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Commentary :: Elections & Legislation
Bush Making an Issue of Kerry’s Military Service Is Dumber Than—Well, Anything Current rating: 0
15 Aug 2004
Why would a president who did everything he could to not put on a uniform during wartime but couldn’t wait to don one years later as the most protected person on Earth, cast aspersions about a guy who volunteered to wear one in Vietnam and upon arriving back home as a decorated vet did everything he could to help other soldiers take theirs off? For more details about the Bush Baby’s last-gasp grasp at a straw man, read on.
Click on image for a larger version

bushvietnampic
Bush Making an Issue of Kerry’s Military Service is Dumber Than—Well, Anything
I guess the president and his advisers have never listened to Kenny Rogers. (I can’t say I blame them.) Or if they did, they must have ignored him. (Ditto.) I refer specifically to Rogers’ sage admonition (as sage an admonition as a pop singer can offer): “You got to know when
to fold ‘em.” Because when it comes to the Bush campaign’s mantra of “national security,” and debating whether the president or John Kerry is best qualified to lead America in that regard—well, old George “Smoke ‘Em Out If Ya Got ‘Em” Bush, with spurs a-janglin’ and participles a-danglin’, should have long ago thrown in his cards, put on his way oversized one-gallon hat, and gotten out of (giving questions the) Dodge. As they are wont to say in certain parts (parts where they won’t ever say wont): “That dog don’t hunt, ‘cause fer one thing, it’s been dead a piece.”

I can see the dilemma for the GOP: When you look at Bush’s record, it’s broken. On what issues can he possibly run? I tried to put myself in the Republicans’ shoes (I do suffer for my craft) and think of some issues and slogans that might work for the president:

Take the economy—please (certainly enough jobs have already been taken): “Bush: A Lot Like Herbert Hoover.” No good, as it could lead to depression. Maybe Bush’s disastrous financial policy: “Deficits, Schmeficits!” Nope, that’s a bankrupt idea. The battered environment, perhaps: “A Little Mercury in Your Fish Hasn’t Hurt You Yet, Probably.” Unh-uh. Dead in the water. The mess in Iraq? “Bush Didn’t Lie; His Intelligence Let Him Down.” If you look hard, that one actually does have a bit of truth to it.

Slim pickings abound. Thus the scaly Bush and his trusted serpent Karl Rove have decided national security will be their campaign centerpiece, even though as a viable issue, it, too, comes up snake eyes. It's just vague enough, however, to provide a little more slither room than the areas listed above. And as with those topics, specific details are better left alone, since they, too, don't exactly conjure up particularly flattering catchphrases: “Only One Domestic Attack with Massive Casualties on the President’s Watch” or “Rise in Global Terrorist Attacks Since Iraq War Could Always Be Worse” may leave voters somewhat cold. Besides, the bumper stickers could only be put on Hummers (probably no problem there) while the lawn signs might violate some city size ordinances.

Choosing to take on Kerry over national security, though, shows just how increasingly desperate our indumbent and crew have become. What is even more mind-blowing is that to try to “prove” how unsafe we’d be with Kerry at the helm, the GOP has astoundingly chosen to go after him for his military service. Man, talk about playing a dead hand. Bush should fire Karl and hire Kenny; he could even keep his adviser’s monogrammed White House towels.

Recently, there has been some smoke on the water over Kerry’s war duty: A group calling itself the Swift Boat Veterans against Truth--check that, for Truth—has shown up in a television ad declaring Kerry didn't serve with distinction in Vietnam. Since many of this group’s 250 veterans personally fought beside Kerry during the war and are now relating their first-hand experiences with him, this is, indeed, rather disturbing. In the name of journalistic accuracy, I wanted to learn just how many of these honorable men stood with him in battle. Zachary Coile of the San Francisco Chronicle writes: “The ad, using black-and-white images of Kerry and testimonials by veterans who served on other swift boats, seeks to undercut [Kerry’s] credibility by questioning the wounds he received in combat, for which he received a Bronze Start, a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.” Huh? These guys served on other boats, but not Kerry’s? Hmm, I thought. The eyewitness accounts must be deeper in the article. Ah, maybe this is it, I told myself, as I read a little farther on: “’John Kerry is no war hero,’ said Lt. Bob Elder, who commanded another swift boat.” Another swift boat, but he wasn’t on Kerry’s? What’s going on? Maybe this Coile guy is a Kerry lover and is dodging the truth. Then I had a brainstorm (for me, more like a braindrizzle--with apologies to Snoop Dogg).

