It seems that the second of the Swift boat vets' ads explores what I view to be the internal contradictions at the heart of the Kerry campaign: "POWs join Swift boat vets in criticism of Kerry" (link via Human Events). Send contributions to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth through this link. Now we're getting somewhere.

HINDROCKET adds: This ad is absolutely devastating. It intersperses shots of Kerry testifying before a Senate committee on alleged atrocities in Vietnam with live appearances by veterans who describe the devastating effects of Kerry's sellout of his fellow servicemen. One of the vets says that Kerry gave the North Vietnamese for free what he and other POWs endured torture rather than fabricate--confessions of atrocities. Absolutely devastating.

One of the striking things about the ad is Kerry's voice. Kerry was a young man when he testified before the Senate, but he sounded then exactly the way he sounds now--smug, pompous, pretentious. It is infuriating to hear that voice smugly recounting his third-hand charges.

And, liberal readers, don't bother to send us emails about how there really were atrocities in Vietnam. Atrocities happen in wartime. We know for sure about one carried out by American troops in Vietnam, My Lai, which resulted in a criminal prosecution. Undoubtedly there were others. (We also know about uncountable atrocities carried out by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong.) But that isn't what Kerry claimed before the Senate: he testified that atrocities like murder, rape and disfigurement happened routinely and constantly in Vietnam, "on a day to day basis," and that those crimes were known to all of the officers, up and down the chain of command. That was a lie. And, in fact, Kerry also admitted that he himself had never oberved any war crimes and had no personal knowledge of them. That didn't prevent him from testifying under oath that they were ubiquitous.

President Bush is currently leading Kerry by eighteen points among veterans. It is hard to believe that many veterans who see this ad will vote for Kerry. It will be interesting to see how Kerry responds to this one. He can't very well say that the Vets are lying, since the ad consists mostly of him talking. And the timing is great: Kerry and his media minions have just attacked the Vets as liars who are distorting his record. This new ad pretty well knocks the props out from under that defense.

The Times will have to get cracking on a new story.

Posted by Scott at 10:42 AM  |    |  

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