Quote:
Originally Posted by DDDDave
SEN. KERRY: There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50-caliber machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant [William] Calley, are war criminals.
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This must get posted here at least once a week.
If you really read the quote you'll see that Kerry is speaking about official US military policy, such as free fire zones, as the war crimes and not the actions of the individual soldiers. He admits that he took part in them because they were OFFICIAL policy and thousands of soldiers were forced into the same situations daily. Conflating Kerry's testimony as "anti-soldier' is either intentional distortion or a complete misread of his actions...he represented the soldier as he condemned the war effort and the insane policies of the Pentagon.