Troops Answer John Kerry

This is priceless.

WorldNetDaily reported today that this photo is making the rounds of the internet.

As a national uproar continues over comments by Sen. John Kerry suggesting American troops were lazy and not bright, President Bush is hammering Kerry and fellow Democrats for their lack of strategy for winning the war in Iraq, while troops themselves are mocking Kerry.

The video of Kerry's statement is here.

Every talk radio show I listened to yesterday (Laura Ingraham, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, and Hugh Hewitt) covered this. So did a huge chunk of the blogosphere (here, here, here, here, and here, just for starters). La Shawn Barber (third "here") defended Kerry in the sense of allowing that he may have actually botched a joke. She may be right about that, because Kerry is so humorless, it would be a wonder if he has ever told a joke that came out funny.

The military is livid. The American Legion's national commander called for Kerry to apologize.

The White House called on Kerry to apologize to the troops (from today's AP report).

Kerry's response?

Kerry, who is considering another run for the White House in 2008, told a hastily called news conference, "I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy."

But he wasn't able to hold that ground for very long. As Hedgehog Blog reported today, Kerry became kryptonite to the Democrats. They started backing away from him almost immediately.

Kerry canceled his appearance at a Democratic rally in Minnesota. He canceled his appearance at a Bob Casey event in Pennsylvania. And an Iowa candidate for the House of Representatives, Bruce Braley, canceled Kerry's campaign appearance for him later this week.

Kerry must have started facing facts, because he finally apologized to the military (HT: La Shawn Barber):

"I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform and I personally apologize to any service member, family member or American who was offended," Kerry said in a statement.

Good.

But for those on the Left who really believe what Kerry's words implied, what is the truth about the education and economic class of the military (from the WorldNetDaily article, above)?

Last year, the Heritage Foundation published a study titled, "Debunking the myth of the underprivileged soldier," which said "the typical recruit in the all-volunteer force is wealthier, more educated and more rural than the average 18- to 24-year-old citizen is."

For every two recruits coming from the poorest neighborhoods, the study said, "there are three recruits coming from the richest neighborhoods."

Notwithstanding that photo at the top, our military personnel are no slouches. It's a shame so many in our country believe they are.