BS writes:

The Navy (and Kerry) Say:

According to the citation for Kerry's Silver Star, when the boats approached the hamlet, "a B-40 rocket exploded close aboard PCF 94" — Kerry's boat. He "personally led a landing party ashore in pursuit of the enemy," the citation says, before commending Kerry's "extraordinary daring and personal courage" for "attacking a numerically superior force in the face of intense fire."

John O'Neill Says:

That account is disputed by Swift boat veteran John O'Neill, author of "Unfit for Command," who maintains in his book that the statement "is simply false. There was little or no fire."

Kerry killed "a lone, wounded, fleeing, young Vietcong in a loincloth." (The description comes from "Unfit for Command," by Swift boat veteran John O'Neill.) O'Neill told ABC News in an August 2004 interview. "But the actual facts are that there was a single kid there who had fired a rocket, who popped up, and John Kerry with his gunboat, with or without a number of troops, depending on who you talk to, plopped in front of the kid. The kid was wounded in the legs by machine gun fire, and as he ran off, John Kerry jumped off the boat and shot the kid in the back."

The Villagers there say

"No, this is not correct," Nguyen Thi Tuoi, 77, told ABC News. "He wore a black pajama. He was strong. He was big and strong. He was about 26 or 27."

According to Vo, there were at least 20 Viet Cong soldiers at Nha Vi there that day. "There were 12 soldiers from the provincial level and eight from the district level," he said.

"When the firing started, Ba Thanh was killed," Tam said. "And I led Ba Thanh's comrades, the whole unit, to fight back. And we ran around the back and fought the Americans from behind. We worked with the city soldiers to fire on the American boats."


This is all from Nightline:

When O'Neill was confronted with this he evaded and lied some more. I'd definitley believe this Nixon creation over Kerry. Read the article:

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Vote2004/story?id=166434&page=1

Got this from the Buffalo Solider diary @ Dailykos.com.


Soliders jailed for being smart?

A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops' relatives said Thursday.

The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq — north of Baghdad — because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.

Sgt. McCook, a deputy at the Hinds County Detention Center, and the 16 other members of the 343rd Quartermaster Company from Rock Hill, S.C., were read their rights and moved from the military barracks into tents, Patricia McCook said her husband told her during a panicked phone call about 5 a.m. Thursday.

here is a short list of polls to hit, I encourage comments as well at news sites to sum up the debates and boost Kerry/Edwards. . .

Republicans must be getting desperate:
Thieves hit Democratic Party offices; computers containing sensitive data removed
there is prob a poll at this site somewhere. . .

http://www.foxnews.com/
faux news te-he.down on right

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2004/debates/ballot3.html
this is a very good poll

http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=US&cat=Debate_Poll

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/
down in mid

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/&&CM=domain&CE=hardball

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/08/politics/main641817.shtml

http://www.boston.com/
look for link

http://www.jacksonville.com/

http://www.kyw.com/
Down on right

http://www.newsday.com/
look for e-poll

http://www.channelcincinnati.com/index.html
look for survey

http://www.newsnet5.com/index.html
look for survey

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/index.html
look for survey

http://www.wesh.com/index.html
look for survey

http://www.wftv.com/index.html
look for survey

http://www.thewgalchannel.com/index.html
look for survey

Big night tonight, after words check back here for some polls to hit or, and maybe better, link-up with Kos or Atrios/Eschaton over on the right ------------------>

Just to get you in shape for the massive poll-flooding tonight, here are some polls to hit for Inez (our SC senator candidate taking on Jim "the homophobe" DeMint).

http://www.thecarolinachannel.com/politics/3804087/detail.html

http://greenvilleonline.com/news/index.htm#poll


Few more things, I heard that Bill O'Reily is being sued for sexual harassment, well see how that plays out, there may be a tape...

Also, Operation Truth has two (one TV the other radio) ads that went out today, you should check 'em out. . . These young and brave men and women were actually there in Iraq!!

Finally, more foreign policy specialists have come out against bush:

". . . current U.S. foreign policy harms the struggle against Islamist terrorists, pointing to a series of "blunders" by the Bush team in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. "We're advising the administration, which is already in a deep hole, to stop digging," said Professor Richard Samuels of M.I.T.

The scholars who signed the letter are from over 150 colleges and universities in 40 states, from California to Florida, Texas to Maine. They include many of the nation's most prominent experts on world politics, including former staff members at the Pentagon, the State Department and the National Security Council, as well as six of the last seven Presidents of the American Political Science Association. "I think it is telling that so many specialists on international relations, who rarely agree on anything, are unified in their position on the high costs that the U.S. is incurring from this war," said Professor Robert Keohane of Duke University."

Full text of letter here.
and the 700+ signatures.

I'll be back @ 11~ish.

An Email from BS:

From Christopher Catherwood's "Churchill's Folly":

"In the summer of 1920, the lack of foresight of the lack of manpower in Mesopotamia (Iraq) became all too apparent. In May, a rebellion broke out in Tel Afar over the arrest of a local sheikh. Four British soldiers were killed by local Arab insurgents. The British thereupon sent two armored cars, but they were ambushed, with the loss of two officers and fourteen men.

"The British response was swift and extreme. The entire population of Tel Afar was driven out into the desert, which resulted in the whole of British-ruled Mesopotamia being in revolt until July."

Churchill was still worried about the "weakness of the Army in relation to its commitments" and in relation to Mesopotamia, he asked:

"Next are we to clear out of Mosul or not? There is going to be fighting in the district in the near future, and no possibility of reducing the Mesopotamian garrison exists unless a definite contraction of responsibilities is accepted...We cannot go on sprawled out over these vast regions at ruinous expense and ever increasing military risk. If it is decided to hold Mosul, the garrison of Mesopot[amia] must be fully maintained, the railway must be prolonged into Mosul, and Parliament must be told that the expectation of reduction in expense cannot be made good."

I guess there is something to be learned in history eh? The Tel Afar incident and Fallujah incident of the present are parallels to be drawn. Churchill's primary question is also very relevant today. Now I ask you all to try and guess how the first British occupation of Iraq went.

HISTORY IS TODAY! LEARN FROM IT!!!