustus 2004 20:37 schreef Speth het volgende:
Al Sharpton probeerde het, maar is natuurlijk totaal niet geloofwaardig vanwege zijn standpunten... Ik denk dat, als Colin Powell het zou proberen, hij een goede kans zou maken.

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Vietnam and the presidency

Was he really under fire?
Aug 26th 2004 | WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition


John Kerry's war record gets shot at

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FOR NEARLY four months in late 1968 and early 1969, when he was serving with the American navy, John Kerry commanded a Patrol Craft Fast (PCF), or “Swift Boat” as the sailors called it, in the waterways of the Mekong Delta, which were used as supply lines by the Vietcong. He was awarded a Silver Star and a Bronze Star for bravery, and three Purple Hearts, a medal American servicemen get when they are wounded. But now the events of more than 35 years ago have come under question, and it is the presidential candidate who went to Vietnam, not the one who managed to stay at home, who is on the defensive over his war record.

A group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has put out an advertisement in three closely contested states—Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin—which accuses Mr Kerry of lying to win his medals. A leader of the group, John O'Neill, has written a book, “Unfit for Command”, which describes Mr Kerry as a bungler in combat. Backed by more than 250 others who served in Vietnam, the group has just unveiled a new ad, denouncing Mr Kerry's testimony about the war in 1971 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. What he said then, they claim, cast all Vietnam veterans as war criminals and demoralised American prisoners-of-war.

It is a sharp blow to Mr Kerry. A majority of Americans have heard the accusations, and opinion polls show that many of them find the charges to some degree believable. Support for Mr Kerry among ex-servicemen has collapsed.

The Kerry camp is now counter-attacking. It says that the Swift Boat group is a front for George Bush's campaign, charged with doing its “dirty work”. A Bush-Cheney lawyer, who gave advice to the group, has now resigned. One of the vets in the ad was also once an adviser to the Bush campaign. Mr Kerry has made a complaint to the Federal Election Commission, accusing Mr Bush of breaking the law, because propaganda groups such as the Swift Boat lot are “527 organisations” (so called from a clause in the tax law), which are legally required to be independent. Mr Bush has denied any connection with the group. He himself has been bitten by other, left-leaning 527 organisations; one has compared him to Hitler.

What do the people who were in the Mekong Delta at the time say? On the one hand, all but one of Mr Kerry's crewmates from the two Swift Boats he commanded in Vietnam have rallied to his side. On the other hand, a group of veterans from the unit of which these boats were a part, many of whom behaved bravely in action, have made serious charges against him.

One test case is Mr Kerry's account of rescuing Jim Rassmann, a Green Beret commando, the action which earned him his Bronze Star. Everyone agrees that on March 13th 1969 Mr Kerry's Swift Boat, PCF-94, and four others were travelling down the Bay Hap river when one of them hit a mine. Soon afterwards, according to Mr Kerry's crew, an explosion rocked PCF-94, throwing Mr Rassmann overboard. An injured Mr Kerry fished him out of the river in spite of the bullets flying about them. Mr Kerry's crew say they were under attack. Mr Rassmann himself says he was “scared to death”, and saw bullets splashing in the water around him. A machine-gunner from the boat directly behind Mr Kerry's also recalls enemy fire.

But Larry Thurlow, the captain of another boat, denies that they were under enemy fire. The other two surviving Swift Boat captains who were there also do not recall being fired on. Worse, Mr Thurlow says that Mr Kerry's boat fled from the scene after the mine exploded, turning back to go to the aid of the disabled boat only when its captain was certain there was no danger. He claims that Mr Kerry fabricated the hostile fire in an after-action report which became the basis of Mr Kerry's and his own Bronze Stars. It is unlikely, however, that Mr Kerry wrote the after-action report. The author used the initials “KJW”; Mr Kerry's are “JFK”.


It is the presidential candidate who went to Vietnam, not the one who managed to stay at home, who is on the defensive over his war record

Then there is the question of Mr Kerry's Silver Star. The accusers say he exaggerated his role in a three-boat operation on February 28th 1969. William Rood, the only other surviving boat captain on the operation, has defended him. Writing in the Chicago Tribune on August 22nd, Mr Rood said it was Mr Kerry who had the idea of charging headlong into an ambush on the banks of the Bay Hap river, thereby routing the enemy and capturing large numbers of weapons. Then Mr Kerry beached his boat while under enemy fire in order to chase and kill a Vietcong soldier and seize a loaded rocket-launcher. Mr Rood's account conflicts with Mr O'Neill's claim that Mr Kerry killed a “lone, wounded, fleeing, young Vietcong” who may not have been armed.

