'The Last Mission' -The Swift Boat Veterans gather to assess their impact on the campaign.

opinionjournal.com ^ | Monday, November 15, 2004 | opinionjournal.com

[crushelits]

BOCA RATON, Fla.--"The last mission of Vietnam War veterans ended on Nov. 3, at 2:08 p.m. Eastern Time, when John Kerry conceded the presidential race to George W. Bush," announced James Warner, a lawyer who was a Marine pilot in Vietnam and spent five years and five months in Hanoi as a prisoner of war. On Saturday night, Mr. Warner gave a "debriefing" on the role that two controversial groups of veterans played in raising doubts about John Kerry's fitness to serve as commander in chief. His audience consisted of attendees at Restoration Weekend, an annual gathering of political activists organized by David Horowitz, a former left-wing radical who fought to undermine the Vietnam War effort as an editor of Ramparts magazine, but who has now changed sides and become a leading conservative writer.

As the evening proceeded and one Vietnam veteran after another shared the story of how veterans felt compelled to attack Mr. Kerry for his 1971 testimony branding fellow veterans as war criminals, former CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg leaned back in his chair in amazement. "I think some of them are too intense," he told me. "But screwing with these guys by accusing them of atrocities was one of the biggest mistakes John Kerry ever made. Thirty years later he woke a sleeping giant."

[noodler]

I would not say it is the last mission.These aprox 250 heroes/gents/citizens with direct knowledge of the type and scope kerry built a false status upon demonstrated they retain more virility than the entire demrat horde of millions.

[ClaireSolt]

I think they added an interesting dimension to the campaign, and I think we should oppose efforts to limit participation only to the candidates and their boring ads.

[The Sons of Liberty]

I believe that when the definitive history of the 2004 Election is written, the Swift Boat Vets will at least be credited with energizing the Bush campaign at a time it appeared to be languishing.

I personally believe they should be credited for much, much more. They made certain that a number of critical flaws concerning John Kerry's personality and background became pretty much common knowledge among the electorate. These traits demonstrated that he was "Unfit for Command", particularly Commander in Chief.