Lying Veterans and the Lies They Tell

"[I]n the beginning when the world was young there were a great many thoughts but no such thing as a truth. Man made the truths himself and each truth was a composite of a great many vague thoughts." -Sherwood Anderson, "Winesburg, Ohio"


Does it come as a surprise to anyone that this presidential campaign has turned nasty? Not just nasty, but REALLY NAAAASTY! We are seeing Navy veterans in their late 50s and 60s who have stored up resentments for over 30 years viciously leap at the opportunity to vent their spleens now that someone may listen to them spew. Typical of this sort of bitterness gone rancid is that its purveyors want to pass it off as "truth." What a loaded, ironic, and ultimately useless word for political passions born amidst our ill-fated military exploits in Vietnam.

The muck these days is being brewed and stirred by a small collection of former naval officers who built very successful careers in the military, in business and in corporate law over the past three decades. Part of their comfortable lives has, of course, been founded in their allegiance to the party of ever-growing military budgets and substantial tax cuts for the wealthy. Like sleeping dogs, though, they were recently prodded as if kicked in the ribs by a pointy boot--in this case a Kerry biography published this spring titled "Tour of Duty" by Douglas Brinkley. On top of that, the Democrats have had the audacity to tout the uncontested military heroism of their candidate.

So the "truth" has to come out. In service of that truth, though, all manner of lies, deceptions, distortions, and disgraceful behavior is justified. The origin of the current vitriol is doubtlessly in the guts of these disgruntled veterans who never adjusted to our nation's obvious defeat in a protracted, unpopular war. John Kerry had the courage to both do his duty as a naval officer, but then when mustered out, also do his duty to his conscience and to the larger citizenry in whose name so much damage had been done.

The second ad from the Lying Swift Bush Hatchetmen gets a lot closer than the first to what has really been gnawing at these until now disorganized and disaffected veterans: Kerry's 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The "script" here is the message of outrage these veterans feel toward Kerry's description of "atrocities" committed by U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. What the script doesn't tell the audience is that Kerry is not making accusations, is not spreading stories about his former comrades, nor is he making assertions that all soldiers fit those descriptions. What he is doing at that point in his testimony is reviewing for the senators information and anecdotes that came to light during the "Winter Soldier Investigation" in Detroit earlier in 1971, where more than 150 honorably discharged veterans talked openly about war crimes they had committed in South East Asia. He was essentially passing on the confessions of soldiers who were still in the process of unburdening their souls.

If it's Truth, this current group wants to stand for, then why are they so willing to lie and distort?

The answer is that for years these guys have lived with images of Kerry in his camouflage fatigue jacket mixing with the scruffy combat vets protesting what they'd witnessed in the rice fields and hamlets of Vietnam; they'd had to suffer quietly while figures such as Ron Kovic held the spotlight from his wheelchair chained to the White House fence; and until now they've had to content themselves with targets the size of Jane Fonda.

Now, following the Democratic National Convention, they've finally found a chance to howl. So they whip out these ads, which, of course, the nation has to at least cock an ear to and dig back for a few facts to evaluate.

But the facts are there, and I think this country still has a taste for truth if they have time to find it. To begin with, we could check out exactly what John Kerry said in his Senate testimony

Chas.