By your reasoning, Edwards is also somehow less than qualified to talk about war related issues since he also received a student deferment during Vietnam, along with a lot of other people. Was Bush a draft dodger for joining the Guard? If he was, then so were Dick Gephard and a lot of others.

Kerry volunteered for the Navy when he couldn't get a 1 year deferment to go to France. He requested Swiftboat duty at a time when it was doing low risk coastal patrols, only to find the mission had changed when he got there. By some accounts, he did pretty good but not extraordinary service while in Vietnam.

When he came back, he joined a radical outfit called Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). His 1971 Senate testimony was based on the "Winter Soldier" investigation. Only, many of those "Winter Soldiers" were imposters who made false charges of atrocities. Kerry painted with a very broad brush with his atrocity claims, and a lot of Vietnam Vets have never (and will never) forgive him for it.

Were there atrocities commited by Americans during that war? Sadly, yes, with My Lai (sp) being the most noticeable example. When those incidents were discovered, they were prosecuted, not excused.