Satire or serious?

[sfga6970]

Comments?

In addition to the article below being brilliant satire, it suggests
something of a psychological nature that is at once very insightful and
extremely scary.

HMH
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THE CAMBODIAN CANDIDATE

By Tony Blankley

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Only a few short weeks ago John Kerry was enjoying the temperate
climate and familiar old stones of his native Boston. But now, as if in a
Twilight Zone nightmare, he finds himself stumbling about, half lost in
the steamy jungles of the Mekong Delta. It's 1968 again, or is it 1969?

The Doors blasts from the radio: "This is the end, beautiful friend,
This is the end My only friend, the end." He wakes up: "Saigon, ****.
I'm still only in Saigon. Every time I think I'm going to wake up back
in the jungle. When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. I'd
wake up and there'd be nothing ... I hardly said a word to my wife until
I said yes to a divorce. When I was here I wanted to be there. When I
was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle."
(opening voice over of Martin Sheen's character Capt. Willard from
"Apocalypse Now")

"On more than one occasion, I, like Martin Sheen in 'Apocalypse
Now' took my patrol boat into Cambodia. In fact, I remember spending
Christmas Eve 1968 five miles across the Cambodia border being shot at by
our South Vietnamese Allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas.
But nowhere in 'Apocalypse Now' did I sense that kind of absurdity."
(Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, March 27, 1986)

He is either in Cambodia or somewhere **** near. He is either
exchanging fire with the Khmer Rouge — which would make it no earlier
than 1972. Or it's 1968, and he is being shot at by drunken South
Vietnamese soldiers celebrating Christmas Eve (a fine old Buddhist holiday).
He was either there inadvertently without orders or on special
assignment dropping CIA agents and SEALs behind enemy lines.

Last week the Kerry campaign released a statement asserting: "During
John Kerry's service in Vietnam, many times he was on or near the
Cambodian border and on one occasion crossed into Cambodia at the request of members of a special operations group operating out of Ha Tien. Mr.
Kerry's was not the only United States riverboat to respond and
inadvertently or responsibly cross the border." In any event, he was, as his
campaign spokesman said last week, somewhere on the Mekong River, which
separates Cambodia from Vietnam. Except that the Mekong does not separate those two countries; it crosses perpendicular to their border.

Then it was announced in the London Daily Telegraph by Douglas
Brinkley — Mr. Kerry's biographer, confidante and enabler — that Mr.
Kerry was mistaken about being in Cambodia in Christmas of 1968, but
"Kerry went into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and
February 1969 on clandestine missions. He had a run dropping off U.S. Navy
Seals, Green Berets and CIA guys." The missions were not armed attacks on
Cambodia, Mr. Brinkley informed the newspaper, and he had not included
these secret missions in his biography of John Kerry. "He was a ferry
master, a drop off guy, but it was dangerous as hell."

Sort of like the patrol boat captain who took Capt. Willard on a
mission to "proceed up the Nung River in a Navy Patrol boat. Pick up
Col. Kurtz's path, and terminate the colonel with extreme prejudice. You
understand Captain that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever
exist." (Col. Lucas in "Apocalypse Now")

Did John Kerry's mission ever exist? Was it known only to the CIA
and God — or not even to them? Is John Kerry dreaming of being Martin
Sheen's Capt. Willard in "Apocalypse Now" or Martin Sheen's President
Bartlett in "West Wing"? That is the thing about dreams: They merge and
twist and generally lack linear reality.

It may now be dawning on John Kerry that he is living out Col.
Kurtz's Cambodian nightmare: "I watched a snail crawl along the edge of
a straight razor. That's my dream. That's my nightmare. Crawling,
slithering, along the edge of a straight razor and surviving." So far, John
Kerry continues to slither and survive.

But the American political jungle is every bit as disorienting and
suddenly lethal as the one he emerged from 30 years ago. John Kerry's
tangled memory and war braggadocio have been mismanaged by him and his
campaign team. They have given too many inconsistent answers, thus
forcing the hand of major media outlets such as the Los Angeles Times, U.S.
News & World Report, Knight-Ridder and the Boston Globe to start
reporting the story.

Even self-admitted Kerry supporter Joan Vennochi wrote in her Boston Globe column this week: "Kerry's statements about Cambodia do have traction for opponents. [His spokesmen's] answer aren't good enough. He should answer every question voters have about it — and he should answer himself."

I love the smell of political lies in the morning. The smell, you
know ... smells like ... defeat.

[Snowden]

SFGA, I've been labeled as being most unreasonable because I say the Democrats lie. I have been assured by brothers and a couple friends that the US cannot survive another four years of Bush and his lies.

Kerry wouldn't tell a lie!??? Bush lied when he stated what he had been assured was true by intelligence agencies in this nation and Britain?

But what do I know? I'm only a feeble-minded female who sees lies where they don't exist and truth where it doesn't exist. One of my brothers tells me not to send him anything he doesn't want to hear - like the truth. Another says he is no longer a patriot because we are in Iraq.

They could be right. I could be right. But I know, think and feel what I know, think and feel. And on that I base my votes.

Satires usually have basis in fact. I think this one does.

[sfga6970]

Marianne, all I have to say about your post is that you are not a feeble-minded female. All politicians lie, but we have to be open minded enough to see who stretches the truth the least and who we feel will act in the best interests of our Country and not just follow the party line without question.

[Snowden]

Paul, that's the best advice I've heard yet. At this point, I'm not sure which which is which, but I'm seeking!

[odannyboy]

*bump*

[sfga6970]

This is not satire or meant to hurt anyones feeling. Tonight I was watching the news with the SO and Kerry was speaking. She is well attuned to politics and listens to all sides of the issues, but she said to me, "Even if I wasn't a Republican, I would never vote for Kerry because he is ugly and I wouldn't trust Teresa to be the First Lady".