Mr. Kerry, help us out here!
Lest we forget.
The single most important question of Election 2004 has, of course, been answered - the result for President is in. There are, however, questions left unanswered. Some are of no consequence. Some of little. But we don’t have to think too hard or too long to conjure up one or two an answer to which would provide a bit of satisfaction. And, in the course of resolving some pre-election battle, might we not help partially bridge the chasm dividing Red from Blue? Now, as the intensity of democracy-in-conflict recedes - at least for some of us - perhaps we can settle some issue, hopefully to the satisfaction of the bulk of the American electorate, that subjected us to a nearly interminable barrage of charge and countercharge. I assume that many involved in or hammered by the quadrennial election process would greatly prefer that all that be left behind, ne’r again to raise its ugly head – or at least not during the Constitutionally mandated hiatus. But for me, at least, the issues raised by the Swift Boat Vets regarding Kerry’s Vietnam combat record, war-protesting activities, and his integrity are not quite so easily discarded upon the political trash heap.
But what can we do, say or argue that hasn’t already seen the light? I would think that every Swifty charge must have already been addressed by Kerry, his campaigning supporters, as well as by his army of sympathetic media types. But there are a few items that the still-Senator has yet to address or expose to public scrutiny. He did not permit the re-publishing of his 1971 war protest book, “The New Soldier.” He has not released the entirety of his military or medical records. He refuses to make public the full content of his war diaries that were the basis of Mr. Brinkley’s hagiographic “Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War.” Why all this cat and mouse? What’s to hide? Why can’t we be shown the whole of Kerry, warts and all? Hmm?
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is comprised of about 250 Vietnam vets who served with, around, over, or contiguously with Kerry. They are not the ones responsible for spontaneously creating out of the Ether the young Kerry’s testimony before Congress. Testimony based upon what would later be proved naught but fiction. Nor did they invent his well-documented trips to consort with our then mortal enemy. Do official records of Lieutenant Kerry’s thrown-away or not-so-thrown-away decorations automatically and incontrovertably brand his detractors as scurrilous liars? Or are they men of honor who were determined to inject some truth and reality into what at times seemed no more than through-the-looking-glass political propaganda ploys? With the campaign rhetorical fires no longer being stoked, perhaps the Honorable Mr. Kerry will seize this opportunity to restore his military record to its previously unblemished state.
Don’t hold your breath.
The single most important question of Election 2004 has, of course, been answered - the result for President is in. There are, however, questions left unanswered. Some are of no consequence. Some of little. But we don’t have to think too hard or too long to conjure up one or two an answer to which would provide a bit of satisfaction. And, in the course of resolving some pre-election battle, might we not help partially bridge the chasm dividing Red from Blue? Now, as the intensity of democracy-in-conflict recedes - at least for some of us - perhaps we can settle some issue, hopefully to the satisfaction of the bulk of the American electorate, that subjected us to a nearly interminable barrage of charge and countercharge. I assume that many involved in or hammered by the quadrennial election process would greatly prefer that all that be left behind, ne’r again to raise its ugly head – or at least not during the Constitutionally mandated hiatus. But for me, at least, the issues raised by the Swift Boat Vets regarding Kerry’s Vietnam combat record, war-protesting activities, and his integrity are not quite so easily discarded upon the political trash heap.
But what can we do, say or argue that hasn’t already seen the light? I would think that every Swifty charge must have already been addressed by Kerry, his campaigning supporters, as well as by his army of sympathetic media types. But there are a few items that the still-Senator has yet to address or expose to public scrutiny. He did not permit the re-publishing of his 1971 war protest book, “The New Soldier.” He has not released the entirety of his military or medical records. He refuses to make public the full content of his war diaries that were the basis of Mr. Brinkley’s hagiographic “Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War.” Why all this cat and mouse? What’s to hide? Why can’t we be shown the whole of Kerry, warts and all? Hmm?
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is comprised of about 250 Vietnam vets who served with, around, over, or contiguously with Kerry. They are not the ones responsible for spontaneously creating out of the Ether the young Kerry’s testimony before Congress. Testimony based upon what would later be proved naught but fiction. Nor did they invent his well-documented trips to consort with our then mortal enemy. Do official records of Lieutenant Kerry’s thrown-away or not-so-thrown-away decorations automatically and incontrovertably brand his detractors as scurrilous liars? Or are they men of honor who were determined to inject some truth and reality into what at times seemed no more than through-the-looking-glass political propaganda ploys? With the campaign rhetorical fires no longer being stoked, perhaps the Honorable Mr. Kerry will seize this opportunity to restore his military record to its previously unblemished state.
Don’t hold your breath.
posted by Dennis Sevakis at 1:46:00 PM
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