Mr. Kerry.  I am a Vietnam Veteran.  On April 22, 1971 I watched with disgust as you testified before congress with that same arrogant sneer so obvious in the recent hearings regarding Syria.  Your testimony in 1971 showed a total lack of respect for your fellow Vietnam Veterans.

You claimed that U.S. military personnel “personally raped, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turn up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.  “

You claimed that “these were not isolated instances, but rather crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.”

While there were isolated incidents of such behavior, the vast majority of American troops served with honor and integrity.  It is one thing to express opposition to the war.  It is something else to sit there and arrogantly lecture congress, in your uniform, while telling outrageous lies and distortions that slandered and defamed every one of the more 500,000 men and women who served in South East Asia.  You also dishonored the more than 58,000 Americans who paid the ultimate price in that conflict.  Sadly, this happened more than 42 years ago, yet no one has ever held you accountable for your outrageous and irresponsible behavior.  There is no statute of limitations on such an act of dishonor.

Now you are back, with the same arrogant sneer, trying to convince congress to give authorization to start another war.  Yet on numerous occasions you gave statements regarding your personal opinion of President Assad.  As recently as March 2011, you said the following:

  “So my judgment is that Syria will move; Syria will change, as it embraces a legitimate relationship with the United States and the West and economic opportunity that comes with it and the participation that comes with it.”

In March 2010, you said the following:

“I have long argued that America’s national security interests are well served by engaging with Syria.”

“I believe that with confident, carefully calibrated diplomacy, we can show Damascus what it stands to gain by moderating its behavior – and what it stands to lose by going in the other direction. To succeed, we must present Damascus with a clear choice and a vision of a different future.”

Mr. Kerry, we are now faced with making the crucial decision regarding war and peace based on the testimony of a man who burst into the national spotlight by telling outrageous lies under oath to another congressional hearing.  We are faced with making this crucial decision regarding war and peace based on the personal judgment of a man who has been consistently wrong about Syria in general and President Assad in particular.

The American people deserve better than this.  They deserve better than you.  You are a disgrace to the uniform you wore.  A man with your demonstrated lack of integrity and character should have been disqualified from holding any responsible public office.  It is bad enough that you were elected to the United States Senate.  It is bad enough that you were chosen by the Democratic Party to be their candidate for President.  But the ultimate insult to the Vietnam Veterans you slandered and defamed would be to allow you to lead us into a bloody and unnecessary war, with a country that you previously said represents no threat to us.

I quote from your testimony on April 22, 1971:

In our opinion, and from our experience, there is nothing in South Vietnam, nothing which could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America. And to attempt to justify the loss of one American life in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom, which those misfits supposedly abuse, is to use the height of criminal hypocrisy, and it is that kind of hypocrisy which we feel has torn this country apart.

Mr. Kerry, there is nothing in Syria, nothing which could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America.  To attempt to justify the loss of one American life in Syria by linking such loss to alleged atrocities on one side of a civil war, while ignoring similar actions by the rebels is “to use the height of criminal hypocrisy.”

If President Obama wants to make the case for war, he should do so himself.  He could hardly have found a less qualified spokesman.

TDM