Young, lanky and highly decorated from his service commanding a Navy swift boat, John Kerry sat before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and famously said, "How do you ask a man to be the last person to die for a mistake?"

Few living American politicians have had their lives so defined by war as Kerry. His wartime service and wartime protest stoked his political career in Massachusetts. His military background burnished his credentials among Democrats seeking a nominee to run against an incumbent president during wartime in 2004. And now, in a quieter time, his hair gray and reading glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, he finds himself again opposing his government's conflict.

"It's very dismaying to me at this stage of my life and career and being in the Senate, seeing us repeat those mistakes," said Kerry (D-Mass.). "It's very disturbing. We are owed something better than that."

As the Senate has debated what to do about the war in Iraq, the chamber's military veterans have been center stage. Arguing to begin withdrawing troops in the next 120 days are Vietnam veterans Kerry, Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), a veteran of World War II. On the other side, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a prisoner of war in Vietnam for 5 1/2 years, has argued for giving President Bush's "surge" strategy more time to succeed.

'A great voice' against Bush

For the Democrats, the combat credentials are a crucial shield against White House accusations of "cut and run."

"Here are men who have lived with combat and war, and I think they have been a great voice in overcoming the administration's defense," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the assistant majority leader.

In snatches, on the Senate floor and at news conferences, Kerry will return to his point of reference, Vietnam. Opponents of the withdrawal proposal argue that Iraq would be left in chaos and that genocide would occur as a result.

"We heard that argument over and over again about the bloodbath that would engulf the entire Southeast Asia, and it didn't happen," Kerry said, dismissing the charge out of hand as he argued that the American presence only makes the situation worse every day.

On the Senate floor recently, Kerry recalled his famous question before the Foreign Relations Committee in 1971.

"I never thought I would be reliving that question again. I never thought I would have parents of young Americans killed in Iraq look me in the eye and tell me: Senator, my son died in vain," said Kerry, quickly adding that no death is in vain when it is in service of the country.

In many ways, Kerry has never gotten far from Vietnam. His Senate office is something of a memorial to his time as a Navy lieutenant. There is a replica of his PCF-94 swift boat inside a glass case; jaunty photos of him with his crewmates aboard the ship; and a photograph of him receiving the Bronze Star. (He was also awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts).

But the criticism he endured for speaking out against the war in Vietnam and for speaking out against the Iraq war during his presidential campaign has lingered like an unpleasant odor.

As he fielded questions about the Iraq war debate on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" last week, a woman from Plymouth, Minn., called in to say she did not vote for him.

"The reason is, you're an old hat at undermining our troops," said the woman, who was identified as a Republican. "Do you remember meeting with the Viet Cong in Paris during the Vietnam War? And I don't know how anybody gets three Purple Hearts self-inflicted, and also, you never answered why you didn't release all of your military records."

She accused him of providing aid and comfort to Al Qaeda and concluded, "You should be ashamed of yourself."

Kerry swiftly rebutted each of her accusations, noting that he respected her opinion, "but I obviously don't agree with it."

In an interview, Kerry said he knows there are major differences between Iraq and Vietnam, particularly because terrorism is part of today's equation. But, he said, the nation should not overlook the similarities.

'Cultural arrogance'

"Vietnam was based on misleading the American people and so is this," he said. "Vietnam was based on a kind of cultural arrogance and ignorance and so is this. And the same capacity for self-deception that led to prolonging the war in Vietnam is leading to some of the self-deception and wishful thinking that is prolonging this war."

Vietnam was a civil war that required a political solution, he said, and Iraq also requires a political solution. He called U.S. policy in Iraq "a thin reed."

"I thought we had learned something from Vietnam. I thought we had learned something from a war that went on and on, a war that was escalated long after presidents and policymakers knew that no number of American troops could end the civil war between the Vietnamese," he told his colleagues in the Senate. "Here we are back in the same place today, where no number of American troops in Iraq can end a civil war between Iraqis."

To be sure, Kerry voted to authorize the war in Iraq. But he said at the time that he was doing so purely to give Bush the clout he needed to pressure Saddam Hussein's government. Nonetheless, as he repeatedly criticized the war while running for president, Republicans portrayed him as a flip-flopper of the worst kind.

Kerry said he is frustrated when he hears his Republican colleagues privately complaining about mismanagement and mistakes in the war. And he can't understand why they want to wait until September, when Gen. David Petraeus issues his report, to consider changing course. With 100 American troops dying each month, that's another 200 deaths, he said.

Just like Vietnam, he said, he has watched as generals have been dismissed for giving truthful advice and officials who should have been fired are not. The military is stretching to the breaking point, he said.

"It's painful to sort of live through it again," he said. "Here we are coming full circle, in a way, where we have young Americans fighting and dying in a war that we shouldn't be fighting."

Witnessing the toll

Not infrequently, John Kerry says, he and a fellow Massachusetts Democrat, Sen. Edward Kennedy, drive to Arlington National Cemetery to attend a military funeral for a service member killed in war. Kerry says:

"You can see the precise military honor given to each of those soldiers, the flags draping the coffin rippling in the breeze. You can see the honor guard folding that flag meticulously into that sharp triangle of blue and white stars and then handing it to the loved ones, the wife, the mother, husband, father. Then hear those words -- 'On behalf of a grateful nation' -- and watch people crumble."

jzuckman@tribune.com