SwiftVets.com

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August 25, 2004



The Swift Boat Veterans Have Been Right and Truthful

While John Kerry and his campaign is in full damage control and trying to weave ties between the Bush campaign and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group the Kerry campaign has been quietly admitting through its campaign officials to many of the claims the swift boat vets have made.

On Sunday's 'Meet the Press' Kerry campaign advisor Tad Devine now states that indeed there was in fact no 'Christmas in Cambodia' as John Kerry has claimed not once but at least six times in public and as recently as 2001. The trouble is as Kerry and his surrogates now try to spin the debate and make claims of him getting the date confused. None of the crew members of Kerry's boat back his story about going into Cambodia at any time.

Another claim the swift boat vets made was that Kerry's first purple heart award was for a self inflicted wound. This claim is also backed up by Kerry’s own accounts in his journal from his days in Vietnam. In an entry on December 11th, nine days after he claimed to have been under fire from the enemy during his first purple heart episode, Kerry states that they "hadn't been shot at yet". See a pattern starting to develop?

The Washington Post is now reporting the details of accounts of the events that led to Kerry's third purple heart and bronze metal citations. It now seems that the details are much closer to what the swift boat vets have been reporting all along. Kerry’s boat fled the scene and then came back to pick up Rasmussen. Kerry's injuries were due to a self inflicted grenade wound from earlier in the day when he blew up a rice stockpile and had injury to his buttocks.

The press seems to over and over repeat the phrase that the official Navy record and the documents support Kerry's claims. No kidding. He wrote them! All of his citations were based on after action reports filed by who? You guessed it. John Forbes Kerry wrote the action reports on which his metals are based.

Perhaps the most offensive act the Kerry has committed is something he does not dispute saying. During testimony before the U.S. Congress he said that war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command. He did this at a time when we were still at war and the Viet Kong still had many of our POWs. This statement was unconscionable, untrue and at the very least gave aid and comfort to the enemy.

The swift boat veterans have a book, Unfit for Command, which describes Kerry’s acts in much more detail. Kerry and his campaign have tried to sue to ban the book and remove their ads. These swift boat vets have earned there right to speak and should not be silenced. I for one believe they are speaking the truth. It is time we all stand up and set the record straight and honor those who served us so proudly in the Viet Nam War. I salute the Swift Boat Veterans.

Regards,

Greg Sneddon
Dublin, California