The new book by John O’Neill on John Kerry’s Vietnam experiences, Unfit For Command, won’t be released until August 15. But Matt Drudge says he’ll “break the embargo,” starting tomorrow.
Drudge highlights these charges from the book:
Two of John Kerry’s three Purple Heart decorations resulted from self-inflicted wounds, not suffered under enemy fire.
All three of Kerry’s Purple Hearts were for minor injuries, not requiring a single hour of hospitalization.
A “fanny wound” was the highlight of Kerry’s much touted “no man left behind” Bronze Star.
Kerry turned the tragic death of a father and small child in a Vietnamese fishing boat into an act of “heroism” by filing a false report on the incident.
Kerry entered an abandoned Vietnamese village and slaughtered the domestic animals owned by the civilians and burned down their homes with his Zippo lighter.
Kerry’s reckless behavior convinced his colleagues that he had to go — becoming the only Swift Boat veteran to serve only four months.
It will be interesting to see how this gets covered in the press. I believe that every officer who ever commanded Kerry in Vietnam has signed a letter to the effect that he is unfit to be commander in chief. My guess, though, is that the merits of the criticisms of Kerry by his former comrades will be ignored, and the issue will be framed as: who is financing O’Neill et al., what are the motives of the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, etc. Whether the public will buy that spin is another question. These revelations have the potential to damage Kerry considerably, given his heavy reliance–puzzling to me, given the rest of his record–on his four months in combat in Vietnam as a qualification for the Presidency.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.