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Posted on 08/12/2004 9:09:45 PM PDT by Jenya
The Swift Boat Blues
The partisans are running wild over this Swift Boat business, talk radio is crazy with it and the smell of blood is in the air. John Kerry has made a major deal of his Vietnam War record and now his opponents have opened fire on the Senator's experiences. It's all tawdry and distasteful of course, but let's examine things unemotionally.
First off, I believe Jim Rassmann when he says that Kerry saved his life by pulling him out of a Vietnam river while under fire. Rassmann is a former Green Beret, a former police officer and a long time registered Republican until earlier this year. If he says John Kerry is a hero, nobody should doubt it. Rassmann has earned the right to be trusted and insulting his testimony is way out of line.
But I also believe Steve Gardner, a former Navy gunner who was also present on one of Kerry's Swift Boats. He says the Senator wrote up a false report, neglecting to inform the Navy that he, Gardner, had accidentally shot a Vietnamese child during a firefight. This is a tough one. Gardner is implicating himself and has no reason to do so. But perhaps Kerry was looking out for him by not reporting the incident. Only Kerry knows.
It is very possible to perform heroically on some occasions and do less than admirable things on others. All human beings are flawed and we are capable of both valor and deceit. That's what I think happened here. John Kerry was brave, but was also calculating. His heroism impressed most of his Swift Boat mates, but his civilian anti-war activities and perceived grandstanding also alienated many other Vietnam Vets. And so the battle lines are drawn.
What should we, on the sidelines, make of all this? Well, it's a judgment call. It is absolutely wrong for Americans to condemn Kerry's war record because he demonstrated provable valor. However, those who distrust him do deserve to be heard although facts not emotion should be demanded.
I think the Swift Boat political advertisement calling Kerry a charlatan is in poor taste, and if this kind of thing continues it might well backfire on the Kerry haters. Most Americans are fair minded, and bitter personal attacks do not go down well with folks who are not driven by partisanship. Remember, General Wesley Clark was knocked out of the Presidential sweepstakes when he would not disown Michael Moore's insane remark that President Bush was a "deserter." Mr. Bush received an honorable discharge from the National Guard. Admiral Elmo Zumwalt pinned a medal on John Kerry's chest. The record is the record, unless rock solid proof refutes it.
The lesson here is that blind partisanship is not an attribute. No person or candidate is all good or all bad. In America today, with both sides peddling lies and defamation and spin, it is alarmingly difficult just to get simple facts on which to base a responsible vote.
Somewhere Jack Webb is weeping.
This is just flat out offensive. Ad hominem attacks and name-calling diminishes the perpetrator.
He is pro-homo. He agrees with the homo agenda. He doesn't think America should interfere with "their rights". He's very out about it. Where have you been?
Are you saying because they have "everything to lose" they should not be doing what they believe is right? No matter the price?
Ditto!!!!!!!!!!
No, he was a privilidged SOB while he was over there and he has been a privilidged SOB ever since. He didn't give a damn about what his country was trying to accomplish and he didn't give a damn about the reputations of the men over there who were doing the real fighting. He is an elitist, effete, do as I say not as I do, snob.
Is that good enough for you Mr. O'Reilly?
My first Chief was a Swift Boat vet before he converted from Gunner to an ET. I remember him telling us one day at quarters that he went home after serving 2 tours in Viet Nam and his sister's first words out of her mouth to him were "baby killer". He spent the rest of his career overseas in Japan and after 30 years retired. He never went back to the states.
Well if nothing else he's certainly moved away from his outright dismissal of the Swifties' claims a few nights ago.
Of all the condensending remarks. Well, O'Reilly (or his staff)---
"The story you are about to see is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent."
If Kerry would release his medical and military records, like he PROMISED (see Tim Russert transcripts), this could all be laid to rest. SPIN THAT.
This ain't no Project Blue Book, so get over your pompus self. (O'Neill replaced Kerry. Think about it, brainstein. Ever been a "job replacement"??? Not uncomon for folks to "talk" about the previous employee. Spin this: there are 250 swift boat "mates" who served with Kerry... who is spinning whom?)
badge number 714
COMMAND CONFIDENCE
The campaign source said that the book was not considered a "serious" problem for the campaign, because, "the media wouldn't have the nerve to come at us with this kind of stuff," says the source. "The senior staff believes the media is committed to seeing us win this thing, and that the convention inoculated us from these kinds of stories. The senior guys really think we don't have a problem here."
