Smear Boat Veterans for Bush (Gag Alert)

Salon.com ^ | 5/4/04 | Joe Conason

[South40]

The "swift boat" veterans attacking John Kerry's war record are led by veteran right-wing operatives using the same vicious techniques they used against John McCain four years ago.

The latest conservative outfit to fire an angry broadside against John Kerry's heroic war record is "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" , which today launches a campaign to brand the Democrat "unfit to serve as commander in chief." Billing itself as representing the "other 97 percent of veterans" from Kerry's Navy unit who don't support his presidential candidacy, the group insists that all presidential candidates must be "totally honest and forthcoming" about their military service.

These "swift boat vets" claim still to be furious about Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony against the war in which he spoke about atrocities in Indochina's "free fire zones." More than three decades later, facing the complicated truth about Vietnam remains difficult. But this group's political connections make clear that its agenda is to target the election of 2004.

Behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are veteran corporate media consultant and Texas Republican activist Merrie Spaeth, who is listed as the group's media contact; eternal Kerry antagonist and Dallas attorney John E. O'Neill, law partner of Spaeth's late husband, Tex Lezar; and retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffman, a cigar-chomping former Vietnam commander once described as "the classic body-count guy" who "wanted hooches destroyed and people killed."

[Petronski]

Remember the rule: whenever you post Conason, you must also post a picture....

....of a feminine hygiene product:

[blackdog]

Just curious Mr Connason, what viscious right wing attack machine tactics were used by Bush against McCainiac in 2000?

I seem to remember it was McCainiac who was doing the splainin..........I do miss seeing his hotty stepford wife though. High as a kite hottie she was.

[talleyman]

Anyone got a link to the photo of Kerry on his bike from May 2nd? I've been trying to find "Hair Dork One" and can't.

[GOP_1900AD]

Ooops - VRWC....

[Poohbah]

I suppose they've got to counter this effort for truth with something. But the fact is, this veteran group consists of both Democrats AND Republicans, all who deem Kerry unfit to serve as POTUS.

Note how John O'Neill is phrasing it--that the group will "go away" if Kerry is NOT nominated.

I think we all have an idea who's behind this. I shan't name names, but her initials are Hillary Clinton (c8

[itsnevertoolate]

Sorry, don't have time to format the html. I'm on lunch break.

from http://www.antiwar.com/justin/pf/p-j042701.html

Behind the Headlines
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
April 27, 2001
IS BOB KERREY A WAR CRIMINAL?
Yes.
Former Senator Bob Kerrey (D-Nebraska) was a presidential hopeful and a rising star in the Democratic party when, for some reason, this January he suddenly decided to drop out of politics. At the time, his decision puzzled his friends and supporters: now, they know why. For he knew that the real story about what happened "One Awful Night in Thanh Phong" – as Gregory L. Vistica's piece on Kerrey's career as a war criminal is entitled – was about to come out. If you want to read a story that just about sums up the horror and immorality of the Vietnam war, then follow the link to the New York Times Magazine article by Vistica on the 1969 massacre carried out by "Kerrey's Raiders" in the small Vietnamese hamlet of Thanh Phong. According to Vistica, Kerrey, in command of an operation to "take out" a local Vietcong official, led a small band of American soldiers as they slaughtered at least 13 civilians, including women, old men, and children. Sicken yourself, and read the nausea-inducing account of how Kerrey and the men under his command came upon a Vietnamese dwelling, which Kerrey claims they did not know contained an old man, an old woman, and three children, and slaughtered them all. Kerrey does not deny it, exactly, but is obviously trying to minimize his own role. However, dramatic testimony by Gerhard Klann – a former Navy Seal and member of "Kerrey's Raiders" who has been haunted by the truth all these years – tells a different story.

[...]

These rules – obey, or die – were enforced to the hilt by local American commanders, such as Captain Roy Hoffmann, Kerrey's superior in the chain of command, described by Vistica as "a cigar-chomping officer who brandished an M-16 assault rifle and wore a revolver when he visited troops in the field." Kerrey recalls that "he was the classic body-count guy. Bunkers destroyed, hooches [houses] destroyed, sort of [a] scorekeeper." Hoffmann gives the classic apologia for the massacre at Thanh Phong: "This was war," Hoffmann said in an interview with Vistica. "This wasn't Sunday school." And Hoffman was determined that it would never be mistaken for Sunday school. He requested, and was granted, a request to higher-ups that the rules be changed. Up until this point, US troops had not been allowed to fire unless they were fired upon first: now, they were allowed to shoot if they "felt threatened." "I told them you not only have authority, I damned well expect action. If there were men there and they didn't kill them or capture them, you'd hear from me."

[DLfromthedesert]

I don't recall Conason having similar concerns when the "Jersey girls" attacked the President re his "failures concerning the attacks of 9/11.

