[link|http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38483|To know him is to dislike him]

Excerpt 1:

Sen. John Kerry was told to leave Vietnam by three colleagues upset
with his behavior and attitudes, according to a fellow swift-boat
officer during the war.

Thomas Wright says the misbehavior of the presumptive Democratic
presidential candidate got to the point where he no longer wanted him
in his boat group. So, at Wright's request, his divisional commander
assigned Kerry to another group.

Then Wright and like-minded boat officers took matters into their own
hands, according to John B. Dwyer, a Vietnam veteran and military historian
writing in the online magazine American Thinker.

"When he got his third Purple Heart, three of us told him to leave," Wright
said, according to Dwyer. "We knew how the system worked and we didn't want
him in Coastal Division 11.

"Kerry didn't manipulate the system," he continued, "we did."


Excerpt 2:

"I had a lot of trouble getting him to follow orders," Wright recalled.
"He had a different view of leadership and operations. Those of us with
direct experience working with Kerry found him difficult and oriented toward
his personal, rather than unit goals and objectives."

Wright said he "believed that overall responsibility rested squarely on the
shoulders of the OIC or OTC [Officer-in-Tactical Command] in a free-fire
zone. You had to be right [before opening fire]."

However, he continued, "Kerry seemed to believe there were no rules in a
free-fire zone, and you were supposed to kill anyone. I didn't see it that way."

The rules were vital, Wright emphasized, because it was important the enemy
"understood that swift boats were a competent, effective force that could
dominate his location."

"You couldn't achieve that by indiscriminate use of weapons in free-fire zones,"
he said.

Wright referred to the three Purple Hearts awarded to Kerry, which allowed him
to leave Vietnam for the U.S.
"No one wanted a Purple Heart because it meant we had made a mistake," he said.
"We made sure our crews were recognized, but no one took pride in a Purple Heart."

I say:

What a cowboy.

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