Joe Klein On Dirty Politics
Joe Klein seeks the truth and finds:
...Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have turned out to be anything butóthe only "lies" they've turned up are a mistaken date or a mild Kerry exaggeration about operating in Cambodia and a Purple Heart received for a minor woundówe are told their real gripe is that Kerry protested the war after he came home and sullied their service by testifying to atrocities committed by American troops in Vietnam.These are heartfelt gripes, perhaps, but wrong on the merits. Kerry's protest was not only honorable, it was accurate. The war in Vietnam was an unnecessary disaster, entered into under false pretensesóthe fabricated Gulf of Tonkin incidentóand fought because of a mistaken intellectual theory: that the Vietnamese national liberation movement was part of an international communist conspiracy to overwhelm Asia. (The subsequent war between Vietnam and China put a crimp in that one.) And, yes, there were atrocities aplenty. I spent three years in the 1980s writing about a platoon of former Marines, men I consider heroes, and several unburdened themselves of awful memories before we were done: tossing a Vietnamese prisoner out of a helicopter, shooting an obviously innocent woman civilian in the back, collecting the ears of enemy dead. It was a meaningless, despicable war, and insane brutality was not an uncommon reaction.
But we're not really talking about Vietnam here, are we? We are talking about the politics of misdirection, about keeping John Kerry on the defensive by raising spurious questions about his "character."
We may also be talking about Iraqóand limiting Kerry's ability to question the President's decision to go to war. If so, the Swifties need not have bothered. Kerry hasn't shown much inclination to raise the real question about Iraq: Was it the right thing to do? And Bush hasn't shown much inclination to talk about the mixed, confusing effects of globalization on people like Elba Nieves. Which means there are nondebates on the two most important issues facing the nation. Not-So-Swift Columnists for Truth is appalled.
So are a few swift boat vets who had their names forged on the document decrying Kerry, writes Linda Halstead-Acharya:
Swift boat veteran Bob Anderson of Columbus is ticked.It bothers him that Sen. John Kerry's swift boat history has become such a political hot potato. But he's even more irritated that his name was included - without his permission - on a letter used to discredit Kerry.
"I'm pretty nonpolitical," the 56-year-old Anderson said Tuesday. So, when he found out last week that his name was one of about 300 signed on a letter questioning Kerry's service, he was "flabbergasted."
"It's kind of like stealing my identity," said Anderson, who spent a year on a swift boat as an engine man and gunner.
Speaking of faking it, check out our award-wearing commander-in-chief. Only, it seems he didn't actually earn one of the military awards he's wearing.
Yoo-hoo, Swift Boat Veterans? Anybody home?
The real problem was that Vietnam was really a war within a war. It was a proxy war for our larger cold war with Russia. Framed in this context, our actions in Vietnam were guided more by political soft-stepping rather than a desire t owin the war. Even back in the 60's and early 70's we had the overwhelming firepower to win the Vietnam War, but we held back to avoid pissing off Russia and starting World War 3.
This is really sickening in the context of 50,000 American lives lost, and the fact that the motivation for the war was to prevent the spread of communism, which, as history has shown, was ultimately needless.
My gut sense was that Bush rushing to war with Iraq, even with the supposed evidence supporting the invasion building up. Ultimately, the reasons for immediate war proved groundless. However, in the context of the Vietnam War, the Iraq War was a huge success: we used our overwhelming firepower to win quickly, and with loss of life at less that 1000 thus far.
My immediate concern was rapid world destablization because of a war against an Arab, Muslim state that much of the world disapproved of. My apocolyptic concerns turned out to be unfounded. I think only history will be able to judge whether the decision to invade Iraq was a good one, or whether it was Bush's Vietnam.
Politically, many people want to punish Bush for his decision to go to war against Iraq. Unfortunately, that won't be the final verdict on whether the war was a good idea or not. Remember, Bush senior lost his reelection bid after starting a war that was supported by about 90 percent of the US population. The economy weighed more heavily on people's minds.
Jeff R at September 2, 2004 9:17 AM
> Joe Klein seeks the truth and...
You lost me right there!
Klein was the weasel who lied about having written Primary Colors. He lied publicly, repeatedly, over many months, in several contexts, without remorse and to his own abject profit. And when he was finally busted, he offered no meaningful allocution or apology.
On that day, I knew I need never read another word he might write. He's playing on a different chessboard, one not of interest to other folks.
Same with Paul Krugman, who took tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars from Enron... I don't need to hear what such a person has to say about economics. (Oddly enough, Peg Noonan was captured in that same corral).
Crid at September 2, 2004 11:25 AM