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October 01, 2004

Kerry's Big Lie

This was the part last night where - ask anyone - I almost threw my laptop at the TV set:

"Saddam Hussein didn't attack us. Osama bin Laden attacked us. al Qaeda attacked us. And when we had Osama bin Laden cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora, 1,000 of his cohorts with him in those mountains. With the American military forces nearby and in the field, we didn't use the best trained troops in the world to go kill the world's number one criminal and terrorist.

They outsourced the job to Afghan warlords, who only a week earlier had been on the other side fighting against us, neither of whom trusted each other.

Kerry knows that most people, especially most of his own base, can't possibly "fact check his ass".

I sure can.

Kerry's either lying, or betraying a crushing misunderstanding of the war, especially the war in Afghanistan.

Some background; the liberation of Afghanistan was one of the most blazingly rapid campaigns in military history - and it was carried out by about 100 Special Forces guys, backed up eventually by small detachments of British SAS (think Delta) and SBS (think SEALs), and some SEALs and USAF Combat Air Controllers. They organized the Northern Alliance (the other one), led them into action (sometimes on horseback), called in air strikes against Taliban and Al Quaeda positions, paid off warlords to join the advance, and in some cases led the attack on horseback, like the cavalry of the 1800s.

They moved fast, lived off the land and airdrops of supplies, didn't give a rat's ass about how the regular Army did things - and in a few weeks, had basically liberated the entire nation.

And then came the time to mop up, which led the Northern Alliance and their Western advisors into the Tora Bora, in pursuit of Bin Laden and his holdouts.

The high command wanted to send in regular troops - elements of the 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions - to carry on the attack. According to Robin Wright's book, "Hunting Bin Laden", the Special Forces guys resisted bitterly; the regulars, while (as Kerry said) very well-trained, were not acclimated to operating in the brutal high elevations; their long, heavy supply "tail" would hamper them in the fast chase after guerrillas who'd spent two and a half decades learning the terrain; the "warlords" shared much of that knowledge, and with air support, advice and money from the Special Forces, were much better able to carry on the chase than the regular Army.

Kerry's trying to "Rather" us, banking on the belief that nobody can call him on his BS.

Posted by Mitch at October 1, 2004 02:36 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Kerry:
Angry because we 'outsourced' in Afghanistan.
Angry because we are not 'outsourcing' in Iraq (as if).
Angry because we went it alone in Iraq (screw you UK, Oz and Poland).
Angry because we are too multilateral with N. Korea.
Sometimes you gain credibility by conceding something. If he were to concede that Bush is doing something -- anything -- right he'd be much more credible in his attacks about things he believes Bush is doing wrong.
Otherwise you just come across as a pompous ass who wants to be president.
Which, of course, he is.

Posted by: chris at October 1, 2004 03:33 PM

CNN had Tommy Franks on their after-show, and he called BS instantly. I don't know how much viewership they had, but this particular falsehood was rebuffed by the man who would know.

And, even if it hadn't been, how does Kerry argue logically both for more international involvement and against such involvement? Of course, he can't.

Doesn't keep him from trying, though. How stupid does he think his base must be?

Posted by: Patton at October 2, 2004 01:29 AM

Citizen Smash had a good posting on this Kerrism also. It would be so nice if we had an objective media that would call them on this lie. I could only imagine the fallout if Bush tried to pass off this kind of tall tale. Patton says he must think his base is stupid. I don't, he knows they will look the other way when he lies and flip flops. Besides they think the whole GWOT is our fault anyway.

Posted by: bags75 at October 2, 2004 05:43 AM

He undermined our efforts in Vietnam and is doing the same now. No one should be surprised by his behavior. The spots of a leopard never change.

Posted by: Col. Les Williams USMC (ret) at October 2, 2004 09:51 AM
hi