Jim Russell - Latest Straw-Man "Witness" for Kerry
in a Letter to the Editor, Jim Russell answers to Kerry. The piece is largely a leftist diatribe attacking the Swifties as vast right wing conspiracy types.

The only real or new / additional facts he brings - other than reverting back to the "No Man Left Behind" theme - is that:

"Almost immediately, another mine went off somewhere behind us. All boats, except the one hit ..." reinforcing Kerry's boat was not hit by a mine (only one was)

It sure appears these are not only fed to these guys as boilerplates from the Kerry campaign but likely originating from Kerry himself given this obsession he has with repeatedly attacking criticisms lodged by O'Neill (in Unfit for Command) against Kerry's SwiftBoat "tactics". Bottom line, Kerry's escapades were usually more worthy of demerits than the accolades Kerry reaped through his own reporting compared to the expected mastery of tactics less than 3 months of experience would obviously testify.

"... immediately wheeled toward the beach that most of the fire came from (a tactic devised by Lt. Kerry, I later learned) and commenced showering the beaches with so much lead, that it could probably be now mined there. The noise was of course, deafening."

Russell's statement reads like the Kerry diatribe handed to Rassman for his submission to the Wall St. Journal a couple weeks passed; indicates they were under enemy fire (just didn't "think it was very accurate") while confirming the Swifties' contention that a tremendous barrage of firepower was laid down by US gunners just in case there were any enemy on the beach.

Then the straw man, picking a bone with a point not of any contention ... tada! the plucking of Rassman from the river:

The picture I have in my mind of Kerry bending over from his boat picking some hapless guy out of the river while all hell was breaking loose around us, is a picture based on fact and it cannot be disputed or changed. It's a piece of history drawn in my mind that cannot be redrawn. Sorry, "Swift Boats Veterans for the Truth"- that is the truth.

That's actually Sorry Kerry because Russell does nothing to address the issues which are a source of contention :(

- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 11:00 PM