The truth of the Swift Boat Veterans.

[QueenAdrock]

This one goes out to you gmsisko:

"The worst of the current wave of attacks is coming from a Republican-funded group called "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth." (I'll call them by a more accurate name: Swift Boat Veterans for Bush.) The group is led by a longtime Republican operative and financed by GOP contributors with strong ties to George Bush. Its function in the overall Republican strategy is this: tear down John Kerry since Bush has no record or vision to run on.

The swift boat ad is full of lies. Thirteen men who never served with John Kerry lie about knowing him and viciously attack his record. It is a new low for the Republicans.

Every time they have attacked us like this, it has only made us stronger. When they ran dishonest attack ads (like the unbelievable new one on the air right now), thousands of new supporters flocked to our campaign to give us the resources we need to fight back on the airwaves.

Now that the general election has begun, they're hoping things are different. They're going to be sorely disappointed because we are not alone. The Democratic National Committee is well prepared to take on this fight."


-Mary Beth Cahill, Kerry campaign manager

[QueenAdrock]

By "serving with Kerry" they mean they served in Vietnam. No one was actually physically WITH him. It's a clever way of "twisting the truth" as you would say.

And yeah, I believe the AWOL story. Because they asked him to find people who remembered him. John Kerry has a whole SHIP of people who said he was a great man, did heroic things, risked his neck, and they all saw it first hand. Kerry's story DOES add up. Know what Bush has? One person who says he THINKS he might remember Bush. From the whole time he was posted, only one who doesn't know for sure. And he has fuzzy record stubs that only shows he was paid. A little too convienient.

[LIMERICKFILE]

When was the last time George W. Bush fought for his country?

Well what an honorable man. He sure knows a lot about devoting his life to his country for the betterment(is that a word? I think it is) of his fellow citizens.

[QueenAdrock]

No, no. We're talking about Dubya here. It's not "betterment". It's "goodening". Get it straight.

[Echewta]

Bush and Cheney were draft dodgers. Pure and simple.

[LIMERICKFILE]

Most of those men did serve with Kerry. Perhaps the whole story is not true,

but not all of Kerry's story is true either. The Adimral confirms most of those


vets story.

So you will believe the awol story about Bush, but you will also believe

every think Kerry says too, even though Kerry's story doesn't add up.

Good one. Which Admiral is it that you speak of, cause I'd like to learn more about them. What's his last name?

http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=231


"But the veterans who accuse Kerry are contradicted by Kerry's former crewmen. One of the accusers says he was on another boat "a few yards" away during the incident which won Kerry the Bronze Star, but the former Army lieutenant whom Kerry plucked from the water that day backs Kerry's account. In an Aug. 10 opinion piece in the conservative Wall Street Journal , Rassmann (a Republican himself) wrote that the ad was "launched by people without decency" who are "lying" and "should hang their heads in shame."

"In the Globe story, George Elliott(from the ad) is quoted as saying it was a "terrible mistake" to sign that statement:

George Elliott (Globe account): It was a terrible mistake probably for me to sign the affidavit with those words. I'm the one in trouble here. . . . I knew it was wrong . . . In a hurry I signed it and faxed it back. That was a mistake."

Elliott also says in his second affidavit, "Had I known the facts, I would not have recommended Kerry for the Silver Star for simply pursuing and dispatching a single, wounded, fleeing Viet Cong." That statement is misleading, however. It mischaracterizes the actual basis on which Kerry received his decoration.

"The official citation shows Kerry was not awarded the Silver Star "for simply pursing and dispatching" the Viet Cong. In fact, the killing is not even mentioned in the official citation. The citation - based on what Elliott wrote up at the time - covers Kerry's decision to attack rather than flee from two ambushes, including one in which he "led a landing party." It says Kerry first attacked an "entrenched enemy" less than 50 feet away: "Unhesitatingly, Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry ordered his boat to attack as all units opened fire and beached directly in front of the enemy ambushers. This daring and courageous tactic surprised the enemy and succeeded in routing a score of enemy soldiers." It says "many enemy weapons" were captured. Later, 800 yards away, Kerry's boat encountered a second ambush and a B-40 rocket exploded "close aboard" Kerry's boat. "With utter disregard for his own safety, and the enemy rockets, he again ordered a charge on the enemy, beached his boat only ten feet away from the VC rocket position, and personally led a landing party ashore in pursuit of the enemy." There is no mention of enemy casualties at all. Kerry was cited for "extraordinary daring and personal courage . . . in attacking a numerically superior force in the face of intense fire."

Written by Jim Rassmann:

"Rassmann said that after the first explosion that disabled PCF-3:

Rassmann: Machine-gun fire erupted from both banks of the river and a second explosion followed moments later. The second blast blew me off John's swift boat, PCF-94, throwing me into the river. Fearing that the other boats would run me over, I swam to the bottom of the river and stayed there as long as I could hold my breath.

When I surfaced, all the swift boats had left, and I was alone taking fire from both banks. To avoid the incoming fire I repeatedly swam under water as long as I could hold my breath, attempting to make it to the north bank of the river. I thought I would die right there. The odds were against me avoiding the incoming fire and, even if I made it out of the river, I thought I thought I'd be captured and executed. Kerry must have seen me in the water and directed his driver, Del Sandusky, to turn the boat around. Kerry's boat ran up to me in the water, bow on, and I was able to climb up a cargo net to the lip of the deck. But, because I was nearly upside down, I couldn't make it over the edge of the deck. This left me hanging out in the open, a perfect target. John, already wounded by the explosion that threw me off his boat, came out onto the bow, exposing himself to the fire directed at us from the jungle, and pulled me aboard."

What a fucking pussy.

When soldiers were coming back from Vietnam, weren't they worried they would be attacked by people who were anti-war? I wonder if they thought they'd have to protect themselves from fellow veterans.