Tell me what y'all think about my response to the swiftboat lies...

[Jeebo]

Shucks, I don't know who's telling the truth. I wasn't there. The Kerry supporters say the Kerry bashers are lying, and the Kerry bashers say the Kerry supporters are lying. Without a time machine to go back to 1967 and witness all those events for myself, how the hell am I supposed to know who's telling the truth about what really happened? But I am more inclined to believe the people who were there, and all of the ones who were there and actually WITH Kerry agree on his side of the story. Also, the people who made the decisions about giving him the awards were 37 years closer to the actual events than anybody now is, so I have to assume they knew then what they were doing and did not give those awards out lightly. Besides, if Kerry's awards are as bogus as the Kerry-bashers claim they are, doesn't that call into doubt the military awards anybody ELSE ever won as well? If Kerry could have displayed the cowardice his detractors claim he did and STILL have received all these awards, then how many other people who have these same awards also were NOT deserving of them? And so, by bashing Kerry in the way they do, aren't they also bashing everybody ELSE who ever won any of these awards? Aren't they attacking ALL of our military heroes? And isn't this an outrageously UNpatriotic thing for them to do? I prefer to believe that Purple Hearts and Silver Stars are badges of honor and that everybody who has them is an authentic American hero. And besides, even if everything the Kerry bashers say is true, George W. Bush is still a deserter and an election thief and a White House squatter and a war profiteer and a polluter and an incompetent idiot and a prevaricator and a megalomaniacal sociopath and a whole bunch of other really nasty things, which reduces the presidential election to a choice between two evils, in which case John Kerry is STILL the lesser of the two evils BY FAR. So even if the Kerry bashers are right about the swift boats issue, I'm STILL voting for Kerry, that choice is STILL a no-brainer. But I don't believe John Kerry is the lesser of two evils, I don't believe he's evil at all, I believe he is a good and decent and competent man, and nothing the Kerry bashers are saying is leading me to believe otherwise.

This is the spiel I'm going to start giving everybody who tries to tell me the swift boat nonsense. Do y'all think these are good responses?

Ron

[sundancekid]

1. see also this DU thread and the WaPo editorial debunking both

the not-so-swift vets' claims and their $ source ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2200320

The sequential points you state make a WHOLE LOT of common sense -- which is why the bogus claims are backfiring -- hell, when you get taken to task EVEN in a Washington Post Editorial, your credibility days are over. Period.

p.s. the DU thread link given above also has the WaPo editorial (for tomorrow, august 12th) link within it.

[EnviroGuy]

2. Swift Boat

Someone said that Steve Gardner was the gunner with Kerry (actually on the boat)and he doesn't think Kerry is fit to be command in chief. Has anyone else heard this?

[shraby]

4. All the guys that were on the boat

with Kerry are with him now except one who is deceased.

[cynatnite]

3. Absolutely!

I had some doubts there for a little while about this whole thing when it first came up. But I find it all so convoluted and you're right about going back in time.

The military would strip him of his medals if they thought he lied.

If he had lied and these guys think they can prove it, why don't they go to the navy and get them to strip him of their medals? I can't think of a worse thing to happen to anyone in the military. It's an insult and degrading. If that happened to Kerry, it would ruin him.

The thing is, they don't have the proof and since no one and I mean NO ONE has gone through military channels to see that he's stripped tells me that they have no case.

Swiftjerks officially debunked and a non-issue in my eyes.

Cyn:)

[pacalo]

5. Outstanding common sense.

All it took for me to realize what's going on is the C-Span footage of the old Dick Cavett show: O'Neill was practically laughed off the stage by the audience who saw right through him with his irrational arguements against a calm, well-spoken Kerry.

Also, I'm aware that O'Neill was handpicked by the Nixon administration to go after Kerry when he was speaking out against the Vietnam war. He & his vindictive Republican cronies have an axe to grind against Kerry, pure & simple.