“Swiftboat Veterans for Truth” brought the damage on themselves
In response: Terry Sater 3/13/08 “Swiftboating” insults the sacrifices of U.S. sailors in Vietnam
Mr. Sater laments the entrance of the term “swiftboating” into the language ever since a privately-financed group of opponents of Vietnam veteran John Kerry smeared Kerry’s record of service as well as his character. While Mr. Sater admits he contributed in a small way to this attack with his own letter, he complains that the term itself now insults all veterans. Putting aside the question of why Sater thinks some veterans are fair game and others are not (perhaps only if they run for President?) there is an excellent lesson to be found here. Actions have consequences — and not all of them are intended or foreseeable. While Sater points no fingers, he fails to reflect on whether he himself shares a bit in the responsibility for the term’s appearance in the first place. Another way of putting it: People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
Dan Alamia
University City
Actually, the Nixon hand picked head of the “Swiftboaters”, Mr. O’Neill. admitted to President Nixon that they had been in Cambodia at the time claimed by Kerry.
O’Neill, who was Nixon’s hand-picked hatchet man against Kerry and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), did this in a Watergate era secretly taped conversation in Nixon’s White House.
Kerry is a hero, the VVAW is the representative of the Vietnam veterans, O’Neill is a scumbag liar, and Nixon is burning.
Shaddap, you ignorant buncha right wing neocon Brown Shirt weblog echochambering yobbo yappers!!!
Brown Shirt yappers! Why can’t we just get along?
Damn… we’ve been “timmyhoganed” again, with another mindless tirade.
Mr. Hogan:
Was Nixon the President when the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed?
Also, Kerry claimed he was sent to Cambodia in Decemebr 1968 by Nixon but Johson was still in office. Who is burning next to Nixon?
Take a laxative and calm down.
#18 - From the standpoint of the role of president as a commander-in-chief, I would have to admit I personally would give McCain a leg up on the rest of the candidates and I still think if all of our troops came home tomorrow it will be one day too long. I just think McCain has got it wrong on this one.
The point being made about the laundry list of W and his deferment-enabled saber rattlers was that they were the very same people who were so willing to get us into something they themselves previously chose to avoid.
My qualifications? I’m a West Point graduate who served in Germany and at home. Admittedly, I do not have combat experience. However, I was trained and prepared to lead soldiers into harm’s way and that is a very sobering responsibility. I do not believe W or his civilian warmakers ever understood the gravity of this responsibility.
Good Grief, what a bunch of comments on this swiftboat article. Facing the facts would simply be admitting that when Kerry was unfairly assaulted for his service to the American people in Vietnam, it was a slinging of mud on every soldier who ever fought for this country.
Those veterans who were responsible for this did nothing more than treat themselves and their fellow soldiers to disrepute in the name of politics. How sad.
More sad, they did this in backing a man who said he was far Veterans rights and helping the Vets while continuing to slash funding for Veterans behind their backs.
Duane, you got it all wrong. Please point out what part of their assault was “unfair”, and why, four years after the fact, Kerry hasnt set the record straight by releasing all service records by signing an SF 180.
Since you claim Kerry was smeared, and also since “Winter Soldier II” is this weekend, would you consider these unsubstantiated remarks by Kerry to congress were a smear job on American Soldiers:
“They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country. “
Kerry didn’t stop his attacks on Vietnam veterans when he testified with the comments SVPPB noted above. His book “Tour of Duty,” released in time for his run for the presidency, is fill with comments like this, referencing Cobra gunship pilots;
“Yet Kerry found himself troubled by the realization that some of these wild boys could kill innocent people from a distance and not be bothered by it. He was no pacifist - far from it- and understood that “accidental atrocities” were a part of war. But it disturbed him that even a few trigger happy American yahoos considered killing Vietnamese civilians a sport.”
The “unfair” attacks on Kerry? 254 men who served with him, said that he wasn’t the “Rambo” his self-portrait would indicate.
Which “attacks” were worse?
I don’t know about anyone else on this thread, but I live in the USA, and have for 51 years. One of the things I’ve learned about this country is that there are plenty of people in it who are perfectly willing to beat, murder or rape others. If you don’t believe me, read this paper. The idea that some of this type didn’t get drafted, go to another country and take advantage of the guns the US provided them with to practice these activities is either naive or dishonest. Especially given the accounts and testimonies of US VETS WHO SAW IT HAPPEN. Unfortunately, there are people who, for personal reasons, want to distort the reality of the horror and tragedy of war into a glory for them to bask in.
William,
I guess there is a chance you could be right, but then again, aren’t you the dumb-ass that doesn’t even know what the hell a “chickenhawk” is?