X-rated critics
We have received an overwhelming -- overwhelmingly positive -- response to our column on John Kerry's Kurtz chronicles. Our friends at the Claremont Insitute have also posted the column as "Apocalypse Kerry." An editor at the Philadelphia Daily News -- the former journalistic home of the great Mark Bowden -- wrote to request permission to publish the column in the Daily News on Friday. We're getting close to both New York and Washington. Those whispers are getting louder.
We received a few critical messages as well. Thinking it might be possible to learn something from them, I am going to post each one here. Billy McLean wrote:
Hey assholes, I hope you read today's Star Tribune about the results of the Los Angeles Times investigation into Kerry's Vietnam History.Well, Billy, our military credentials are pretty closely guarded secrets, but we thank you for your service, I think. Mike Germain ("fighting fascist dirt bags every single day") wrote:I am a Korean War Veteran who landed in Pusan Korea on 28 February 1951. I was two months into my eighteenth year of life. I have zero respect and 100% distain for a group of low life pricks like to Swift Boat Veterans for the truth. They are so low down that they could easily walk beneath the belly of a snake while wearing their best top hat. I have no respect for Right Wing Organizations who defend draft dodgers like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfwitz, Karl Rove, and the most dangerous man in America, John Ashcroft. Where were they on Christmas Eve of 1968? They sure as hell were not in Southeast Asia. You guys keep this shit up and it is going to backfire big time on your mangy asses. Oh by the way, I would like to know your Military Credentials. I bet you both are big time "Combat Veterans."
Sieg Heil! Isn't that what morons like you do every time the King farts? Your piece in the Star Trib today only typifies the lies that some from right wing knobs like you. You people spread garbage about people who actually DID serve, while trying to provide cover for the draft dodging pieces of shit who are killing as many people as they can, just to make a buck. You dipsticks probably even think the Vietnam war was a good idea don't you?Folks, are we beginning to observe a pattern here? Perhaps Mike was suffering from combat fatigue caused by fighting fascist dirt bags every day. Steve Korzonowski, however, provided no such ready-made excuse:Lets see, King George flew the skies of Texas protecting us from Mexico while drinking beer and snorting cocaine. Dickhead Cheney got five deferments more than he deserved while chicken hawk scum like Paul Wolfowitz and others did the same thing.
It so easy to be an arm chair warrior isn't morons? Sending other people's childeren to get killed, maimed and scarred so that right wing slime, including you, can either line your pockets with taxpayer money, or is it that it makes you feel like a tough guy?
And why haven't you two goosestepping fascists enlisted yet? If you really think warmongering is such a good idea why are you sitting here while real people are being killed for no purpose what so ever.
You make me sick.
You guys are the biggest piles of human garbage I have encountered. You have negative ads because Bush blew it - he was and now is a failure - and you know it.We're not quite finished yet with our sociological investigations. Jerry Kottom wrote:You have nothing to go on so you sling mud - but we the people see through your CRAP and lies you rotting pieces of human excrement.
Fuck you and go away, please. 'Nuff said, Jed.
After reading your article in the Tribune I was wondering what war you served during or if you have ever been in the military at all. I was also curious about your opinion on George Bush's attendance during his time in the Guard. To me, it looks like a bunch of cowards calling names. As a veteran I am offended that two punk lawyers and a privileged boy who ran away from the war questioning another vet. Keep it up and more vets will be saying the same thing.We're not sure which of us Jerry deems "privileged" -- I'm perfectly willing to confess -- but I'm also a punk attorney. I don't think any of the three of us ran away from the war, however, although we might have if we needed to. In any event, alone among the critical messages we received was one that raised an issue of fact. Alan Schlingenbaum sent us the copy of a message he had sent to the editor of the Star Tribune editorial page. It is long and detailed, but it's interesting and worth a look:
Various commentators are making a big deal about the geography of the Mekong River delta. Does the Mekong River run perpendicular to the border between Vietnam and Cambodia, or does it run along the border? The answer depends on how closely you look.A few friendly readers also wrote to direct us to evidence that cross-border operations involving Navy SEALs may in fact have taken place. I wrote Mr. Schlingenbaum to ask if he was aware of any fact that supported Kerry's assertion that Kerry had actually conducted an operation on a Swift boat into Cambodia. In this case, at least, the whispers aren't getting any louder.The following item is from ABC News (8/11: click here):
Last night, Kerry adviser Michael Meehan responded to the claims in an interview with ABC News' Stu Chamberlain. "The Mekong Delta consists of the border between Cambodia and Vietnam, so on Christmas Eve in 1968, he was in fact on patrol Š in the Mekong Delta between Cambodia and Vietnam. He was ambushed, they fired back, he was fired upon from both sides, from the Cambodian side and the Vietnam side during that day in 1968." "What I've seen in this book is a bunch of people lying about John Kerry did. John Kerry actually did command a boat in Vietnam, ran patrols along the border in the waters, on behalf of the United States in 1968 and 1969."At least two mainstream journalists decided to take it upon themselves to give Kerry a geography lesson, as follows. In the Chicago Sun-Times, Mark Steyn said (8/15/04: click here):"Earlier, senior Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan told ABC News: 'The Mekong Delta consists of the border between Cambodia and Vietnam, so on Christmas Eve in 1968, he was in fact on patrol...in the Mekong Delta between Cambodia and Vietnam.' For a crowd of ostentatious multilateralists, they can't seem to hold the map the right way up: The Mekong River isn't the border between Cambodia and Vietnam; it cuts through the heart of Cambodia and then runs through Vietnam to the sea."In the Telegraph (UK), David Rennie said (8/12/04: click here):"[A] campaign aide said Mr Kerry had been in the Mekong Delta 'between' Vietnam and next-door Cambodia - a geographical zone not found on maps, which show the Mekong river running from Cambodia to Vietnam."A variety of bloggers (including Instapundit, Captain's Quarters and a bunch of others) are gleefully parroting this point.I decided to look at a map myself. The best and most detailed map I could find is here. The scale of this map is 1:250,000. On my computer screen, I think one inch on this map represents about two miles. (The context/overview for this map can be found here.)
