THE NOT SO SWIFT BOATS VETERANS FOR TRUTH

THE NOT SO SWIFT BOAT VETERANS FOR TRUTH


I was sitting in Burnie’s Bar one afternoon sipping Sam Adam’s Octoberfest when Ed, the barber came in. Ed is a career veteran. He spent six months in Viet Nam as a supply clerk and it has become the defining moment of his life; he belongs to four veterans organizations. Ed has been a staunch Republican all his life.
“Well that’s the end of Kerry, “ Ed said as he sat down at the bar.
“What are you talking about? I asked.
“ He’s a phony. All that stuff about being a war hero isn’t true. The guys that were there with him said it never happened.”
“ You’re talking about The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s television ad?” I asked.
“Your damn right I am, Max. I’m glad my fellow veterans got together to show that phony up. There never was any gunfire that day on the Bay Hap River.”
“ Every one in PCF-94, Kerry’s boat, says there was.”
“ Who you going to believe, a bunch of guy on Kerry’s payroll, or the heroes like Larry Thurow who won a bronze star that day. Thurow says there was no gun fire.”
“Geez, Ed maybe he should turn his bronze star in then, because it was based on a report that said there was gunfire.”
“Kerry wrote that report, trying to make himself look good.”
“That’s not true. The reports are all initialed KJW, Kerry’s initials are JFK. But, even if it was true and Thurow knew he didn’t deserve the bronze star because there was no gunfire, why did he accept it? Something here doesn’t ad up, Ed. And those guys backing Kerry were not on his payroll.”
“Were you in Viet Nam, Max?
“No, I wasn’t.”
“Then you don’t know how it was.”
“Ed, how much combat did you see.?”
“That doesn’t matter. What does matter is I was there.”
“So was Jim Russell from Colorado who on another swift boat that day and he wrote a letter to his local newspaper saying he watched Kerry pull Jim Rassman out of the water and there was continuous small arms fire at the time.”
“What gets me about Kerry, Max, is his bad mouthing of those who served in Viet Nam. Did you see him in those ads speaking before congress, bad mouthing the vets, accusing them of all kinds of atrocities?”
“That’s the proof that the ads were a lot of crap, Ed.”
“What do you mean?”
“ At the times shown in those ads, Kerry was reading from statements made by veterans who fought in Viet Nam and felt guilty about what they saw done there. They weren’t his own statements, but the ad tries to make them look like they were. The ad is just plain bull.”
“I still don’t believe Kerry was any hero, Max”
“Well he got a hell of a lot closer to the fighting than you did, Ed, or than George Bush did. To get back to the real issue, who would be a better leader in the time of war: Kerry led, Bush went off to work a political campaign in Georgia.”