Swift Boat Liars, More than politics

The Oregonian today has an editorial on the "Swift Boat Veterans For Truth"; The Swift Boat war. They point out that many of the members of this group are driven less by politics than by a visceral hate of John Kerry because of his activities in the anti-war movement when he returned from Vietnam.

Kerry shouldn't be above criticism, though, even from this group. His post-Vietnam antiwar activism ought to be fair game for those who, like French, believe he betrayed the trust of his fellow veterans. Kerry's views as head of Vietnam Veterans Against the War were widely known and influential back then, and it's fair to use them against him now.

It's never easy to admit that friends and relatives died for nothing. I came of age during the Vietnam war and lost friends and relatives in the swamps of South East Asia. History tells us the Swift Boat Veterans anger is mis-directed however. It should be directed toward the likes of Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara and Richard Nixon, all of who knew that the war could not be won but continued to send Americans to Vietnam to die. Why? Politics, it would have been political suicide to admit they had been lying and just pack up and go home. I would suggest they all read Reaching For Glory by Michael Beschloss to see who their real enemy is. Perhaps then they will see that they are simply political tools being used by the evil Karl Rove just as they were political tools for Johnson and Nixon years ago.