It's interesting - and a welcome relief - that, despite ongoing controversy about the Swiftvets' various, sometimes (understandably) conflicting accounts of the Vietnam experience, the net result has been the mainstream media's newfound willingness to acknowledge the very existence of that controversy. The truth may now, at least in part, be brought out.
The Swiftvets never claimed to be perfect, and from what I've read, none of them are; however, none of them is now seeking the Presidency.
Presidents are, of course, not flawless. We've all been painfully reminded of that by the left. And our understanding of the truth is never perfect.
But patterns of truth nevertheless emerge over time. And a pattern is emerging now.
It's important, therefore, to at least consider on balance the overall message that appears to be getting through: that John Kerry continues, as he has for over three decades, to re-invent himself and his past. This seems to be a case of someone willing to say (or do?) anything to get to the White House.
Frightening. Even Halliburton never acted this unconscionably.
The real question, as I see it, is: Could a Kerry presidency, with such damaged credibility, ever be expected to 'preserve, protect, and defend' the interests of the United States?
For four years, the liberal demagogues have lamented the effects of the illegitimate Bush administration. Assuming the 'progressives' have a point (which of course they do not) could a President John Kerry, a man now shown to live in a plastic universe of his own, ever be considered any more legitimate?
So let the swiftees get the usual pummeling from a press that continues to print 'all the news that fits' its agenda.
Let the cartoonists denigrate their service (we remember how Gore respected their ballots).
Let them show us how imperfect men, who may have once longed to forget Vietnam, sometimes failed to challenge what they could dismiss as minor clerical oversights in the record. How they may have preferred to simply 'go along' with the program, rather than resurrect their hostility toward the way they were treated thirty years ago.
Let the hard-nosed, left-leaning media show us these men in all their humanity. Men who now can see more clearly when the times call for straightforward opinions.
We all had better start assessing those opinions with a critical eye for the unmistakable patterns of the truth, wherever it takes us, and John Kerry.
