Kerry: U.S. Worst Violator of Geneva Convention

Human Events, Feb 16, 2004

The war will continue. So what I am saying is that yes, there will be some recrimination but far, fer less than the 200,000 a year who are murdered by the United States of America, and we can't go around-President Kennedy said this, many times. He said that the United States simply can't right every wrong, that we can't solve the problems of the other 94% of mankind. We didn't go into East Pakistan; we didn't go into Czechoslovakia. Why then should we feel that we now have the power to solve the internal political struggles of this country?

'This So-Called Communist Monolith'

KERRY: . . . It is my opinion that the United States is still reacting in very much the 1945 mood and postwar Cold-War period when we reacted to the forces which were at work in World War II and came out of it with the paranoia about the Russians and how the world was going to be divided up between the super powers, and the foreign policy of John Foster Dulles which was responsible for the creation of the SEATO treaty, which was, in fact, a direct reaction to this so-called Communist monolith. And I think we are reacting under cold-war precepts which are no longer applicable. . ..

Therefore, I think it is ridiculous to assume we have to play this power game based on total warfare. I think there will be guerrilla wars, and I think we must have a capability to fight those. And we may have to fight them somewhere based on legitimate threats, but we must learn, in this country, how to define those threats and that is what I would say to the question of world peace. I think it is bogus, totally artificial. There is no threat. The Communists are not about to take over our McDonald hamburger stands. [Laughter.]

'60%, 80% Stay Stoned 24 Hours a Day'

SEN. STUART SYMINGTON (D.-Mo.): There have been many reports of widespread use of drugs by U.S. servicemen in Vietnam. . .

KERRY: The problem is extremely serious. It is serious in very many different ways. . ..The problem exists for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the emptiness. It is the only way to get through it. A lot of guys, 60, 80% stay stoned 24 hours a day just to get through the Vietnam

SYMINGTON: You say 60 to 80%.

KERRY: Sixty to 80% is the figure used that try something, let's say, at one point. Of that, I couldn't give you a figure of habitual smokers, let's say, of pot, and I certainly couldn't begin to say how many are hard drug addicts . . .