Posted on 08/19/2004 12:19:25 PM PDT by Reagan Man
The greatest frustration of the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" is the establishment media's reluctance to explore their powerful testimony. Follow running mate John Edwards' advice and spend three minutes with "those men who served with" John Kerry in Vietnam, and you sense the disgust over this absence of dedication.
Compounding it all are the escalating personal attacks unrelated to the substance of these first-hand accounts and the vigor displayed in digging into President Bush's service and even the backgrounds of the "Swifties."
Indeed, Kerry seems to have predicted this behavior, leaning heavily on his wartime experience despite possible revelations conflicting with his claimed history. These lurk in medical records, personal diaries and an angry first book, "The New Soldier."
Kerry has restricted access to all of these as best he can, respectively refusing to sign the "Standard Form 180" to allow public inspection of his records, keeping his diaries remarkably secret given his focus on Vietnam and prohibiting the book's reprinting.
It now appears, however, that these efforts might not have been enough. Upon scrutiny, even Kerry's carefully shepherded official biography not only supports Swiftie claims, but also could prompt calls for broader access to the diaries and possibly even the medical records to resolve the controversies raised by eyewitnesses.
Kerry granted historian Douglas Brinkley access to the diaries in order to write his official biography, "Tour of Duty." This fawning effort is based largely on that access.
However, left-wing journalists Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair apparently were not convinced by at least those portions they have seen. They are presently excerpting their work, "Hail, the Conquering War Criminal Comes," at the liberal website www.counterpunch.org.
Published excerpts include a startling claim by Kerry's peers that the candidate obtained his first Purple Heart for a self-inflicted wound. Military regulations prohibit such awards, and Kerry sought the decoration on the basis that the wound resulted from hostile fire.
Kerry's story is widely disputed by fellow Swifties in the extensively documented "Unfit for Command" by John O'Neill and Jerry Corsi. Yet Kerry's own words challenging his claim are on page 189 of "Tour of Duty" -- if unforgivably glossed over by Brinkley.
Kerry's biographer did find plenty of space to dramatize Kerry's narrative of how he came to be wounded (including the date).
As told by Cockburn and St. Clair, in "an entry from his diary about a subsequent excursion, written on Dec. 11, 1968, nine days after the incident that got Kerry his medal," Kerry asserted that his crew remained cocky and feeling invincible "because we hadn't been shot at yet, and Americans at war who haven't been shot at yet are allowed to be cocky." Brinkley cites this same entry but avoids assigning it a date. That might be too obvious, apparently.
Regardless, this plainly reads as an admission that two weeks after a purported firefight, Kerry in fact had yet to face combat. Given that Kerry's boatmates of that night also question the presence of hostile fire, this should settle things. Voters can be spared surrogates lacking first-hand knowledge sent to shout down eyewitness testimony.
For the voter who accepts John Kerry as a credible source, this finally represents an actual witness to address the charges that no hostile fire was involved in the wound for which Kerry received his first Purple Heart. Add this to the "Christmas in Cambodia" fiasco, which has reduced Kerry to saying in effect that "it depends on what the meaning of the word 'in' is," and the thread begins to unravel.
Regrettably, eyewitness claims by those satisfying the "Edwards test" for veracity remain uninteresting to the establishment media. Who will show the courage, at the risk of politically wounding a favored candidate, to potentially put these significant disputes to rest?
That would be the result if Sen. Kerry were to open his diaries to scrutiny and match President Bush's disclosure by signing the Standard Form 180. (Bush, as president, did not need to sign the form but simply ordered that access be given; this already has been distorted as Kerry-like in refusal.)
Of course, that could also seal the professional fate of Brinkley's career as a credible historian, since he has already been forced to issue a corrected version of "Tour."
Among other errors, Brinkley was cited for conveniently failing to locate sailors who served with Kerry but vocally opposed his claims. Adding up these sins of omission certainly gives Brinkley the appearance of being as much an enabler as an educator.
Would such exposure also prompt efforts, possibly underway already, to draft Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York to save the Democratic Party from certain disaster? It seems inescapable that if this central pillar of Kerry's campaign proves as false as eyewitnesses and now Kerry's biography indicate, he would be shown the door.
At this point, the only missing element may be a vigilant press, which may be the very reason for their dallying.
(Christopher C. Horner is a Washington, D.C., attorney who has defended the Swift Vets on several television and radio programs.)
Except for the fact that the RAT party has no qualms about keeping lying, vermin and scum in party leadership roles. In fact, those character flaws are a prerequisite to being in the RAT party.
Hopefully, for Kerry, "The gig is up."
Here's on for xshub.........kerry'a autobiography supports the swift boat vets.......
Ah, Brinkley, you sunk yourself.
Dead on!
That's the question I want asked.
Why have you prohibited the book's reprinting?
Remember, dems lie to their journals!!! LOL
ping
Ask a 'Rat voter this question:
Assuming that it is true that Kerry lied to get his first two Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star in Vietnam, do you think this reflects poorly on him and would it make you less likely to vote for him?
You will be amazed to hear them say that they don't care if the medals are faked, and that faked medals are not relevant to Kerry's qualifications to be President.
I heard on Rush today that the press(ABC, NBC, CBS) did 75 stories on the "AWOL Bush" lie, and to this point have only done 9 concerning the service record of Comrade kerry.
And they say there's no bias in the MSM, aka. LMSM. Riiiiiiiiight!
Not sure how he can prohibit the book's reprinting.
Does not the publisher 'own' the book.
I would think that with all the controversy/commotion going on over his service record, the book coul hit the best seller list.
In keeping with the democrat precedent set during clinton's regime, Kerry will have to admit he lied to his diary.
Brinkley is a tool and he knows it. He will be flushed by history with the like of doris goodwin.
Does not the publisher 'own' the book.
This is from See BS? Wow.
BUMP FOR SUPPORT SWIFTVETS HERE... http://www.swiftvets.com/
Not CBS. CNS.
My mistake. If it were SeeBS that would really be something. One can only hope they'll wake up.
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