Questions For The Swift Boat Liars
Here’s a few questions I’d like to as those guys who are (successfully) smearing John Kerry’s war record :
1) Throughout the campaign, all of the men who were on John Kerry’s swift boat have spoken out about his bravery during Vietnam. If John Kerry is lying, does this mean all these men are also lying?
2) In order to win his Bronze Star, John Kerry turned around his swift boat and endured heavy fire to save Jim Rassmann’s life. If Kerry didn’t deserve this medal, does this mean that Jim Rassmann and George Elliott (who recommended Kerry for the medal) are liars too?
3) In the swift boat ad, Louis Letson claims “I know John Kerry is lying about his first purple heart, because I treated him for that injury.” Does this mean that J.C. Carreon, the man who signed John Kerry’s medical report for that injury, is a liar?
4) Also in the ad, George Elliott says “John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam”, but in 1996 he campaigned alongside Kerry saying “I ended up writing it up for a Silver Star, which is well deserved, and I have no regrets or second thoughts at all about that”. Does this mean Elliott is a liar too?
5) What was the reason for the men who served on Kerry’s boat, the man whose life he saved, the man who treated his injury, and the commanding officer who recommended him for the Bronze and Silver Stars to lie in the late 60′s? Why should their accounts, which couldn’t have had a partisan motivation 35 years ago, be dismissed in favor of the accounts of men who didn’t serve directly with Kerry and chose to keep their complaints to themselves until the Kerry chose to run for president?
There are a million holes in these complaints, but the rudderless media loves a good controversy. So they’ll continue to give these guys a platform to stand on in the interests of covering “both sides of an issue”. I just wish that every hack who had a politically-motivated and meritless attack on George Bush was afforded as much credibility as these liars.
(The source for all these questions is this incredible site.)
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My brother, who earned a purple heart while a Marine in Viet Nam, stated at the time you could get one if you cut yourself shaving. His point was that it was really easy and occasionally rather meaningless. It is entirely possible Kerry was granted one for a very minor injury. But then Bush would have a trunk full if having a hangover in Alabama counted. FYI-the purple heart contains more gold than any medal.
Comment by Becky — August 12, 2004 @ 10:29 am
I looked up the requirements for the Purple Heart and first of all it should be noted that any combat wounded soldier is “ENTITLED” to the award for any combat sustained WOUND that is not self-inflicted, or that occurred through negligent conduct of the soldier.
Just because Kerry did not have a severe injury did not bar him earning the purple heart. – 3 times for 3 seperate injuries.
Had he received multiple injuries at the same time he would have received the purple heart with clusters, but that was not the case here. Still, the chickenhawks love to try and spin this crap.
Comment by mbf1978 — August 12, 2004 @ 10:48 am
when clinton was on jon stewart he made the assertation that these swift boaters for truth are the exact same lot that came out against mccain questioning his record in 2000. same exact names. you might want to check into that, greg, as i know clinton has a flair for the occasional, um, untrue assertion. if true, though, that should be enough to discredit them right there.
Comment by josh — August 12, 2004 @ 12:19 pm
Great questions. Too bad our mainstream media is not asking them.
Comment by jlb — August 12, 2004 @ 8:05 pm
Your Daily Fisking
Smijer in the comments pointed to some Questions For The Swift Boat Liars Honorable Veterans: 1) Throughout the campaign, all of the men who were on John Kerry’s swift boat have spoken out about his bravery during Vietnam. If John…
Trackback by The Everlasting Phelps — August 16, 2004 @ 11:22 am
Your Daily Fisking
Smijer in the comments pointed to some Questions For The Swift Boat Liars Honorable Veterans: 1) Throughout the campaign, all of the men who were on John Kerry’s swift boat have spoken out about his bravery during Vietnam. If John…
Trackback by The Everlasting Phelps — August 16, 2004 @ 11:23 am
In the interest of accuracy you should know that not all of Kerry’s crewmates laud him. Steven Gardner served on his boat & is one of the accused liars. Whether Kerry did or did not earn his medals is irrelevent to me. The fact he publicly threw them away is relevent. As a Viet Vet who served in ’68 & ’69 what is relevent to me is how he chose to denigrate the service of all viet Vets. I never committed any war crimes. Mine is one independent vote he won’t get.
Comment by ray smith — August 23, 2004 @ 3:08 pm
Except Kerry never said you commited war crimes. Go read his testimony. He said that other people told him that they committed war crimes.
Think critically.
Comment by Larry Mahnken — August 28, 2004 @ 6:31 am
Sounds a lot like the Manchurian Candidate.
Comment by Frank — August 29, 2004 @ 11:16 am
I guess there is no wonder if this is a Bias question. It’s amazing how many people can see one event but have diffrent views on what actually happend. Did they lie? Quite possibly. Or they just explained it as they saw it. No matter what the actual facts were… 5 boats, more than that 1 person in the water, no weapons damage on the boats, 4 boats stayed, 1 took off, but Kerry gets metals because he left and came back? Also, Kerry’s comanding officer turned down one of the purple hearts (not combat related) so he resubmitted it after that officer left. Keep in mind with 3 purple hearts you could get out of combat. That way you can go back and bad mouth the military and admit you are a war criminal and say that much of the armed forces were comitting attrocities. No wonder people trust him so much… And his metal was for killing a wounded unarmed man. BRAVE. Really Brave.
Comment by Randy — September 1, 2004 @ 1:04 pm