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Vet uses Kerry's Vietnam phrase to oppose Iraq war n the sweltering heat near the Boston Sheraton Hotel, William Perry of Levittown, Pa., stood holding a black and white banner that echoed Democratic presidential nomineee John F. Kerry's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971.

Maeve Reston, Post-Gazette William Perry, far right, and his banner in the lobby of the Boston Sheraton Hotel

"How do you ask a soldier to be the last person to die for a lie," the sign read, this time in protest of the Iraq war.

Sweat dripped from Perry's forehead, and police questioned his right to hold it up in the midst of heavy crowd traffic, but he wouldn't budge.

The 57-year-old veteran, who served as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division during the Vietnam War, said he had changed Kerry's word "mistake" to "lie" because he felt misled by the decision to enter the Iraq War.

"There were a number of lies to get the [Iraq war resolution] passed.

"It's a stronger word," said Perry, who is a member of Veterans for Peace, a group that has been a constant presence at the Democratic Convention. "We wanted to make it soundbite style like Republicans do. They take everything  down to the simplest form.

"I want Kerry to come home to his roots, to the true passionate feeling that he had in 1970 and 1971 [when he argued against the Vietnam War]," Perry said.  "I just hope we can get him to come back ... within 10 days of his inauguration." *

In April of 1971, in a statement before the Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry asked the committee: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

read his full testimony
http://www.counterpunch.org/ferner07282004.html