Aha! Who better to go to, I mentally exclaimed so loudly I almost hurt myself and then suddenly turned to see if anyone had heard me but realized that no one could if it was inside my head and since I was alone it was kind of a silly thought anyway, than GOP Senator John McCain, whose heroic exploits in Vietnam are well documented and who is the rare bird that commands respect from either side of the aisle? He must be livid, too, I figured, that Kerry is such a phony, and since these revelations are so damning, surely McCain would know how many of these 250 guys personally saw Kerry’s wartime non-actions. Sure enough, in an Associated Press article, McCain did weigh in on the matter. Plain as day, he said, “As it is, none of these individuals served on the boat (Kerry) commanded.”

NONE??? You mean, like
zero? As in, zilch, nada, or the typical rating for George Bush: CSI (Common Sense Index)? Maybe these boat veterans are not so swift, after all. But, because these men feel strongly enough about their troubling assertions to spend a ton of their own money to publicize them, I decided to give them one last crack at proving their credibility. I figured a Lieutenant Commander should be of high enough rank to clarify the proceedings before they got even murkier than the Mekong Delta, and, in a Boston Globe article by Michael Kranish, I located testimony from a Lt. Cmdr. George Elliott, a former Kerry superior. What I actually found, though, was that far from condemning Kerry, Elliott actually had stood up for his former charge during Kerry’s campaign for the Senate in 1996 by “saying that Kerry acted properly and deserved the Silver Star.”

Well, OK, then. I tried to find some merit in these claims, but from what I can see, none exists. So I can only conclude that--hey, wait a minute
what’s this? It seems Elliott has had a change of heart in the last eight years: In an affidavit signed by him and given to the Globe recently by SBVAT—check that, that’s FT—Elliott now “suggests Kerry did not deserve the Silver Star
” Furthermore, the online PalmBeachDailyNews, in a piece by Scott Shepard, quotes Elliott in the ad thusly: “John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam.”

The plot has thickened, but we’re still not done yet, no sir, not by a long shot. Elliott, apparently suffering from liar’s remorse if not severe whiplash, has swung yet another U-turn and told the Globe that “he regretted signing the affidavit and said he still thinks Kerry deserved the Silver Star.” “It was a terrible mistake probably for me to sign the affidavit with those words,” said Elliott. “I’m the one in trouble here.” You think?

Betcha believe it ends there, though, huh? Not a chance, sailor, because even before Elliott’s retraction was published, the Swifties, according to Shepard, “released another signed affidavit from Elliott saying he had been misquoted by the Globe.”

At this point, it probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn Elliott’s all-time favorite movie scene is from “Chinatown,” the one in which Faye Dunaway tells Jack Nicholson (between slaps): "She's my daughter! She's my sister! She's my daughter! My sister, my daughter. She's my sister and my daughter." It wouldn’t surprise me, either, and if we get a chance, we could ask him. Of course, we’d then have to wade through the requisite answers, retractions, and retractions of retractions to discover how he really feels. By then, though, we’d never know, because he’d have no standing left whatsoever, and besides, it’d have taken so long, we’d all be dead.

Since we’re currently in a retractable position, I now have a correction of my own to make: The Shifties did not spend their own dough to sponsor this ho-humbuggery. The Chronicle reports they are “being financed by major Republican donors, including contributors to Bush,” one of whom is Bob Perry, “a Texas home builder and longtime Republican donor” who ponied up a cool $100,000 to help bankroll this whole stinking mess. When I learned this, I can't tell you how breathless I was rendered--'cause I wasn't. Nor winded. Not even smitten with the tiniest wheeze.

