Kerry's Medals (or Ribbons) - Whatever, Man

John Kerry, presumptive nominee for the Democratic party, is getting hammered by the press over his war record and behavior in the anti-Vietnam movement. I say "hammered" only in the relative sense since to my partisan eyes Kerry's only getting a fraction of the acrimonious challenge dished out to President Bush over his time in the National Guard.

But I really don't care. When I was twenty-something, I was a much bigger idiot than I am now, and I'm prepare to allow for hard-to-explain idiocy. Should I ever run for Congress, I'm confident I'll have lots of esplainin' to do too.

What I do care about are the things he has done since then. I think Vietnam was a noble enterprise hamstrung by high-level incompetence. I don't think protecting American interests is inherently evil, nor is a strong, well-equipped military. However, based on Kerry's Senate votes, he thought the military shouldn't have advanced past their 1960's era capabilities, giving reason to be skeptical of his devotion to strong defense.

Kerry voted to kill many major weapons systems including: The Apache helicopter, cruise missiles, the F-14, 15 and 16 fighters, the Patriot anti-missile system, the M-1 Abrams tank, the Bradley fighting vehicle, and the B1 and B2 Stealth aircraft.

Consider the M1 Abrams. This tank is the most lethal tank ever. Had this program been cancelled, treadheads in both Gulf Wars would have been battling Soviet tanks that were much more evenly matched with the tanks in the pre-Abrams inventory, and probably in superior numbers. Our guys are better trained and would have prevailed, but the lack of overwhelming superiority would have meant far more casualties on our side, and far fewer surrenders on theirs. A foe fights on so long as there is hope, but watching a troop of M1 tanks race through your lines popping turrets off your best armor with impunity robbed them of the will to fight, saving enemy lives.

Furthermore, stealth and cruise-missile technologies have spawned the "smart bombs" that have given theater level warfare extraordinary accuracy. To wipe out a target in the past you had to send hundreds of airmen and repeatedly hammer acre after acre of real estate risking enormous damage to civilian population and property. Now, unintended civilian deaths are measured in the dozens, not thousands. If John Kerry's hostility to military innovation had prevailed, we would still have to carpet-bomb with B52's.

This is one reason among many I oppose John Kerry. He and I agree that war is horrible, but these votes demonstrate that he didn't consider the risks of failing to improve our lethality and precision. I doubt he intended to make sure that any fight we got into was a fair fight - for the enemy - but that would have been the net effect. American soldiers don't want a fair fight, they want swift, sure victory. I don't care so much that he threw away his medals, but I do care if he effectively voted to throw away lives.

Tim McNabb