Near the top-center of this map it's pretty easy to find where the main part of the Mekong River crosses the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. And it's true: the river is perpendicular to the border. But this map also clearly shows that the river has many canals, streams, branches and tributaries. In particular, about 5 miles east of the main crossing, there is a tributary that runs exactly along the border for about 5 miles. Likewise, about 5 miles west of the main crossing, there is another tributary that also runs exactly along the border for about 5 miles.
South of this point there is another system of tributaries, covering an area roughly 20 miles long. These tributaries are not exactly on the border (for the most part), but they run very close to the border (in many places less than a mile from the border). This particular system of tributaries is located north of Chau Doc.
Given these geographic realities, it's no surprise to see the language used by the US Navy to describe the local geography. On 10/18/69, the US Navy issued a press release that included the following statement:
"On November 16th, [1968] the Navy launched Operation Tran Hung Dao, a series of interdiction patrols on two waterways along the Cambodian border from Ha Tien to Chau Doc" [a town that I mentioned in the previous paragraph].This press release can be found, in full, at sites here and here.In other words, both the Kerry campaign and the US Navy saw fit to use the words "along the border" to describe a portion of the local waterways. I think the people who object to this language haven't bothered to take a close look at a map.
The Mekong River delta isn't a straight line. It's a complex system of canals, streams and waterways. And yes, some of those waterways are not "perpendicular" to the border. They run "along" the border "between" Cambodia and Vietnam.
It's disturbing that journalists (and "journalists") would not only get this wrong, but also be so smug about it.
UPDATE: Reader Robert Monical comments:
Some observations on the Vietnam Map. Each tick on the lines is one nautical mile (north south) and almost one nautical mile (east west).This map highlights the fact that there are not a lot of large waterways. If Swift boats stay to the larger ones, then the map shows which are eligible. The manageble number of large waterways highlights the relative ease of maintaining border crossing stations.
The map also highlights the near impossibility of getting "lost." Many landmarks on the larger rivers. If the Kerry boat was operating near the border, there should be an after action report.
HINDROCKET adds: There sure is a lot of intelligence on the left these days, isn't there?
I give Mr. Schlingenbaum credit for at least trying to make a rational point. But his labored effort to show that it is possible to get to the Cambodian border from Vietnam via the Mekong River is a little more trouble than it's worth. If he ever comes up with any evidence that 1) John Kerry was ever in Cambodia, 2) Kerry ever ferried a CIA agent into Cambodia and got the agent's hat as a present, 3) Kerry got shot at by Khmer Rouge a couple of years before they took the field, 4) Kerry got shot at while in Cambodia by drunken South Vietnamese who were celebrating Christmas on an unspecified date in January or February, or 5) Kerry spent a Christmas Eve in Cambodia having the memory of President Nixon denying his presence there seared -- seared -- into his memory the month before Nixon was inaugurated, so that he lost his faith in government forever and was still testifying to the searing memory thirty-five years later, I'll be more impressed.
Curious, isn't it, that Kerry has spent the last year touring the country with his "band of brothers," and yet not a single member of the "band" who served with Kerry has been willing to confirm that he was ever, at any time or for any purpose, in Cambodia?
As to our scatological Democratic friends, I can't help being bemused by their sudden respect for military service. I can't figure out where it came from, but it's a welcome change. Do they really mean to suggest, however, that only veterans should be able to express their opinions about the candidates, or, I take it, vote? That's a stipulation we could well choose to live with, as President Bush is currently leading John (pocketa-pocketa-pocketa) Kerry among veterans by something like fifteen points.
And if you don't get the pocketa-pocketa-pocketa reference, you need to read The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