[Kozak]

Listening to a tape of the Swift boat vets now on local radio (WTMJ 620 Milwaukee). Their web site is swiftvets.com They are SLAMMING Kerry. EVERY OFFICER in his chain of command has signed on about how UNFIT he is. DEVASTATING!.

[cyncooper]

Memo to little Joey Conason: "Smearing" is calling George W. Bush a "deserter" when he wasn't.

[7thson]

I was under the impression that we could and should not criticize Viet Nam vets. After all, who are we to question their patriotism. /sarcasm.

Isn't that the line of the Kerry camp.

[Gothmog]

Well, Ill answer my own question. The quote comes from Kerry's biographer, David Brinkley. It seems Kerry didn't like then-Captain Hoffman's strategy of actually engaging the enemy. Maybe that's why he was so eager to bug out. The mission changed from patroling the coast from a safe distance.

You can find the quote in this pro-Kerry article in Washington Monthly, April 4, 2004:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0404.perry.html

The author of this article quoting Brinkley, James M. Perry, is described as a former WSJ political reporter. A quick search of Google Groups unearthed a few old 1980-90s articles by Perry.

They seem to have a common thread. Mr. Perry doesn't like the Christian Right. The articles I have skimmed through seem to be warning that the evil Christians are taking over the GOP. Horrors!

[RichInOC]

You know, Joe, John Kerry actually supported the war before he protested against it.

[King Prout]

good lord!
I know it doesn't actually say what it LOOKS like it says...

[doug from upland]

For those who are new, don't miss this thread that delightfully mocks Joe Conason --- ULTIMATE CLINTON BUTTBOY JOE CONASON RUNS AWAY CRYING FROM FREEPER ON GLORIA ALLRED SHOW

[Belisaurius]

Since we're so holier-then-though about Kerry's 'service', I'd love to hear about what Conalson and McAuliffe did. Did they ever serve? Probably not.

[Steven W.]

Besides, Conason is attacking the patriotism of these honorable men.

[Gothmog]

Thanks for your help, from work and everything! While you were reponding I found a similar answer (see post #31). It seems from these articles neither Kerry nor Kerrey liked Hoffman. Funny how he made it to Rear Admiral being so unpopular. Here's what I found in Washington Monthly, 4/4/04:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0404.perry.html

"In charge of the campaign, dubbed Operation Sealords, was a figure straight out of Catch-22, Capt. Roy Hoffman. According to [Kerry biographer David] Brinkley, Hoffman 'sought to convince his Swift boat skippers to do whatever it took to notch splashy victories in the Mekong Delta and thereby get him promoted.' Up until Hoffman's arrival, Swift boat crews had broken the monotony of routine offshore patrols by dashing up the Mekong Delta distributaries, in areas swarming with Viet Cong, with guns blazing, just for sport. To Hoffman, it was a lot more than that--seeing in such theatrical operations his path to success and glory, he made those hell-for-leather dashes the key part of the little boats' mission.

"Kerry came almost immediately to understand--as did almost everybody assigned to the Swift boats--that there was no point to these mad runs. The boats had no armor to protect them from enemy fire. They were accompanied by no infantry, save for occasional Navy SEALs hitching rides. Without infantry support, there was no chance of occupying Viet Cong territory or running down significant numbers of VC soldiers. The boats' engines were so noisy that when the wind was right they could be heard coming from three miles away, and, perhaps for that reason, had enormous trouble running down junks and sampans infiltrating weapons to the enemy. 'For anyone wanting to smuggle contraband, we actually made the task easier,' Kerry confided in his journal. 'All they had to do was hide in a mangrove or in a small canal until we had passed by.' The fact is, Kerry confessed, in all the time he served in his two Swift boats in Vietnam, he and his men never tracked down any contraband--not so much as a single rifle cartridge."

I guess Kerry is consistent on one thing -- never wanting to take action.

[MamaLucci]

Head cheerleader for the lying draft dodger, BJ Clinton.

[Tacis]

This is such typical crap weasel stuff. If Joe can't claim that Kerry wasn't a triator and coward and didn't desert his men if the face of the enemy, he attacks the folks raising the issues and challenges their motivation. Next, I suppose, comes the diversion where the traitor tries to deflect truth by trying to change the subject.

It is just what Willie did before he admitted his crimes and barely missed being removed from office. The shame, filth and corruption still surronds Willie and all those who lied for him.

The most beautiful aspect of Kerrys shameful military record and his subsequent efforts to lie to cover the truth is that none (or, few) of us whould ever have been concerned about what happened 30 years ago if these very same crap weasels hadn't tried to fabricate something about Bush's military record. Bush didn't have anything to hide, however and hadn't lied for years to cover, at the very least, the fact that he bugged out on his men.

[Larry Lucido]

Rear Adm. Roy Hoffman, a cigar-chomping former Vietnam commander once described as "the classic body-count guy" who "wanted hooches destroyed and people killed."

Joe Conason, once described (by me) as a "cross-dressing retard" who "wanted to be young again so Michael Jackson would give him attention."