SwiftVets.com

[Aristotle The Hun]

After my letter to the editor was published my inbox filled up with people accusing me of motives I have never imagined. So, I responded with the following:

Politicians sure know how to fight dirty. This is one of the reasons that I am apolitical. I see politics as a profession that corrupts those who practice it. The legal profession does the same thing to people and it is not a coincidence that most politicians are lawyers. I have no political heroes, gurus, or saviors. I think they are the source of most of our problems, not the remedy.

I haven’t voted for a major party candidate since I voted for President Carter. I believe our best antidote to the present system is a viable three party system. I have voted for third party candidates since the Carter administration.

The only political letter to the editor I have ever written was on the subject of strange bed-fellows. I got a good laugh out of the fact that I, a porterhouse steak loving, enthusiastic and devoted heterosexual, who is also Christian, voted the same way as Eddie Filer, a vegetarian, homosexual, atheist. We both voted for Ralph Nader last election.

However, there is another identity I value. I am a veteran. I have a big problem with John Kerry. I don’t trust him and I think he is insincere as well as untruthful. I think he would do or say almost anything to get elected. (Maybe Teresa will take his allowance away if he doesn’t become President?J)

That does not mean I support George Bush even though I will probably reluctantly vote for him. How I wish the Democrats could have picked a more acceptable candidate.

I believe the Swifties. Lurk around their discussion forum and you will quickly pick up that they are not politically motivated no matter from whom their leaders might have accepted donations.

This issue isn’t political for the Swifties, it is personal. To them it isn’t about the election, it is about honor. Imagine if a man you served with falsely accused you of war crimes for his own benefit. The Swifties will not let this slide. They don’t care what Bush says and evidently they don’t care about what veterans who have turned into politicians say i.e. John McCain, Max Cleland etc.

Think of it this way; John Kerry has several thousand combat trained veterans who are dedicated to the single-minded mission of bringing him down. Kerry doesn’t need to be afraid of the Republican Party. His most potent opponent is a group of men who have had their honor besmirched by one of their “own.” Kerry doesn’t stand a chance.

I have never given a donation to a political party in my life, but the Swifties have some of my money and my moral support.

A friend of mine sent the following letter to the editor. I think this sums it up for lots of veterans.


Editor Naples Daily News

I agree with Sam Sewell that John Kerry was awarded medals for less than heroic action during his four months of 1969 in Viet Nam. That does not really bother me. I also served with the U.S. Army in Viet Nam in 1969.

Serving in an Army Medical unit I saw men with serious wounds to the chest and other places recover and return to combat. I also saw purple hearts awarded to men cut by sitting on broken beer bottles. Due to Agent Orange exposure I have lost a testicle and a lung to cancer, plus loss of the nerves below my knees. No purple hearts for those wounds. That’s life.

More important, in my opinion, was John Kerry’s false testimony before congress He presented false evidence as to the war crimes committed by not only his fellow Navy Swift boat men, but also by most American servicemen. That testimony led the general American population to hate their own soldiers. I experienced this hatred myself when bombarded with tomatoes and eggs upon arrival back in the USA. I am sure John Kerry’s other swift boat sailors have a hatred far more for what John Kerry did upon return to the USA than what he did in Vietnam.

We can not elect a man that lied about his fellow servicemen to promote his own political career.

Sam
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Deportè Monsieur Kerrè

[RocketFett]

Wow. Excellent post. Maybe that's why nader isn't doing as well now as in 2000, because a significant number of people who voted for nader last time are so utterly disgusted with kerry, they are going to vote for Bush to ensure that kerry doesn't get elected. That would be great.

[Aristotle The Hun]

[Scott]

Beautifully stated, Sam.

Thank you.
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Bye bye, Boston Straggler!

[CandiM]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again--

While it makes perfect sense to many on the Left that people could expouse an "Anyone But Bush" mindset, it seems to be absolutely inconceivable to them that there might be an at least equal number of people on the Right who's points-of-view lead them to feel that anyone would be preferable to John Kerry, even if they are not particularly fond of W--

Then, of course, there's the convenient thinking that the Swifties must be Republican operatives if they have received financial backing from Republicans which is, of course, nonsense--I'll be perfectly honest here--I'm a life-long die-hard conservative Republican--I've been a supporter of George W. Bush from Day One and my antipathy toward John Kerry stems from far more than just his war and post-war records--That does not mean, however, that I have not had extraordinarily strong feelings about the ghastly things that he said and did after Viet Nam for a very long time--I know too many fine, honorable men who suffered greatly as a result of John Kerry's words and actions in the anti-war movement and, back in the day, I knew too many "peacenicks" who where honest and committed to their opposition to the war and who took a bad rap for it despite the fact that they didn't find it necessary to slander those who fought the war, many not of their own free will, in order to eloquently voice their opposition--

I'll further admit that I was pretty seriously uninformed about the facts of Kerry's service during the war until the Swifties went public--And, though I have questions, they are being answered one-by-one and I cannot help but believe them--The arguements that they put forth are simply too compelling, IMO, to ignore--

HOWEVER, I would support SBVT even if I wasn't convinced of the vailidity of their accusations so long as I didn't believe that their motives were dishonest and probably would even if I didn't care sincerely about their cause because I, in my core beliefs, have something in common with them: I, like the Swifties, do not believe that John Kerry is even close to being competent to be CIC of our armed forces, most particularly in a post-9-11 world--And, though I have some personal reservations about "negative political adveretising", the fact is that what they are doing now seems to be advancing my primary goal, that being to see to it that John Kerry never becomes POTUS--That does not make me a Republican operative, it merely makes me a Republican who also happens to support SBVT--

And, though I don't pretend to know what anyone else's motives are, I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if I were to find out that there are a fair number of people who support SBVT whose primary goal is to see W re-elected, but who have nothing whatsoever to do with his campaign (just as I am sure that there are many who support moveon.org and ACT who support Kerry, but not operatives of his campaign)--

Similarly, I have a good friend who happens to be Jewish and, no matter how many donations he makes to the Salvation Army, it'll never make the Salvation Army a pawn of the Union for Reform Judaism--

It's just that, as I said at the beginning, the liberals just cannot wrap their brains around the concept that anyone might just plain not like them or what they stand for, so they have to concoct sinister motives to anyone who doesn't--

You've gotta wonder, however, why John Kerry thinks so little of the very men who he served with shoulder-to-shoulder in Viet Nam that he would suggest that they either cannot think for themselves or, worse yet, that they could be bought-off to lie about him for political purposes--Must be because he projects his own ethics on everyone else--C
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“I haven’t seen anyone milk this much out of a bad boat ride since Gilligan” -- Dennis Miller