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Originally posted by shamrock_uk:
The campaign was dirtier than the democrats were prepared for too IMO - the 'chickenhawks' managing to portray Kerry, who by all accounts should be considered a national hero, as anti-military was both impressive and something that proved too hard to counter.
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IMHO,
anyone running for public office should be required to release their military records. I refuse to accept Kerry's word on anything that he did in the military. Furthermore, I have seen many examples in my life (in both parties) of candidates who inflated their military records while campaigning. (People who said that they were officers when they were really only enlisted; people who were "in" Vietnam, but only may have passed thru its airspace or whose plane was on the tarmac at an airfield for a few minutes; and so on...)
While I have the utmost respect for the military, I will not blindly accept the word of any veteran running for office regarding his service.
IMHO, signing the papers to officially run for any significant public office should also include releasing the person's military record (with appropriate concern for security issues, of course) to the public.
The fact that Kerry would not release his military record in the face of all of the previous contraversy makes me seriously wonder what was in them. IMHO, a candidate who had nothing to hide would have released them in a heartbeat to silence his critics. So I have to wonder... why didn't Kerry do so? What did he have to hide?
If Kerry was such a great hero, he should have released his records and put an end to the contraversy. But he didn't. So, right now, the only things that I can say about Kerry with certainty is that he was in the military and that he was fought in Vietnam.
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Re. the amnesty programme - is not 'wiping the slate clean' a good way to start anew? As long as new tougher border controls are brought in alongside it, potentially this will lead to the legal recognisation of many workers who would otherwise be 'outside the system'. I think the benefits from less crime and exploitation probably outweigh the costs. And its not like there aren't jobs enough for them to do.
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Amnesty programs are nothing more than invitations for massive increases in illegal immigration. It's been tried before and the result is the same every time.
[ 03-10-2005, 09:41 PM: Message edited by: Magness ]