SwiftVets.com

[integritycounts]

Just now Wednesday Jan 18 6:30 EST
MSNBC Promoting "Swiftboating of Mertha" on Hardball Segment....this is very bothersome to me.

If this is left unanswered....the public perception will be that Kerry won on the merits...and that the SwiftVets had no merit.

That is wrong.

I would like to see a veterans group write an official letter to GE and NBC to have them address this.

Something

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Note to admin....I posted this in the main forum because I think its an attack on the crediblity of the campaign and this organization....reposted here because this forum looks more active.....remove either...as appropriate

[docford]

xefas
_________________
Doc Ford
HMC (SW) USN

[docford]

Here is James Webb, former SECNAV, on the "Swift Boating" of Murtha



January 18, 2006

http://www.jameswebb.com
Purple Heartbreakers
By JAMES WEBB
Arlington, Va.

IT should come as no surprise that an arch-conservative Web site is questioning whether Representative John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has been critical of the war in Iraq, deserved the combat awards he received in Vietnam.

After all, in recent years extremist Republican operatives have inverted a longstanding principle: that our combat veterans be accorded a place of honor in political circles. This trend began with the ugly insinuations leveled at Senator John McCain during the 2000 Republican primaries and continued with the slurs against Senators Max Cleland and John Kerry, and now Mr. Murtha.

Military people past and present have good reason to wonder if the current administration truly values their service beyond its immediate effect on its battlefield of choice. The casting of suspicion and doubt about the actions of veterans who have run against President Bush or opposed his policies has been a constant theme of his career. This pattern of denigrating the service of those with whom they disagree risks cheapening the public's appreciation of what it means to serve, and in the long term may hurt the Republicans themselves.

Not unlike the Clinton "triangulation" strategy, the approach has been to attack an opponent's greatest perceived strength in order to diminish his overall credibility. To no one's surprise, surrogates carry out the attacks, leaving President Bush and other Republican leaders to benefit from the results while publicly distancing themselves from the actual remarks.

During the 2000 primary season, John McCain's life-defining experiences as a prisoner of war in Vietnam were diminished through whispers that he was too scarred by those years to handle the emotional burdens of the presidency. The wide admiration that Senator Max Cleland gained from building a career despite losing three limbs in Vietnam brought on the smug non sequitur from critics that he had been injured in an accident and not by enemy fire. John Kerry's voluntary combat duty was systematically diminished by the well-financed Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in a highly successful effort to insulate a president who avoided having to go to war.

And now comes Jack Murtha. The administration tried a number of times to derail the congressman's criticism of the Iraq war, including a largely ineffective effort to get senior military officials to publicly rebuke him (Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was the only one to do the administration's bidding there).

Now the Cybercast News Service, a supposedly independent organization with deep ties to the Republican Party, has dusted off the Swift Boat Veterans playbook, questioning whether Mr. Murtha deserved his two Purple Hearts. The article also implied that Mr. Murtha did not deserve the Bronze Star he received, and that the combat-distinguishing "V" on it was questionable. It then called on Mr. Murtha to open up his military records.

Cybercast News Service is run by David Thibault, who formerly worked as the senior producer for "Rising Tide," the televised weekly news magazine produced by the Republican National Committee. One of the authors of the Murtha article was Marc Morano, a long-time writer and producer for Rush Limbaugh.

The accusations against Mr. Murtha were very old news, principally coming from defeated political rivals. Aligned against their charges are an official letter from Marine Corps Headquarters written nearly 40 years ago affirming Mr. Murtha's eligibility for his Purple Hearts - "you are entitled to the Purple Heart and a Gold Star in lieu of a second Purple Heart for wounds received in action" - and the strict tradition of the Marine Corps regarding awards. While in other services lower-level commanders have frequently had authority to issue prestigious awards, in the Marines Mr. Murtha's Vietnam Bronze Star would have required the approval of four different awards boards.

