August 17, 2004

'BAND OF BROTHERS' -- KERRY'S SHAKESPEAREAN MOMENT:

"While their attacks on Kerry are no help to Bush, in my view, the anger the Swift-Boat Veterans express is genuine. Kerry calls his friendly comrades the “band of brothers,” but the allusion to Shakespeare’s Henry V is ironic. Speaking to his fellow warriors before Agincourt, Prince Hal exclaims that:

“gentlemen in England now abed / Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, / And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks / That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”
Returning from Vietnam three decades ago, Kerry turned Shakespeare on his head: Not only did he deride and condemn the war, which was his right, but he publicly accused his band of brothers of routine war crimes and atrocities, which was something else. Of course, as another great Elizabethan poet wrote, that was a long time ago and in another country. But now, in pursuit of power, Sen. Kerry embraces the band of brothers at his convenience." -- Philip Terzian, a columnist for the Providence Journal. Posted by Greg Ransom