SwiftVets.com

[Jeff Carrington]

Last week I wrote a long letter, posted here also, to the WaPo which was of course DOA in terms of chances for publication. Since the key is to be heard across the land, a good friend who has experience getting letters and op-eds printed, incl. with the NYTimes of all places, has chopped and shaped my earlier letter down to a size and message which may have a better chance of making the cut. . .if not in WaPo, then in your local paper. So please be my guest if you think this can work for you as a template, just substitute your own personal info, and amend as you see fit.

My respect and admiration for Swiftvets is for me the shining light of this extremely troubling political season. Your honor is bright indeed and you will prevail. Semper Fi--jc

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//sugg. template for letter to local editor//

Is Kerry Fit for Command?

In my opinion, judging a candidate’s potential worthiness as Commander in Chief at is the most important character consideration when voting for president. How can anyone think otherwise in view of the life-and-death consequences we are now facing in the global war on terror? Success or failure in that campaign may well determine what kind of world we, and our children, will live in for a long time. Or indeed, if we or they live at all. I guess you could call that a priority.

As a Marine vet who served two tours in Vietnam, //change to suit// I am most troubled by the prospects of a Kerry presidency based on his attempt to glorify his questionable performance in Vietnam and his campaign staff’s semi-hysterical efforts to smother or twist and discredit the Swift Boat Veterans case that devastates Mr. Kerry’s credibility as a combat hero.

Especially after the recent Rathergate scandal with all that it seems to confirm about the long-rumored problem of political slant in the media, it is particularly maddening for veterans like me to watch the main stream media’s branding of the Swift vets as just a bunch of partisan quacks unworthy of serious consideration. This in spite of a continuous stream of evidence supporting the Swifties’ account and, just as important, no credible repudiation of their charges.

A pertinent and current example is an October 1st article by Chicago-Sun Times reporter Thomas Lipscomb entitled, “Did Kerry Write Own Report of Disputed Clash?”. The gist of the article is that the “after-action report” (which then became the cornerstone of the official Navy record) on the Bay Hap River incident does indeed intimate, very strongly as the Swift vets contend, that John Kerry himself wrote that dispatch, solo, and therein wove a phony Rambo-esque tale that became the nucleus of his Bronze Star and Purple Heart awards.

The crux of this particular dispute is that the Swift vets allege Kerry cheated via deliberately forging several key “facts” in his after-action report. He thereby deliberately gamed the system and hyped the “battle” wildly beyond any semblance of reality so as to gain a Bronze Star decoration for bravery and, crucially, a third Purple Heart which became the means for him to “make his bird” out of Vietnam after less than one-third of his assigned tour of duty. The latter aspect of his magic carpet ride back to the World as we used to say, was completely unique. No other Vietnam serviceman effected his own early salvation via the three-Hearts-and-out discretionary rule after shedding virtually no blood and missing not a single day’s combat on account of his aspirin and/or Band-Aid “wounds”. That’s right, nary a suture or even a prescription painkiller. That is not a record to brag about or even point to as a qualification for Commander in Chief.

And remember, the Bay Hap incident is only one in a whole series of painful questions about Kerry’s Vietnam record, both while a Navy officer and later on as a civilian making grossly inaccurate and incredibly damaging accusations about the conduct of the entire U.S. military. Indeed, “gross inaccuracy” is the phrase most consistently descriptive of John Kerry’s Vietnam and post-Vietnam experience and testimonies (continuing up to modern times, e.g. his emotional but unfortunately false “Christmas in Cambodia” speech in the Senate). That is not a good quality for someone who would convince us he is fit to be Commander in Chief.

The “Swifties” are not partisan quacks or war mongers. They did not have Christmas in Cambodia fantasies nor condemn their comrades still in battle while safely “ashore”. On the contrary, these are respected men from all walks of life and political persuasion who honored the call to duty and fought valiantly for each other and this country. They and their dead comrades deserve far more respect from a nation that remains free because so many have fought and died to protect that freedom.

The charges made by the Swifties in Unfit for Command are very detailed, specific and serious. They deserve a rigorous review by the main street media, not the perfunctory and belittling dismissal to date. Only then can American voters fairly judge whether Mr. Kerry is fit for command. Whether he deserves the privilege and trust to lead our sons and daughters in a war that has just begun.

[Guest]

i just covered North Jersey papers with that one thanx

[one more captins mast]

You should see the list and letters many of us have sent, short, long,

brief, good bad, and inspring, all with truth and feeling,


HARDLY ANY PUBLISHED


WHY


THE PRESS IS WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT, MORE MEAN SPRITED

MORE VILE, AND WICKED THAN EVER IMANAGINED.

THE ONES I FOR ONE HAVE SENT TO TIM RUSSERT OF MEET THE

PRESS ARE OF "SHAKESPEAR" LIKE AND HE HAS IGNORED ALL

YET THE -------------- CLOP, CLOP , CLOP of the Demon

HISTORY IS EVER NEAR, YET THEY LOOK AWAY


THEY DO NOT WISH TO SEE THEMSELFS

FOR THE MIRROR IS UGLY.
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the strange mr aj