Why would I be surprised anymore at anything that comes from the Group of Prevaricators, known to some as the GOP? After all, this is the party of Saxby Chambliss, who, according to Al Franken’s book “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them,” “ran one of the great attack ads of the 2002 [Georgia U.S. Senate campaign], one that warmed even Karl Rove’s icy heart. It featured images of Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and
[then-incumbent] Max Cleland.” Cleland is only a genuine war hero who left all but one limb in Vietnam; Chambliss “got out of Vietnam because of a bad knee.” Chambliss is now in the Senate.

Simply put, the Reptilians—my bad, Republicans--lie all the time. (For a great site that provides lots o’ links to more lies than you ever thought a body politic could tell, go to http://liesofbush.com/). Like reptiles, though, they eat their own: None other than McCain himself has felt the cold-blooded bite of his own party. While facing off against Bush for the GOP presidential nomination in the 2000 primaries, Franken writes, a number of accusations were floated about McCain in South Carolina during the lead-up to its crucial primary: He supposedly “[had] fathered an illegitimate black child” (no evidence exists); “he was pro-abortion (he isn’t); 
his wife had outstanding arrest warrants for giving alcohol to minors (she didn’t); 
he had voted for the largest tax increase ever (he hadn’t); 
he had been reprimanded by the Senate Ethics Committee (he hadn’t)...” The Bushies denied backing the scurrilous scheme, but probably the only reason Rove’s prints weren’t found all over it is because snakes don’t have fingers.

Bush is more apt than Kerry to make America secure? Please, don’t make me laugh sardonically. Bush’s thorough incompetence, arrogance, and ignorance have endangered America more than any of us can know, and I loathe the thought of giving him one additional second to lay even more groundwork for future terrorists to kill you, me, my relatives, friends, or complete strangers. No one, whether it’s John Kerry or Cary Grant (even in his current state), could possibly do a WORSE job of protecting this country than George W. Bush, a charlatan unworthy of holding Kerry’s helmet strap.

Frankly, I’ve never given a Flying Fortress whether or not a presidential candidate has served militarily, but since the Republicans have brainlessly made it an issue, I see it as a no-brainer. For those who insist it was Kerry who pushed his service to the forefront thus forcing the GOP's hand, save it, 'cause that Texas Air National Guard part-time pilot don't fly. Bush is the one who, for a nauseatingly long time now, hasn't been able to get enough of staged photo ops while wearing his precious (borrowed) flight jacket and various other military garb, becoming the first president in memory--if not ever--to don armed services attire while in office, something done by many a dictator but darkly inappropriate for America's civilian commander-in-chief. Kerry would be a fool not to show his mettle by showing his medals, especially since he earned them as he navigated Vietnam's frighteningly all-too real waterways while his opponent engages only in flights of fancy on a make-believe ego trip.

Come November 2, Bush plays his last hand. His pathetic bluff will finally be called, and the country will at last be led by someone who knows what it’s like to be a real soldier, instead of a cheap hustler who only plays one on an aircraft carrier. (Oh, and while holding a fake turkey. Or was that a real turkey with a fake president?) (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/04/politics/main586761.shtml)

By the way: The Chronicle reports, “All surviving members from [Kerry’s] boat are supporting his campaign.”

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Re: Bush Making an Issue of Kerry’s Military Service Is Dumber Than—Well, Anything
Current rating: 0
20 Aug 2004
Well if were dumber than anything (well said,well spoken) than how come it has dominatated the cable news for the past three days.

Whose story keeps changing? I believe that Senator Kerry mentioned that his visit to Cambodia was "seared into his memory". Turns out either his memory wasn't so good or he is lying. Which is it???

This man came back from Vietnam and probably served with honor. I have never been shot at and Kerry was. However, on the day that he supposedly was under tremendous fire and pulled a this man out of the water, not one boat was hit, nor was any man wounded by gunfire. The boat that had hit a mine did have wounded men aboard.