On the issue of Mr Kerry's Purple Hearts, the Swift Boat Veterans have a point. It is true that none of his injuries was severe, and that he used them to cut a one-year tour of duty down to little over four months: three Purple Hearts earn leave from active duty. But the claims that Mr Kerry's wounds were either self-inflicted, or mere scratches, do not seem to be based on really solid evidence.

The two things that seem likely to cause Mr Kerry most trouble are not disputes about his courage. The first is his repeated claim that he entered Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968. This now looks dubious. The Kerry camp has backed away from the assertion, saying that he merely patrolled the Mekong Delta near the Cambodian border. His other weakness is that testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971. Mr Kerry spoke of American soldiers who “razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan”. He may yet rue deciding to make Vietnam so big a part of his presidential campaign.

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Economische groei VS naar beneden bijgesteld om olieprijs

De Amerikaanse economie is volgens herziene cijfers in het tweede kwartaal gegroeid met 2,8% op jaarbasis.

Dat is iets minder dan de 3% waarvan het ministerie van Handel in Washington in een eerdere opgave melding maakte. Het is het laagste groeicijfer in meer dan een jaar.

Dat de groei lager uitvalt is een gevolg van de hoge olieprijzen. Die zetten de bestedingen van consumenten onder druk en droegen tevens bij aan de groei van het tekort op de Amerikaanse handelsbalans. Analisten waren van tevoren al uitgegaan van een groei van 2,8%.

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Bush: Kerry moediger als militair dan ikzelf

WASHINGTON - President George Bush vindt de periode die John Kerry als militair in Vietnam heeft gediend "moediger" dan zijn eigen diensttijd, omdat zijn Democratische tegenstrever destijds "in gevaar" is geweest.

Bush heeft dat gezegd in een opgenomen interview met NBC's Today Show, dat maandag wordt uitgezonden, maar waarvan zaterdag al enkele fragmenten zijn uitgezonden.

Terwijl Kerry voor zijn heldhaftig optreden in Vietnam diverse hoge militaireonderscheidingen kreeg, bracht Bush zijn diensttijd door bij de Texas Air National Guard, een reserve-eenheid in eigen land.

De president zegt tegen NBC dat hij zeker naar Vietnam was gegaan als hij was opgeroepen. Volgens critici werd Bush juist in deze 'eenheid voor rijkeluiskinderen' ondergebracht om uitzending naar Vietnam te voorkomen.

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Grote anti-Bush demonstratie in New York
In New York hebben honderdduizenden mensen zich verzameld voor een demonstratie tegen de Amerikaanse president George W. Bush en zijn beleid. De organisatoren hopen dat de betoging met 250.000 deelnemers het grootste protest tegen de president ooit wordt.

Morgen begint in de Verenigde Staten de Republikeinse conventie, waar Bush genomineerd zal worden voor een tweede termijn als president. De demonstranten zullen langs de plek waar deze conventie plaatsvindt, Madison Square Garden, lopen. Eigenlijk was het de bedoeling om de protestmars te beëindigen in Central Park, dat is echter verboden. Gisteravond werden al zo'n 300 mensen opgepakt bij relletjes in de stad.

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Op zondag 29 augustus 2004 17:54 schreef NewOrder het volgende:
Reactie op sanniejj

Nee, ik ben geen slachtoffer van de Michael Moore feiten. Ik heb ruim voldoende verstand om feiten en fictie van elkaar te onderscheiden. Zodoende geloof ik ook niet in de sprookjes uit het Grote Sprookjes- en Fabeltjesboek van George Bush.

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Op zondag 29 augustus 2004 22:21 schreef PJORourke het volgende:
Het is een beetje hype aan het worden te zeggen dat het begrotingsgat veroorzaakt wordt door de tax-cut en dat dit gat gedicht wordt als je hem terugdraait. Dat is allemaal zwaar overdreven.