One the same day it was reported that Democrat Congressman Charles Rangel called the Vice President an obscene name, news followed that Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.) suggested American military troops were comprised of dim-witted underachievers.
Kerry said at a campaign event yesterday at Pasadena City College, “You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) immediately issued a formal statement demanding that Kerry apologize for his comments.
McCain, a former prisoner of war said, "The suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq, is an insult to every soldier serving in combat, and should deeply offend any American with an ounce of appreciation for what they suffer and risk so that the rest of us can sleep more comfortably at night."
Refuting the remarks Kerry made today is Heritage Foundation study on quality of military troops that was released earlier this week.
Scholar Tim Kane concluded "The current findings show that the demographic characteristics of volunteers have continued to show signs of higher, not lower, quality."
Kane closely examined the education levels of current U.S. troops.
He said, "Many enlisted personnel are drawn to the benefits offered by the armed forces that allow them to obtain funding for college."
Kane found that the Department of Defense reported that the mean reading level of 2004 recruits to be a full grade level higher than that of the comparable youth population. Less than 2 percent of wartime recruits have no high school credentials.
Almost forecasting Kerry's words Kane wrote in the October 27 report, "Educational achievement is the characteristic most commonly cited as evidence of lower military standards driven by the Iraq War" and that "those who have been so quick to suggest that today’s wartime recruits represent lesser quality, lower standards, or lower class should be expected make an airtight case."
Soon after Kerry's words got national attention, Matt Drudge of the Drudrge Report quickly linked to a 2005 story that confirmed Kerry had recieved 4 "D's" his freshman year at Yale.
Kerry said at the time that he told his father a "D stood for distinction."