The real story is the accussation that all Vietnam vets committed war crimes and that it was ordered from the top down. These accusations were made while POWs were still held. They could have been shot for his words. Is this heroism, Mr. Kerry???

Frankly, I think you would do well to answer these 200 or so Vets who disagree with the events as you remember them.

Jack
War Record Counters Kerry Critic's Version
Current rating: 0
21 Aug 2004
Doubt is cast on author who says Dem not under fire


WASHINGTON - Newly obtained military records of one of Sen. John Kerry's most vocal critics, who has accused the Democratic presidential candidate of lying about his wartime record to win medals, contradict his own version of events.

In newspaper interviews and a best-selling book, Larry Thurlow, who commanded a Navy swift boat alongside Kerry in Vietnam, has strongly disputed Kerry's claim that his boat came under fire during a mission on March 13, 1969. Kerry won a Bronze Star for his actions that day.

But Thurlow's military records, portions of which were released Wednesday to the Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act, contain several references to "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire" directed at the five-boat flotilla.

Thurlow won his own Bronze Star that day, and the citation praises him for providing assistance to a damaged swift boat "despite enemy bullets flying about him."

As one of five swift boat skippers who led the raid up the Bay Hap River, Thurlow was a direct participant in the disputed events. He is also a leading member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a public advocacy group of Vietnam veterans that has aired a controversial television advertisement attacking Kerry's war record.

In interviews and written reminiscences, Kerry has described how his 50- foot patrol boat came under fire from the banks of the Bay Hap after a mine explosion disabled another U.S. patrol boat. According to Kerry and members of his crew, the firing continued as an injured Kerry leaned over the bow of his ship to rescue a Special Forces officer who was blown overboard in a second explosion.

Last month, Thurlow swore in an affidavit that Kerry was "not under fire" when he fished Lt. James Rassmann out of the water. He described Kerry's Bronze Star citation, which says that all units involved came under "small arms and automatic weapons fire," as "totally fabricated."

"I never heard a shot," Thurlow said in his affidavit, which was released by Swift Boats Veterans for Truth.

A document recommending Thurlow for the Bronze Star noted that all his actions "took place under constant enemy small arms fire which LTJG THURLOW completely ignored in providing immediate assistance" to the disabled boat and its crew. The citation states that all other units in the flotilla also came under fire.

Thurlow told the Post that he had received the award for helping to rescue the boat that was mined. "This casts doubt on anybody's awards," he said Wednesday night. "It is sickening and disgusting."

Two other swift boat skippers who were direct participants in the March 13, 1969, mine explosion on the Bay Hap, Jack Chenoweth and Richard Pees, have said they do not remember coming under "enemy fire." A fourth commander, Don Droz, was killed a month later.

The incident featured prominently in an anti-Kerry television ad produced by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth earlier this month. The Bronze Star controversy is also a major focus of an anti-Kerry book by John E. O'Neill, "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry."


© Copyright 2004 San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com
Re: Bush Making an Issue of Kerry’s Military Service Is Dumber Than—Well, Anything
Current rating: 0
21 Aug 2004
If the media can obtain Thurlow's Military records through the Freedom of Info act, why can't they obtain all of Kerry's including his medical records. If Kerry's recollection of events is supported by these documents, why does he not request the records be released himself rather than fight it?

I noticed you did not mention the supposed trip into Cambodia? He was never in Cambodia let alone on Christmas Eve of all days in 1968. He lied and therefore, it lends credibility to his fellow Veterans. I wonder if anyone else brought his own film crew to Vietnam?

This story is by no means over, despite the liberal media's lack of curiousity regarding their hero.

Jack
Officer From Another Swift Boat Breaks Silence and Defends Kerry
Current rating: 0
22 Aug 2004
A Vietnam veteran who served with Senator John Kerry on a Swift boat mission broke a 35-year silence this weekend to support Mr. Kerry's version of events from one of their operations together and to chastise veterans critical of the senator as having "splashed doubt on all of us."