The Bush administration's failure to support those who have served goes beyond the smearing of these political opponents. One of the most regrettable examples comes, oddly enough, from modern-day Vietnam. The government-run War Remnants Museum, a popular tourist site in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, includes an extensive section on "American atrocities." The largest display is devoted to Bob Kerrey, a former United States senator and governor of Nebraska, recipient of the Medal of Honor and member of the 9/11 commission.

In the display, Mr. Kerrey is flatly labeled a war criminal by the Vietnamese government, and the accompanying text gives a thoroughly propagandized version of an incident that resulted in civilian deaths during his time in Vietnam. This display has been up for more than two years. One finds it hard to imagine another example in which a foreign government has been allowed to so characterize the service of a distinguished American with no hint of a diplomatic protest.

The political tactic of playing up the soldiers on the battlefield while tearing down the reputations of veterans who oppose them could eventually cost the Republicans dearly. It may be one reason that a preponderance of the Iraq war veterans who thus far have decided to run for office are doing so as Democrats.

A young American now serving in Iraq might rightly wonder whether his or her service will be deliberately misconstrued 20 years from now, in the next rendition of politically motivated spinmeisters who never had the courage to step forward and put their own lives on the line.

Rudyard Kipling summed up this syndrome quite neatly more than a century ago, writing about the frequent hypocrisy directed at the British soldiers of his day:

An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;

An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool - you bet that Tommy sees!

James Webb, a secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration, was a Marine platoon and company commander in Vietnam.
_________________
Doc Ford
HMC (SW) USN

[vet_supporter]

Mr. Webb is clueless. Where was his outrage when the media attacked the more than 100 honorable Swift Vets? Calling them liars without ever giving them a forum or truly investigating their charges. Kerry still has NOT released his military records. A logical person can only conclude that the records show the Swift Vets were telling the truth or you can be assured the NYTs would have published, at their own expense, Kerry's entire military record.

Listening to Murtha, he sounds senile to me. Also anti-American. But because he has a D after his office, I can't say that he's senile and anti-American?

Just because a person served doesn't make them immune to criticism. Look at what the media did to the Swift Vets. They all told the same story about Kerry but all the media reported was what, six maybe, of Kerry's supporters said. In a court of law, Kerry's side would have lost.

The Swift Vets did this country a service and they caught hell for it. They still are. It is an outrage that the media use their name as a term or derogation.


VS

[RiflemanDD730]

Mr Webb's critique is more honest than he realizes. The SBVT certainly was well financed....by thousands of contributers in addition to the founders. And his conclusion that Kerry's combat record was diminished by the SBVT is true...and deservedly so. After all, that was one of the objectives of the SBVT....to expose Kerry's war record for what it was. And he calls the SBVT what they are....VETERANS. Veterans who served their full terms in combat and didn't bug out after three scratches.

Unfortunately, his message about the SBVT will not be analyzed for content but will be accepted as a valid criticism of the SBVT by most people. And his prior post as SECNAV will add credibility to his statement.

In addition, his statement will be added to the following which only adds to the frustration of those of us who think that some response is needed.

John McCain: Senator; called SBVT liars.
Bob Kerrey: Senator; called SBVT liars.
George Bush: President; said Kerry served honarably
John Warner: Senator; ; said Kerry deserved his Silver Star
R. A. Route: Naval Inspector General; said Kerry's medals were proper.

[carpro]

"Aligned against their charges are an official letter from Marine Corps Headquarters written nearly 40 years ago affirming Mr. Murtha's eligibility for his Purple Hearts - "you are entitled to the Purple Heart and a Gold Star in lieu of a second Purple Heart for wounds received in action" - and the strict tradition of the Marine Corps regarding awards."

Mr. Webb conveniently forgot to mention that Murtha's accounts of his wounds varied greatly from USMC accounts.

It appears , from USMC records, he earned his purple hearts regardless of the severity of the wounds. So, why did he lie about how he got them?

Kerry, on the other hand, had 2 Purple Hearts from what we all know were self inflicted wounds under non combat conditions. It's no surprise he lied.

But, again, why did Murtha?
_________________
"If he believes his 1971 indictment of his country and his fellow veterans was true, then he couldn't possibly be proud of his Vietnam service."