Tired of hearing about Vietnam? Come January, if the monograms on the White House bath towels read "JFK," you may want to take a cue from Robert Altman and consider moving out of the country. I hear Greenland is nice and quiet. Or maybe Patagonia.
A new article at the The Weekly Standard provides an interesting glimpse of what to expect from the Republicans if Kerry wins next week. The Senator's studied avoidance of large hunks of his own personal history (i.e., everything apart from the heroics of his five-month stint in Vietnam) leaves his political opponents with many intriguing avenues to explore.
As the Standard article intimates, the details of Kerry's past could prove particularly debilitating for a leader in a time of global ideological conflict. If it turns out that Kerry did conduct freelance diplomacy with North Vietnamese delegates in Paris in 1970, and that he was bamboozled into thinking communism was just swell and that the US was uniquely the criminal aggressor, and that he was inspired by that meeting not only to join the radical Vietnam Veterans Against the War but also to lead it, and that he did indeed attend the infamous 1971 meeting of that group, wherein one of the more interesting "protest" items on the agenda was the assassination of US Congressmen, well, you can guess what sorts of hay will be made.
Of course, all of this could be the Bush smear machine in full gear. But on the other hand, the Democrats' treatment of Vietnam vets they deem inconvenient suggests there might be something to hide. To wit: the Kerry camp's successful attempt to keep "Stolen Valor," the Swift Boat Veterans' hit piece/documentary, off the air. While the media was too easily intimidated during the sensitive preelection season, the questions raised by the "swifties" would have four long years to be amplified during a Kerry administration.
Whoever we choose to lead us through the next phase of the fight against radical Islam will need a strong mandate. From the start, Kerry could be preoccupied with trying to convince the American people that to fill in the blanks left by his selective amnesia is to engage in neo-McCarthyism. That'll show Al Qaeda.
You're a fascist!
You should read www.zmag.org and see the truth!
WORKERS UNITE!!!!!!!!
Posted by: worker | October 26, 2004 at 03:39 PM