Swift Boat Veterans For Lies
Remember the humorously named "Swiftboat Veterans For Truth?" Well surprise, surprise-it turns out they were actually rather untruthful. The Washington Post reports that recently obtained military records prove that Kerry came under enemy fire, thus discrediting the version of events offered by Larry Thurlow, one of Kerry's prime accusers.
This does not surprise me one bit. This group was merely a thinly veiled partisan organization out to smear Kerry's honorable military service. It is disgusting that a group of veterans with a political axe to grind would attack one of their own in a dishonest manner. Not only that, but Thurlow is actually profiting from the episode through a best-selling book. Apparently Americans like swallowing bullshit by the mouthful. They have the right to keep feeding on the lies and deception, but personally I'm not buying.
This does not surprise me one bit. This group was merely a thinly veiled partisan organization out to smear Kerry's honorable military service. It is disgusting that a group of veterans with a political axe to grind would attack one of their own in a dishonest manner. Not only that, but Thurlow is actually profiting from the episode through a best-selling book. Apparently Americans like swallowing bullshit by the mouthful. They have the right to keep feeding on the lies and deception, but personally I'm not buying.
posted by Ben at 9:43 AM
2 Comments:
Its true that the 'Swift Boat Veterans for Truth' were and are certainly a confederation of angry, partisan veterans who maliciously set about to torpedo Kerry on an issue Bush couldn't challenge him on. However, it strikes me as rather crass for the Kerry campaign to permit a similar phenomenon to occur, in the form of an independant political group airing commercials featuring some of Bush's (theoretical) war-time superiors, the 'Texans for Truth' (referenced in this CNN article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/09/thurs/index.html.
While admittedly I don't believe any opinions or facts contained in these new adds are untruthful, I certainly do think they are being launched in that same spirit of partisan name-calling which characterizes many Republican attacks and messages.
Don't you think it would be more powerful for the Democrats to ask more questions of the nation? I don't think they've been active enough in getting this nation to think about what Bush has done to our country, which is exactly what Kerry needs to do to win this campaign. He needs to prove he can be a president to consider all options, to listen to all Americans, to ask the important questions of his staff and intellegence chiefs, and ask these questions publicly. In short, he needs to be the anti-Bush, which is hardly what these new ads are doing.
Leo
I agree with you for the most part, Leo. Although the "Texans for Truth" ads to which you refer aren't that bad, in my opinion, they DO resort to the same level of partisan bickering as the GOP ads, which is a shame. But you have to fight fire with fire...as long as Rove and co. continue to throw dirt at Kerry, Kerry needs to hit back by defending his record. That's the unfortunate reality of politics. As much as I hate it, it's the truth.
But I agree completely about framing the campaign around Bush's lack of accomplishments. This needs to be a referendum on the incumbent, not on John Kerry. Kerry needs to hammer home the millions of jobs lost, the 45 million without health insurance, the senseless loss of life in Iraq, and others on the laundry list of attacks against Bush at home and abroad. Kerry is starting to do this, if you have followed his speeches as of late. But he needs to keep the pressure on, for sure.
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