fanningp
Seaman Apprentice
Joined: 25 Aug 2004
Posts: 89
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 Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2004 7:17 pm Post subject: UFC Reviewed by NY Times - How Timely! |
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Could it be that they are trying to "be critical" and debunk the book prior to any "nail" the SBV's might try to put in Kerry's campaign the last few weeks?
Check this link and thread over at Free Republic...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1240144/posts#comment?q=1
Here is the NY Times article for those without registration:
| Quote: | 'Unfit for Command': Hostile Fire
By SUSANNAH MEADOWS
Published: October 10, 2004
IF John Kerry loses the presidential election, ''Unfit for Command,'' by John E. O'Neill and Jerome R. Corsi, will go down as a chief reason. The book -- a sort of companion piece to the political attack ads placed by O'Neill's group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth -- is a furious assault on Kerry's character and service in Vietnam. Navy records have discredited the book's claim that Kerry lied to get his Bronze Star and third Purple Heart -- though only after the sensation hijacked cable news for a month.
But for all the impact it's had on the race, the book itself is totally unconvincing. The problem is that John O'Neill, who is the driving force and public face of the book, is so curdled with hatred for Kerry that, as though he were an unreliable narrator in a Nabokov novel, you can't trust what he says. (His co-author, Jerome Corsi, an old friend of O'Neill's, has referred to Kerry on a conservative Web site as ''Commie Kerry.'') O'Neill, himself a Swift boat commander in Vietnam, resents Kerry for testifying before Congress in 1971 against the war. It's an understandable beef, one shared by many veterans, and it's clearly the root of the whole Swift boat controversy.
While O'Neill's anger is real, his claims appear to be faulty. He wrongly asserts, for example, that Kerry branded him (and every other Vietnam veteran) a war criminal. In fact, Kerry took pains not to make such a sweeping charge: in his testimony he cited an investigation during which 150 veterans described atrocities they themselves had witnessed or had committed. Though this part of Kerry's statement is quoted in the book, the distinction is lost on O'Neill and his co-author, who bring up the war crimes issue over 50 times.
More than 30 years ago, O'Neill debated Kerry about the war on ''The Dick Cavett Show,'' and it's clear from the first chapter -- written first-person by O'Neill -- that he isn't over that either. Kerry's performance was effective enough that it is widely regarded as helping to start his political career, but here's O'Neill: ''Kerry performed disastrously. . . . It was in reality a debacle for him''; other veterans, widows and their children, he writes, ''all of them thought that I had won the debate.'' As with many moments in the book, his fixation on attacking Kerry would be funny if it weren't so sad.
But O'Neill and Corsi refuse to back down, even in the face of logic or history. They write that Kerry idealized the Communists, that the triumph of Communism was his goal and that his testimony contributed directly to the Communist victory. The authors say Kerry was ''a ruthless operator in the field with little regard for life'' eight pages after saying he had ''very little nerve for facing serious combat.'' They admit that only one of Kerry's crewmates is against him today. (Though not in so many words. What they actually write is: ''Steve Gardner is the sole crewman who was not swayed by Kerry during his many post-Vietnam years of solicitation aimed at gaining the support of his crew.'') Later, O'Neill and Corsi say the candidate never formed ''the kind of human relationships with his fellow sailors that are essential to effective performance.''
Kerry has never been a terribly beloved figure in Massachusetts politics, and in the presidential race he's buoyed more by hatred of Bush than by any passion for his candidacy. But the irony is that this book goes after the one piece of Kerry's history that left the politician with his greatest friends, the lifelong die-hards for the cause. In its determination to wreck Kerry's candidacy, ''Unfit for Command'' seems to reveal more about the authors than about Kerry.
Susannah Meadows is covering the Kerry campaign for Newsweek. |
_________________
Pete Fanning
US Navy, DP1, '84-'92
http://peterepublic.org |
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