Swiftvets for Truth: Are they really?

I listen to a lot of talk radio when I drive. I'd listen to music instead, but for the most part, music makes me drowsy in the car. Talk radio is the best alternative because it keeps me intellectually stimulated enough that I don't bang my head into my steering wheel and careen off into the other lane of traffic.

Since I'm doing a lot of job hunting these days, I listen to the radio quite a bit. It tends to be more conservative than otherwise, though the station I listen to all depends on my mood.

Lately on talk radio, there has been more and more coverage of a group of Vietnam Veterans who have come out against Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry. They say they're non-partisan, and their beef with him is not political. Rather, it's that he has systematically lied about his tour of duty in Vietnam. They have called on him to release his full service records to the public to set the record straight.

Their allegations are documented on their website:

www.swiftvets.com

Their allegations include the following:

* Kerry's first purple heart was a scratch recieved due to his firing a rocket propelled grenade and it detonating to close to his boat and hitting him with schrapnel. The wound was essentually self inflicted. The resulting injury was a scratch according to the doctor who treated him and his commanding officer at the time, and neither would have even considered it worthy of a purple heart. Yet, somehow, he got a purple heart for it.

* Kerry's allegations that he and other Swift boat men engaged in war crimes were utter fabrications made by a man who wished to advance his political career. The alleged warcrimes he described in his famous congressional appearance never occured, and in fact, he made them up... tarnishing the reputations of all the men he served with and under for his own advancement.

* John Kerry lied about his secret mission in Cambodia, and has told conflicting stories about it over the years. In actuality, no such mission is on record as occuring, and in fact, had he actually gone into Cambodia, serious consequences for his career would have resulted.

* John Kerry was a marginal officer, who not only had trouble obeying orders, but was hard to work with, prone to doing anything he could to stay out of harms way, and not a team player in a job that required swift boats to work together. His released service reports are maginal at best.

The swiftvets believe that John Kerry has a history of lying about his service, that his awards were recieved based on either self inflicted wounds or exagerated and false accounts of really happended. They believe that because of this, John Kerry is ill suited to serve in a position of Commander in chief of American Armed Forces.

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I sort of find it ironic that the man who's party has actively tried to shmear GW Bush for his incomplete records is now being taken to task for his own. And unlike Bush, who has released his complete records as requested (though some are missing, no fault of his, it seems), John Kerry has promised to do the same and has yet to fulfill his promise.

What I find interesting is that the swiftvets are made up of over 200 men who served along-side John Kerry on swift boats that worked in tandem with him, or served over him in his chain of command. These men contain fellows who are themselves decorated, some with Congressional Medals of Honor, silver stars and purple hearts of their own.

The Kerry campaing of course is livid about the allegations and supposedly is preparing to systematically attack the credibility and reputations of the men involved. This is to be expected. It's politics of course. But I find it hard to believe that 200 men, all who served along side Kerry, all veterans, some highly decorated with distinguished careers would all be lying through their teeth about what they saw John Kerry do and act in Vietnam.

Why should they? What have they to gain by it except to have the the Hammer of Thor fall on them in the press as the Kerry Campaign tries to spin the news? It just doesn't make sense to me that all these decorated men would be making it all up, what with how much they have to lose. Besides, if they really are lying, why doesn't Kerry just release his records and make it clear for all to see?

The real thing that gets me about this entire thing is that because of the Swiftvet ads, the Democrats in Congress and in liberal action groups are starting to get up in arms about the "527" loophole in the Campaign Finance Reform bill.

I find it disingenuous that they are having a fit about it NOW, when one of their own is subject to attack, but have had no problem while Moveon.org, a extremely liberal leaning organization, has been savaging GW Bush for the past 5 months. I've seen their ads. How are they any less partisan and candidate attacking than the Swift vets?

http://www.thehill.com/news/081004/kerry.aspx

Can we say double standard?