My two cents

Unlike I guess every other blogger and their dog I have not yet commented on Kerry’s statement.

First off go over to Happy Catholic for some good comic relief on this subject.

I certainly don’t buy any of Kerry’s excuses or his apology after he said he would not apologize. I have experienced this sort of military sneer first hand in my own life. When I joined the Navy in very liberal Portland, Or the reaction by some was that I must have been forced by a judge or that I didn’t have any other job opportunities. My High School electronics teacher who was the quintessential liberal (though so was I at the time) often made comments to me how I was throwing away my life away and that I would be doing nothing but mopping the deck. I also spent six months as a recruiter where my tires were spiked and our office vandalized in Washington state.

I think this attitude is quite prevalent among many liberals. When Richard Belzer appeared on the Bill Mayer show earlier this year they both disparaged the reason people joined the military and Belzer said "They’re 19 and 20-year-old kids who couldn’t get a job," These statements were welcomed approvingly by the audience, but being a Bill Mayer audience that does not say much. Then there was Donna Shalala who said that "the best and the brightest sons" did not go to Vietnam. Though maybe with John Kerry she had a point.

"I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended."

So I guess now us military types are to stupid to correctly interpret what he said. I guess some of us must be dumb after all to not get the nuance of his statement. Maybe if I studied the French I would get it. A "retired Army guy" at Michelle Malkin’s site has the same opinion about this part of the apology.

Maybe those serving in Iraq should feel themselves honored instead. After all he didn’t accuse them of cutting off heads and acting like Genghis Khan this time around. He was also slightly nicer than last year when he said "And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women,"

Now that I think of it John Kerry is actually making real progress. Going from calling military personnel beheaders acting like a Mongolian warlord, to people who terrorize women and kids, and finally to just people who lack job opportunities is progress indeed.