August 31, 2004

"THE SWIFT BOAT VETS , of course, have been realists. They knew that very few Americans � and virtually no one in the press � cared that they had been dishonored or would do anything about it. So they got on with their lives. Then, during the past year, two things electrified them and gave them a renewed sense of duty. The first was the publication of Douglas Brinkley�s �Tour of Duty,� with its many direct quotes from Kerry�s journals and its uncritical, full-tilt representation of Kerry�s version of events. The second was the possibility that a man they had learned to distrust because of the lies he told about them might become President, and then lie about the veterans of the war in Iraq.

The title of their book is to be taken seriously: �Unfit for Command.� Kerry�s testimony before the Senate called the Swift boat veterans and hundreds of thousands of others � and the whole structure of command, indeed the whole country � hypocritical, self-interested, even criminal. To this day, John Kerry has not said publicly that his friends among the Swift Boat vets were not war criminals. He has not apologized.

If Kerry had been more modest and truthful about the other most dramatic episodes he recounted to his biographers, it would be unseemly to question his right to his three Purple Hearts, Silver Star, and Bronze Star. But eyewitnesses saw these events very differently, and normal processes in awarding medals seem not to have been followed. Anyone who wishes to understand our era is going to have to read this book."

-- Michael Novak. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack