Posted on 08/10/2004 4:40:23 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Truth bound to come out on Kerry's military duty
August 10, 2004
BY JOHN O'SULLIVAN
When Sen. John Kerry saluted and announced that he was "reporting for duty" at last month's Democratic Convention, he made his military record a legitimate subject of political attack and journalistic investigation. That moment was the culmination of the powerful "Vietnam theme" that has distinguished the Kerry presidential campaign from almost all recent Democratic campaigns.
He had turned around a failing primary season in Iowa with the filmed testimony of the sailor whose life he saved when he pulled him back into the swift boat in which they served. He had taken former swift boat veterans along with him on the campaign trail. And in Boston he filled the podium with these veterans and retired senior military officers to hammer home the message that the Democrats under John Kerry are safe on security. Kerry has done everything possible to reassure the voters -- and thereby to neutralize a long-standing Republican advantage -- on national security.
It was always, however, a risky strategy. After all, Kerry had first come to public prominence as a passionate anti-war protester who in congressional hearings and on television programs had accused the U.S. armed forces in Vietnam of regularly and habitually committing war crimes. There was a serious clash of narratives here: How could he both maintain the truth of his charges and take pride in his war service -- even citing it as a reason to vote for him? And if he did both, was he not asking the American people to elect a war criminal as their chief executive?
Earlier this year Kerry tried to finesse the issue by apologizing for possible exaggerations but not quite withdrawing the accusation either. But that made matters worse -- for a reason that in retrospect seems obvious but that none of the seasoned campaign professionals around Kerry apparently foresaw.
For some years many Vietnam veterans had quietly seethed at Kerry for profiting politically from his attacks on their service. Now that Kerry was in the running to become president -- while maintaining his accusations, however half-heartedly -- they were provoked into responding. The results are the book Unfit for Service, co-authored by John O'Neill, who succeeded Kerry as the swift boat captain in Vietnam, and a television ad from "Swift Boat Veterans For Truth" (www.swiftvets,com) in which former veterans who served with Kerry in Vietnam attack his record. More than 250 such veterans are claimed in support of these attacks.
These allegations against Kerry in Unfit to Serve and in supporting statements by the veterans are as numerous, specific, detailed and shameful (well, almost as shameful) as the allegations he leveled against the U.S. armed forces in the early 1970s. They include that Kerry repeatedly claimed to have fought in Cambodia on Christmas Day 1968 when all his commanding officers deny the claim; that he received a medal for a wound that was accidentally self-inflicted, and that he first left the fight before returning to save the vet whose rescue earned Kerry another medal.
These allegations are both more serious and better supported by evidence than, for instance, the claim that George W. Bush shirked his duty in the National Guard. They are exactly the kind of charges that would set off a firestorm of controversy in normal circumstances. Yet a strange nervous silence, broken only by a handful of stories and commentaries, has settled over the story.
The Kerry campaign, for very obvious reasons, is seeking to suppress the story, sending out lawyer's letters to television stations warning them against running the ad. The Bush campaign, nervous that the story will backfire, is quietly dissociating itself. Sen. John McCain is running interference for Kerry, partly out of habit, and partly because one of the financial backers of the ad also supported a dubious campaign against him in the 2004 South Carolina primary. The public understandably does not like to be told that heroes have feet of clay. And the media . . . ah, the media.
As the recent Pew poll demonstrated, there really is liberal media bias. Only 7 percent of the national press describe themselves as conservative. Establishment journalists would almost certainly prefer the swift boat allegations simply go away. But the matter is not that simple. To begin with, the press has an obligation to follow its own rules. A major story needs two sources to justify publication. These stories have more than 250 sources; they are retired senior officers; and they are not skulking in the shadows but putting their names and reputations behind the allegations.
Even if the major media decided to bury this story, they would probably not succeed -- and they know as much. The "blogosphere" -- that voluntary society of unpaid free-lance journalists -- is following the story avidly, correcting errors, producing original documents, sifting through different accounts. Some bloggers are for Kerry, some against, but all are together advancing the story by winnowing truth from falsehood. Unless the bloggers conclusively acquit Kerry before the story migrates outwards, the mainstream media will eventually be forced to devote serious resources to it.
What will they find? Until some further digging is done, no one can be sure. Kerry may indeed be fully acquitted. For what it's worth, my own view is that Kerry went out to Vietnam hoping to get a warrior's medals and credentials as the basis for a political career. He behaved bravely in some circumstances and exaggerated his bravery in others. He even took a film camera along to re-enact his heroic exploits for later campaign commercials.
He returned home, however, to find that the war had become deeply unpopular. Nothing daunted, he re-invented himself as an anti-war veteran, and prospered on that basis. In 2004, however, he was running for president in a political climate that had changed yet again -- one in which his Vietnam heroics might be usefully exploited to win patriotic marks. Where were those old medals he hadn't thrown away. . .
