Posted on 08/07/2004 1:23:14 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Theres dissention in the ranks and the smell of mutiny on deck as a parade of Vietnam veterans who served with and/or knew John Kerry in Vietnam come forward to denounce him as a leader, officer and veteran. This situation has helped becalm Kerrys already some say foundering campaign warship, which got little if any boost from the Democratic National Convention and which also got about the same result from Kerrys selection of John Edwards as his vice-presidential running mate.
Kerrys latest headache is followed by frustrating events like Shove-It-Gate, Sandy Bergers light-fingers episode in the National Archives, and Kerrys voting to send the United States to war and then voting to not authorize funds earmarked to buy those troops weapons and equipment for that war.
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, founded in May 2004, consists of hundreds of Vietnam veterans who served in Swift Boat units there. This group has released an anti-Kerry ad in which a host of vets, some saying they knew Kerry personally and others saying they served with him and saw him in action, call him a liar, a fraud and an all-around untrustworthy officer.
This annoys Kerry because far more of his fellow Swift Boats vets have lined up against him than have signed up for him. It doesnt help matters when only two of the officers in Kerrys division, out of twenty-some-odd men, endorse him for president. Nor does it help when the rear admiral who was Kerrys boss vehemently says Kerry is unfit to be our commander in chief. And when a superior officer of Kerrys steps up and says one of Kerrys Purple Hearts was bogus, i.e., it was a miniscule (fixed with a Band-Aid) self-inflicted wound that Kerry got in a firefight that involved no enemy fire whatsoever, that isnt good, either. (According to this officer, Kerry improperly fired a grenade at some Vietnamese he thought were the enemy. The grenade hit too close to Kerry and a tiny piece of shrapnel nicked him. No enemy were involved in the incident. Kerry asked this superior officer to put him in for a Purple Heart, but the officer refused. But Kerry somehow ended up with the medal anyway. Some vets have insinuated Kerry put himself in for the medal, but that is unproven.)
Sen. John McCain, also a Vietnam veteran but who never served with Kerry, is calling the ad dishonest and dishonorable. Many vets want to know why McCain thinks this way, as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did serve with Kerry. Why are these vets the bad guys if they served with Kerry and have a different opinion of him?
What do I think of Kerrys medals? I have not and will not form an opinion, because I was not there. No veteran who did not serve with Kerry should say a damn word about Kerrys medals. And the Bush campaign is right not to comment on Kerrys medals. But these other vets who served with Kerry and who now oppose him have the right to voice their opinions, and McCain is wrong to attack and degrade them simply because their opinions differ from his.
###
Bob Newman, a decorated, retired US Marine, is co-host of "Redmond & Newman http://www.khow.com/hosts/redmond_newman.html on 630 KHOW in Denver. His Global Positioning Statement, a daily insiders update on the war on terror, is carried by various Clear Channel radio stations from coast to coast. A ground-combat veteran, Gunny Bob is the director of international security & counterterrorism services for The GeoScope Group and is the military & terrorism columnist for The Denver Daily News.
bobnewman@clearchannel.com
The truth will always make it self known. Always.
What in the world is the Denver Daily News??
I thought they had the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post??
Swift-Boat "Journalism."
As dominant media tracking
the claims of the spokespeople flacking
against or in favor
of viewpoints we savor,
we're balanced reporting such flacking.
We're equally quick to disfavor
attackers of viewpoints we favor
as when we condemn
the ones who defend
attacks from the viewpoints we favor.
So therefore, we cannot perceive
the reason so many believe
we're biased not fair
in print or on air
on viewpoints in which we believe.
We're sure 'twas our duty to push
the claims charging "AWOL" by Bush
and equally sure
critiques from the tours
of Swift Boats we needn't have pushed.
In choosing the news to be pandered,
we're Media "Swift Boat" Commanders
obliged to suppress
the views we detest
and pacify those of our camber.
The dominant media have demonstrated greater credulity in propagandistic allegations by Michael Moore than first-person assertions by Swift-Boat Veterans who served on missions with, although not under, Kerry in Vietnam. The dominant media do not view the Democrats' treatment of Michael Moore as an honored guest (seated with Jimmy Carter) at their convention in Boston as being mean-spirited, yet they are prepared to view as mean-spirited the inability of Bush to silence the Swift-Boat Veterans. Furthermore, if Kerry's service to his country in Vietnam entitles him to be heard about his service there and to defame the service of others as he has done, the Swift-Boat Veterans' service to their country entitles them to be heard regarding their first-person observations of his service as well as what they deem to have been his post-Vietnam defamation of virtually all who served in Vietnam.
http://polisat.com/DailyPoliticalSatire-Commentary/du20y04m08d06-01.htm
Aye matey. I am the last one left who supports Hanoi John Kerry.
Has Kerry, himself, made any remarks about
the Swift Boat Vets?
ping
Not that I've heard. He'll let his surrogates speak for him.
Good to see you back again, CW, and posting. We are going to need you in the next few months. You find such interesting articles.
We've got to pin him (Kerry) down on this issue.
Somebody needs to ask Kerry if he thinks any of the
SB Vets are untruthful. We need to force Kerry to
personally refute the allegations (of the SBVs).
Thanks patj.
He left out the dismissal of Joseph Wilson (after being caught lying through his teeth), along with Richard Clarke.
So far, that's 3 major members of the campaign have been removed and the little wifey had a filthy mouth.
***As the candidate made note of all the young children staying up late to greet him, the crowd cleaved into choruses of ''We want Bush" and ''Kerry!"
Kerry then said: ''That's all right. Let 'em chant, ladies and gentlemen, because they've only got three more months to chant. They don't want to hear the truth! . . . But John Edwards and I are going to tell America the truth."
Yet even the four-term senator from Massachusetts seemed a bit rattled, making an odd promise that ''graduate school is going to be there" someday for the children who turned out that night to see a man who would be president.*** Source Boston Globe
The analogy that comes to mind is a trial where the defendant or defendant's lawyer must make the decision to personally testify or not. Generally, if the defendant is actually guilty, the decision is to not testify.
Yeah, right.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.