Lying about Cambodia seems serious because Kerry used the story to influence U.S. policy and discredit the armed forces during a time of conflict. Repeating the story over the years, says something about his CHARACTER. Call it valor if you want. I call it UNFIT TO COMMAND.
Ever since the 2002? elections the word Centrist has been tossed about because Liberals didn't want to be defined as Liberals. The word Centrist is a smokescreen for Liberal, why pretend differently?
O'Reilly isn't a conservative and he isn't a Liberal. He is an opportunist. His core value is himself. He's entitled to that value but I dislike that he believes himself to be Looking Out For Us. We're more than capable of looking out for ourselves.
Most Americans are fair minded, and bitter personal attacks do not go down well with folks who are not driven by partisanship.
Exactly. Which is why Carville, Matthews and Lanny Davis went down tonight in flames. They keep up these partison attacks against Vietname Vets authorized by the Kerry/Edwards/Clinton/DNC collective the American people are going to retaliate in a manner they may not like.
Many lives and families were destroyed by the anti-war, anti-American protestors. That's what Kerry should be judged by.
May God have mercy on his soul, because I don't.
No. I'm saying I have the utmost respect for them.
They're being sued and threaten by left wing trial lawyers in an attempt to silence them, yet these brave men keep moving on. Look what they're going through to get the truth out. Why would they do all that if what they said wasn't true?
They could lose everything to get the word out, and Kerry has everything to gain by silencing them.
Well, In Long Island, Virginia I am shaking my head and wondering how long before O'Reilly finally fades into oblivion.
What an invertebrate, Milquetoast, moral equivocating dumbass.
When he denied that he was in secret negotiations to get his own radio show [at a time when Rush had completely lost his hearing]...only to roll out with the Radio factor a little while later...that's the point when I tuned him out completely.
He's a phony from beginning to end.
Drudge pulled his card...and so has Al Franken.
Yesterday O'Reilly said the internet was buzzing about him and the swift boats and he called his detractors- " Ring Wing Jingoists."
O'Reilly is not doing any research on the SWVFT and is going in cold.
Kay?
He's made up his mind and won't let the facts or logic get in the way.
Yesterday, he announced that Kerry had only said he was in Cambodia "one time " and that was ok-just youthful bragging.
By the time O'Reilly's show had come on, there were multiple published sources cited from 1979 until 2003, where Kerry said he was in Cambodia with :
The SEALS
The CIA
One Mission
Many Missions
Running in Ammo
Searching enemy enclaves
( and now according to Drudge, he's going to claim via David Brinkley, that he was actually in Cambodia in January )
If O'Reilly is going to flak for Kerry, he should at least do his research.
But, it probably makes it easier to flak, if he doesn't know the facts-like a defense attorney tells his client-" I don't want to know if you committed the crime."
As for Kerry saving Rassmann's life-
Rassmann told Michael Kranish that the other swiftboats had turned to rescue him ,but, according to Kerry and O'Reilly-
they would have just watched while Rassmann drowned.
Rassmann was tired-he only weighed 135 lbs and had been sick
but, he wasn't going under the water.
What everyone can agree on-is that Kerry pulled Rassmann out of the water.
Kerry did not go to Rassmann-Rassmann swam to Kerry's boat-notice I said swam, as it was the closest.
Page 106-" John Kerry, The Official Biography By The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best."
Either he's not a Conservative...or neither one of you are.
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LOL!
I have lawyer friends in Houston that know O'Neill. They say O'Neill is one hell of a guy. I was told that several people tried to talk O'Neill out of doing what he's doing but he said he had no choice.
I was looking earlier trying to find a story I was sure was "out there" on O'Neill. Something about his wife being ill. I think maybe O'Neill donated an organ to her. But I could be wrong. I understand that O'Neill wanted to help address some of the issues he is talking about now months ago but would not because his wife was sick.
G-d bless all our vets. And a special thanks to all the Vietnam vets that served us with honor and dignity. Only to come back and be spat on because of John Kerry. We will never forget you! Thank you!
That'd be Loserdopian. :o)
Not in my book.
That honor goes to Brit Hume.
I hate to break it to O'Reilly, but I don't give a tinker's dam what he thinks.
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