I'm waiting for Katie to tell the story objectively.... hum, hum, hum... still waiting...
ABC News on the radio this morning at least reported a sound byte from the Swift Vet who was on Nightline. Its a start!
Are you suggesting the press is like a pack of poodles?
Worked with a man for years and he mentioned being in Vietnam only once. While we were talking about teenagres he mentioned when he was 19 he never thought he would live to be 20. He was a helicopter door gunner in Vietnam. Never mentioned anything again.
Our boss went there and had been a POW for about a year. Never heard that from him. He was still wearing a POW braclet 20 years later.
"The press is like a dog"
Hey now - thats really unfair to dogs. Dogs are cool :)
I don't see a precedent for that, though I may not be looking hard enough. Please share an example if you can think of one.
On the contrary, I see more precedent that the media would support kerry to the bitter end and beyond, even if they knew he was going to lose. kerry losing would present an opportunity for the media to take a closer look at what went "wrong" (as opposed to what went right) in the electoral process. The media will cash in on the opportunity to navel gaze on end about how all indicators pointed to a kerry victory and that somehow the American public did not turn out to support the right candidate. There will be a little finger pointing, with some casting blame on others for not predicting such a disastrous outcome, others will give credit to those that foresaw the disaster, and ultimately a few media elite will rise to the top and be rewarded with a cable network talk show with some clever name that will serve as a reminder to us all of how America got it wrong. (Bushwhacked, Ambushed, or some such name). : )
I have heard that this statement is TRUE.
I have heard that this statement is FALSE.
Still waiting to hear who this backer is so that we can go check the records and get the real answer. One would think that any really competent reporter would have done this for us.
According to the Swift Boat Veterans, John Kerry endangered Rassmann's life before he saved it. Yeah, ha ha, it is another one of those "Kerry did x before he did y" statements, but the sad fact of the matter is that it's likely true. Those other boats were there and they witnessed the same events. And it isn't as much Kerry's heroism that is being questioned as it is Kerry's integrity.
I know what you mean, I've been friends with a Korean War vet (187 RCT Airborne) and retired, decorated NY cop for over 20 years and only recently has he told more than a few humorous stories from those years of his life, the ones he has told recently are hair raisers, even so he doesn't make himself the hero of those tales (tho' he is, wounded twice in Korea and 3 times decorated for bravery as a cop, his wife showed me the citations and medals).
Perfect description!!
"Maybe someone will post it. I don't like to post anything I couldn't make myself read all the way through."
I read it, and I won't post it either, I cannot believe they ran that piece, and I told them so in a response. Rassmann didn't address, or even MENTION, Kerry's conduct after he returned from Vietnam. People want to ignore that, but it cannot be ignored. This whole John Kerry, war hero, stuff just makes me sick. And believe me, just going by their own version, shooting one fleeing viet cong solider and pulling out one American sailor (who Kerry caused to fall in the water), well I'm sorry, that to me does not make you a big war hero.
"I have no politics. I love pretty little orchids, and cultivating orchids is my hobby, not politics" and then says "I was a Republican for 30 years, I'm not a Democrat, it's just that I love John Kerry so much that . . . "
This guy is so disingenuous it's painful. I'd love to know what he really did in the course of his one tour.
I would like to nominate Carters forgiving the Cowards that left this country to avoid the draft as an insult to all of us that served Honorably.
How very true!
As I explained to my children, and now my grandchildren. The dogs are just "dumb" animals. They must be cared for by us, and they are our responsibility.
They [children] understand after a while that you don't mean the dogs are stupid. ;)
Well one example is in the polls they conduct. Their polls show sKerry leading Bush most of the time. But they conduct the polls with more Taxocrats than Republicans, so they end up with sKerry 49%, Bush 46%. If they did the polls in the correct manner it would show Bush ahead. They did the same thing with Reagan vs Dukais, then just before the election they did it correct so they could then show how right they were and claim some event changed the results at the last minute.
The press however will do stories about sKerry that will be placed on back pages with few words and inacturate headlines.
What the press can't do is vote for the people they are trying to present that are in support for these 2 bozos. Not that they wouldn't if they could.
I knew a man for more than 15 years, my wife's partner in her business, who we saw socially for years. It was not until the last year of his life, at a social event, that he mentioned Iwo Jima. It turned out he was a navy corpsman on Iwo at the age of 17 - never said a word.
Now, we have the news media trumpeting the "heroic service" of a pompous, arrogant, lying blowhard; who spent less than 4 months on a boat in RVN and apparently shot himself and was shot in the a**; was "awarded" 3 Purple Hearts, a Silver Star, and Bronze Star for his "efforts"; lied about being in Cambodia and generally betrayed America and his fellow servicemen; and who now thinks he should be "awarded" the presidency of the US because of this??? Wow. The contrast between Stanley and this unfit bastar* is breathtaking.
What Sailor did he pull out of the water? Rassman was in the Army not in the Navy
I LOVE your analogy! LOL
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