Posted on 08/27/2004 8:40:40 AM PDT by presidio9
Edited on 08/27/2004 10:24:07 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Note: The writer of this column wishes to acknowledge her debt to the late journalist Michael Kelly, whose 1998 essay, “I Believe,” served as her template. Anyone desiring to read the original, which the author highly recommends, will find it archived here, copyright The Washington Post Company, February 4, 1998.
I believe the senator. I have always believed him. I believed him when he said he supported the war in Iraq, and I believe him now when he says he was really opposed to it all along. I believed him when he said he would take care of our troops regardless, and I believe him now when he says he was only showing them just how much he cares by voting to cut off their funding when the going got rough. I believed him when he said he was caught in the crossfire in Cambodia in 1968 and I believe him now, when he reportedly admits he wasn't.
I believed the senator when he said every last detail of that blue Cambodian Christmas was “seared” into his brain, and I believe him now when he says he’s not quite sure if his recollection of that blessed event is solid. And I most certainly believed him when he testified before the transparently non-partisan Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971, swearing America made him commit horrific but strategically needful acts, like hunting down cattle and dogs for sport. I believe the senator and his fellow Vietnam Veterans Against the War were motivated by nothing but patriotism and love for their vile country.
I believe the senator’s totally unsolicited television appearance on the Dick Cavett show in April 1971 was in truth doctored, even then, by the radical right-wing Carlyle cabal, operating in concert with the Saudi royal family, the CIA, and the reactionary conservative media conglomerate, News Corp. I believe in a secret, subterranean, centralized corporate authority.
I believe in the Kerry standard of adherence to the First Amendment, enunciated by the senator in his formal complaint to the FCC accusing the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the Bush campaign of illegally conspiring to discredit him--a standard which holds that censorship is okay so long as it acts to suppress speech in instances where there exists "overwhelming evidence [of] coordination with the Bush campaign." I note with appreciation the senator’s use of the word “overwhelming.” I believe the senator when he says there is no evidence of any similar coordination between his own campaign and MoveOn.org.
I believe the senator when he says Bush’s attorney, Benjamin Ginsberg, is clearly in bed with special interests, and I believe him when he says his own lawyer, Joe Sandler, clearly is not. I believe counselors like Ginsberg who represent campaigns, parties, and soft groups simultaneously are all acting illegally, even though the law and the FEC declare they aren’t. I agree with the senator that all lawyers working in conjunction with the Bush reelection team and the SBVT are automatically suspect, and I agree with him, too, that counselors representing the DNC and their sludge funds are by default not even remotely fishy.
I believe the senator has the right to criticize his country, just as I believe VVAW had the right to criticize it, too. And I believe the senator now has the right to force John O’Neill to abrogate his right to criticize the senator, just as I believe the SBVT should be forced to abrogate its right to criticize the senator, too. I believe those sixty-some-odd veterans who signed affidavits are all lying, just as I believe the senator and his massive army of eight are the only ones telling the truth.
I believe the senator is being sincere when he lauds Michael Moore, whom he thinks should never be censored, and I believe he’s being sincere, too, when he denounces Paul Galanti, whom he thinks must be. I believe the senator is being sincere when he condemns as illicit the $17 million in 527 and 501 soft money the Bush campaign has raised thus far, and I believe he’s being sincere when he condones the $186 million his own campaign has to date accumulated by these same unquestionably above-board means.
I believe the senator when he says he favors a strong national defense, and I believe he was in fact actively strengthening our nation’s defenses throughout the 1990s by systematically hacking military and intelligence budgets to bits, and by voting to slay every single major weapons system that ever dared lumber across the Senate floor.
I see nothing suspicious in the report that the senator was awarded the Purple Heart for sustaining mortal scratches etched by whizzing bullets on December 2, 1968, even though he wrote in his journal a full nine days later, on December 11, that he and his crew in the Viet Cong had not yet “been shot at.” I believe the Purple Heart was similarly bestowed upon every rice-paddy warrior, who, like John Forbes Kerry, suffered self-inflicted, practically lethal nicks, cuts, and bruises, and I believe, too, that the Bronze Star and other medals of valor are routinely granted for knee scrapes.
I believe the terror threat was first invented and then exaggerated by the Cheney administration in order to build a pipeline in Afghanistan and seize Iraq’s vast oil reserves on behalf of Hallow-burton. I believe George W. Bush is personally responsible for every single plight the world has known since 9/11 and for every single individual grievance, too. I believe Michael Moore, Al Gore, Howard Dean, Paul Krugman, Jim Hightower, Jeff Rense and Janet Jackson are all part of a vast left-wing anti-conspiracy truth squad called Bush-Busters. Especially Janet Jackson.
I believe that robots are stealing my luggage.
Mr. Pittman, I have this lovely bridge to sell you...
That's his queer eye!
Yeah, Michael Kelly was one of my intellectual heroes after 9/11. I don't know any other writer who hit so many "home runs" in his columns, arguing for moral clarity, not moral relativism. I was really sad when he was killed in Iraq.
I believe it also, after all he didn't give me my pony!
IIRC, Kelly was killed in an accident, an overturned car, I believe.
Thanks. I now think very highly of Karen Pittman, and if she's reading, I apologize for doubting her.
That was so thick that I had to wipe the dripping sarcasm off my monitor! I'm sure the title roped in lots of pro-Kerry dupes, and hopefully they read well into the article before they realized the sarcasm. Even more, I hope the dupes were spurred into questioning their boy's words.
Yeah, I've read a couple reports about the incident, during the approach to the Baghdad airport. The nightime assault to the airport was fast, with firing on both sides & blackout driving over unfamiliar terrain. Kelly took some real risks by joing in the assault. Unfortunately, the risk caught up with him. To say he was killed in a "car accident" doesn't really capture the circumstances, in my opinion, but in the end I guess it doesn't really matter whether the death is called "combat" or "accident" or whatever.
I believe John Kerry .... is the biggest waste of protoplasm I have ever had the misfortune to hear about!
Watch out Annie, you've got some serious competition here.
I love it!!!!!!! Good Job!!!!!!!!
LOL
Great Post. A spot-on echo of one of Michael Kelly's columns. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Excellent post
BTTT
"I believe George W. Bush is personally responsible for every single plight the world has known since 9/11 and for every single individual grievance, too."
I can't stop laughing reading this. Nice post!
Well, good for you Ms. Pittman because I don't believe John Kerry. I also think he was planted by the Clintons because they believe deception and sacrifice of their fellow man is the only way they can win.
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