The veteran, William B. Rood, is now an editor at The Chicago Tribune, which ran on its Web site yesterday and in Sunday's paper a 1,750-word first-person article in which Mr. Rood recounted the mission. His account added to a growing debate over the most serious claims from the group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. And it ensured that questions swirling around the veracity of the group's claims, and the Kerry campaign's accusations that the group was connected to the Bush campaign, would dominate the contest for yet another day.

Mr. Rood stepped forward after Mr. Kerry called him and another veteran on Mr. Rood's boat as members of the Swift boat group blanketed cable television and radio talk shows to repeat their claim, also made in a book and a television advertisement, that Mr. Kerry had fabricated his military accomplishments to win medals.

Mr. Kerry's phone calls were part of his campaign's first concerted push to address the group's claims, which surfaced weeks ago. That push also included the release of a new Internet advertisement on Saturday highlighting accusations made about Senator John McCain by military supporters of Mr. Bush in 2000 and a public call by Mr. Kerry's running mate, Senator John Edwards, for Mr. Bush to tell the group to cease running advertisements against Mr. Kerry.

The Swift boat group, which garnered much of its initial financing from men who have supported Mr. Bush's and his father's political endeavors, has been ready to defend itself and quickly provided a statement Saturday saying Mr. Rood's article was politically motivated. The group continues to raise money and on Friday introduced an advertisement with former prisoners of war recounting the pain Mr. Kerry's 1971 antiwar comments caused them when they were being held by the Vietcong.

Mr. Bush's campaign confirmed on Saturday an accusation by the Kerry campaign that one of the veterans in the that advertisement was a member the Bush campaign's veterans' advisory committee. The Bush campaign said in a statement that it did not know that the man, retired Col. Kenneth Cordier, was going to appear in the advertisement and because of that he was no longer a volunteer.

The Bush campaign denies involvement with the Swift boat group and on Saturday released a statement to the Federal Election Commission saying that the Kerry campaign's accusations of coordination were untrue. The Bush camp has declined to tell the group to stop running advertisements, but aides said Mr. Kerry should join Mr. Bush in calling for all outside groups to stop advertising.

In his article Mr. Rood disputed a claim the Swift boat group made in its book, "Unfit for Command," that Mr. Kerry had received his Silver Star for chasing down a lone Vietcong teenager "in a loincloth" who may or may not have been armed on Feb. 28, 1969.

Mr. Rood was the skipper of one of three boats involved in the mission with Mr. Kerry, conducting a sweep for the enemy through a tributary of the Bay Hap River. "I have no idea how old the gunner Kerry chased that day was," Mr. Rood wrote, but "he was a grown man, dressed in the kind of garb the VC usually wore." He also wrote that Mr. Kerry had devised a plan to face into enemy fire, a breach of typical procedure.

He added, referring to John O'Neill, a co-author of "Unfit for Command" and a leader of the Swift boat group: "The man Kerry chased was not the 'lone' attacker at that site, as O'Neill suggests. There were others who fled. There was also firing from the tree line well behind the spider holes and at one point, from the opposite riverbank as well."

Mr. Rood also noted that Roy F. Hoffmann, a retired rear admiral who was the Swift boat group's commander, lauded the operation at the time in glowing terms. Mr. Hoffmann is, with Mr. O'Neill, one of the main engineers of the anti-Kerry group's effort.

The Swift boat group released a statement yesterday from Mr. O'Neill saying he stood by its account. He said the account was consistent with those of two biographies of Mr. Kerry, "Tour of Duty" and "John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography By The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best," and that of Larry Lee, a crewman on Mr. Rood's boat. Mr. O'Neill said he had tried to contact Mr. Rood for his book and that Mr. Rood's decision to come forward now was "an obvious political move."

