GOP Swift Boat Hits a Mine
 

The Republicans, frantic that George Bush will be booted out of office this November, have now stooped to the new low of  criticizing, John Kerry’s war record. This is sad business,  but it's about what most people expect in a presidential campaign nowadays.

Some background. It seems that a few  GOP Texas fat cats set up an advocacy group and gave it a blank check to make cheap TV ads attacking Sen. Kerry's war record. 

In itself, this is  nothing new, but these ads attack not only his war record but also imply that he didn’t do anything heroic to deserve his combat decorations.

Like I said, a new low.

And something of a hard sell too, given the fact that Sen. Kerry, during the short time he was in Vietnam received:

(1) 3 Purple Hearts,
(2) a Silver Star, and
(3) a Bronze Star .

All in the space of four months.  

I mean, how do you get five decorations for heroism in the space of four months in a deadly combat zone and somehow or another not deserve them? How exactly does that happen? I don’t know. But the Texas fat cats apparently do, for they set up something called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to push this peculiar point of view. 

This group claims to be a band of about 200 high-minded souls who happen to be Swift Boat veterans who only want the American people to know the “truth” about John Kerry’s record. They claim to have “served with” John Kerry, whatever that is supposed to mean.

More background. 

A Swift Boat during the Vietnam War only had a compliment of 6 men. Where did the other 194 Swift Boat Veterans who want to tell the "truth" serve?  Do they mean to say that they all just happened to be around Sen. Kerry during the incidents where he earned his medals?  Nobody knows. 

The ads themselves, don’t tell us much about this group, they just pump out attacks on Sen. Kerry’s military demeanor during the Vietnam War, and , as if that is not enough, manage to belittle the wounds he the acknowledge he did receive.

Some members of this group go on to suggest that Kerry’s wounds received during combat operations were self-inflicted.

How low can you go?

The ad is an outrage of course. It not only attacks Sen. Kerry’s war record, it also basically accuses his supporters, the ones who were under his direct command, of being liars.  The men under his direct command all support him and have nothing but praise for his acts.

The 200 veterans of Swift Boat operations opposing Kerry, claim to have some special knowledge of Sen Kerry’s actions during the Vietnam War. Yet, how is that possible? According to Swiftboat.net, a Swift Boat was a small coastal defense vessel with a crew of only 6 men. Which means that in order for these two hundred men to have any idea of what Mr Kerry went through to qualify for his decorations, they would have to have been engaged in the precise actions which led to the awarding of Kerry’s medals. At 6 men per boat, that would mean that there would have been a total of about 33 Swift Boats divided among five incidents with the crews close enough to Kerry to get a perfect view of the combat action. How is that possible given the well know phenomenon of the "fog or war"?  Another thing, there were only 84 PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) used in all Vietnam during that conflict and these vessels had to patrol 1,200 miles of South Vietnam's coast. That's not including rivers and canals. So how exactly do these veterans come up with the idea that they have some kind of direct knowledge that Kerry did not do anything heroic in Vietnam? They couldn't; not in the numbers  the Texas fat cats are putting out.

It  doesn't wash.

Of course, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, are not interested in truth, they are interested in little more than partisan attacks.  They are acting in a cowardly manner,  hiding beneath the cloak of a supposedly “non-partisan” advocacy group while they try to rip up Kerry's war record.

They are entitled to their opinions, but their story falls apart under close analysis.

In any event, what happened 35 years ago has no relevance to the current presidential campaign. But  you’d never know it from watching and listening to the garbage the GOP and their allies in supposedly nonpartisan advocacy groups are putting out.

Warning to the fat cats.  This  low-down exercise Drudgery  could very well backfire against the GOP come November.

Punditwalla--