The biographies do say that Mr. Kerry was running after the man he shot, but the books do not describe him as a teenager and they say he was armed with a rocket launcher. The Globe account that the group cites says the man had begun to run away, but also quotes Mr. Kerry saying that he had not shot him in the back and that he believed the man would fire again.

Mr. Rood said he confirmed the details of his recollection with the leading petty officer on his boat, Jerry Leeds. Mr. Leeds, who lives in Kansas, said in a brief interview that he had not read The Tribune and could not comment on it. But he said the boats were under significant enemy fire and at great risk.

Mr. Leeds said Mr. Kerry had phoned him, too, last week. He said Mr. Kerry did not ask for his support or for any statements on his behalf. "Mostly we just visited about that day," Mr. Leeds said.

Mr. Rood acknowledged in his article that Mr. Kerry's calls did affect his decision to write it but also wrote, "What matters most to me is that this is hurting crewmen who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did." He added, "My intent is to tell the story here and to never again talk publicly about it."

The idea to contact Mr. Rood came from Mr. Kerry himself, aides said.

The candidate called Thomas Vallely, a longtime Kerry supporter, a former Massachusetts state legislator and a marine who now runs the Vietnam program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. "He said 'We've got to find Billy Rood,"' Mr. Vallely said in an interview on Saturday. "John said, 'He's a reporter in Chicago,' that's all he knew."

Mr. Rood had been watching the dispute unfold and considering what to do. He wrote in his article that he had long been reluctant to talk about his experience and had even refused to grant an interview to his own newspaper. But watching Mr. O'Neill on TV incensed Mr. Rood, Mr. Vallely said.

"He was very, very angry, he was on his feet," Mr. Vallely recalled. "I said, 'Would you talk to John?"' Mr. Rood agreed to a phone call.

Mr. Vallely also called Mr. Leeds, the leading petty officer on Mr. Rood's boat, and asked both men if they would speak with a reporter from The New York Times last week. The two men said they wanted to think about it for a few days, and the result was two stories in The Tribune, a news account and Mr. Rood's first-person article. "They wanted to do it their way," Mr. Vallely said.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Mr. Kerry's campaign continued on the offensive.

It sent out a new Internet advertisement to supporters highlighting an exchange between Mr. McCain, of Arizona, and Mr. Bush during a debate in 2000. In that debate Mr. McCain confronted Mr. Bush for playing host at an event where the leader of a veterans group that Mr. McCain characterized as "fringe" questioned his commitment to veterans.

The spot includes an on-screen heading that says, "George Bush is up to his old tricks."

Steve Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman, said, "The president has made clear that he regards John Kerry's service as noble service." And he chastised Mr. Kerry for statements from campaign surrogates last week questioning Mr. Bush's National Guard service. He also criticized Mr. Kerry for failing to call on liberal groups who have run $63 million worth of advertisements against Mr. Bush to stop. Some of the liberal groups have connections to Mr. Kerry's campaign and political party.

On Saturday night, at a fund-raiser in East Hampton, N.Y., Mr. Kerry suggested that his political opponents were trying to undercut his military record because he had been persuading voters he would make an effective commander in chief. "In the past month, they've seen me climbing in America's understanding that I know how to fight a smarter, more effective war," Mr. Kerry said. "That's why they're attacking my credibility. That's why they're personally going after me."


David M. Halbfinger and David Stout contributed reporting for this article.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com
Kerry's Past comes back to haunt him!!!
Current rating: 0
23 Aug 2004
You could have almost bet on it. The most liberal Democrat in the Senate, a former swift boat commander, sunk by his own words and actions.

His quote about being in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968 "seared into his memory" turns out not to be the case. He kind of reminds the voter of Clinton without the zipper.

As alarming as that is to most Americans, the new revelations of American POWs who were accussed of being War Criminals while in the custody of the North by the very man running on the Democratic ticket will make their stomachs turn. You can try and hide the story, but there are too many outlets for information now, not simplty network television.

The election will turn on the historical events of the last few days. John Kerry is toast and even the liberal media can't hide the treason anymore.

Jack