“Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,” by John O’Neill and Jerome Corsi, has climbed up the best-seller lists as a group called “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth [sic]” (SBVT) unleashed TV ads questioning John Kerry’s truthfulness about his service in Vietnam. Commentators such as Tony Blankley may admire the book’s “copious footnotes, a detailed index and two appendices,” but this doesn’t invalidate the other side of the story - the one you won’t get from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, or most of the election-as-horse-race media.
Salon has an article on the book called “Unfit for Bookstores,” and Media Matters for America has a fairly detailed series of exposés on the authors. The Chicago Tribune published an article yesterday titled “Swift Boat Skipper: Kerry Critics Wrong” that links to a first-person account of the firefight leading to Kerry’s Silver Star.
Jim Rassmann, who served with Kerry during the Bronze Star incident, says the following in his op-ed from the Wall Street Journal:
“On March 13, 1969, John Kerry's courage and leadership saved my life. […] I am a Republican, and for more than 30 years I have largely voted for Republicans. I volunteered for his campaign because I have seen John Kerry in the worst of conditions. I know his character. I've witnessed his bravery and leadership under fire. And I truly know he will be a great commander in chief. Now, 35 years after the fact, some Republican-financed Swift Boat Veterans for Bush are suddenly lying about John Kerry's service in Vietnam; they are calling him a traitor because he spoke out against the Nixon administration's failed policies in Vietnam. […] This smear campaign has been launched by people without decency, people who don't understand the bond of those who serve in combat. As John McCain noted, the television ad aired by these veterans is ‘dishonest and dishonorable.’”
Coverage of the Bush campaign’s links to SBVT has been sparse but increasing; few except misleader.org have mentioned similar dirty tricks against McCain in the 2000 GOP primaries. Bush, responding to the gradually mounting criticism, admitted today that “Senator Kerry served admirably and he ought to be proud of his record.” A volunteer for the Bush/Cheney campaign who appeared in the SBVT ads was forcibly “resigned,” and that should also be considered progress.
Anyone planning to spend an evening or two with “Unfit for Command,” as I am, can afford a few minutes to learn about John O’Neill, Jerome Corsi, and the SBVT group. Then an informed judgment can be made about whether this book truly has “the ring of sincerity to it, and the mark of careful research and writing” (as Tony Blankley opines) or whether it’s another hyper-partisan hatchet job. (Not surprisingly, it’s published by Regnery!)
If veracity were to be a campaign topic, as it would be in a perfect world, then the current administration’s well-documented failures in that area should also be examined. (From the incomplete list below, David Corn’s The Lies of George W. Bush, Eric Alterman’s The Book on Bush, and Joe Conason’s Big Lies are perhaps the best overviews.)
Ali, Tariq. Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of IraqAlterman, Eric & Mark Green. The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America
Barrett, Jerry. Big Bush Lies: The 20 Most Telling Lies of President George W. Bush
Bonifaz, John. Warrior-King: The Case for Impeaching George Bush
Bovard, James. The Bush Betrayal
Brouwer, Steve. Robbing Us Blind: The Return of the Bush Gang and the Mugging of America
Brown, Cynthia. Lost Liberties: Ashcroft and the Assault on Personal Freedom
Bryce, Robert. Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America’s Superpower
Byrd, Robert. Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency
Caldicott, Helen. The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush’s Military-Industrial Complex
Clarke, Richard. Against All Enemies: Inside the White House's War on Terror - What Really Happened
Conanson, Joe. Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth
Corn, David. The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception
Cox, William. You’re Not Stupid! Get the Truth: A Brief on the Bush Presidency
Dadge, David. Casualty of War: The Bush Administration's Assault on a Free Press
Dean, John. Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush
Devine, Robert. Bush Versus the Environment
Dowd, Maureen. Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk
Dubose, Lou & Molly Ivins. Bushwacked: Life in George W. Bush's America
Eisendrath, Craig. Bush League Diplomacy: How the Neoconservatives Are Putting the World at Risk
Feffer, John. Power Trip: U.S. Unilateralism and Global Strategy after September 11
Frank, Justin. Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President
Franken, Al. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
Fritz, Ben. All the President’s Spin: George W. Bush, the Media, and the Truth
Hartung, William. How Much Are You Making on the War Daddy? A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration
Hatfield, J. H. Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President
Hightower, Jim. Thieves in High Places: They've Stolen Our Country - and It’s Time to Take It Back
Huberman, Jack. The Bush-Haters Handbook: A Guide to the Most Appalling Presidency of the Past 100 Years
Johnson, Chalmers. The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
Kennedy, Robert. Crimes against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy
Krugman, Paul. The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century
Lind, Michael. Made In Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics
Mann, James. Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet
McCourt, Malachy. Bush Lies in State
Miller, Mark Crispin. Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney’s New World Order
Moore, James. Bush’s War for Reelection: Iraq, the White House, and the People
Newhouse, John. The Bush Assault on the World Order
Phillips, Kevin. American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush
Pitt, William Rivers. War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn’t Want You to Know
Powers, John. Sore Winners (And the Rest of Us) in George Bush’s America
Press, Bill. Bush Must Go: The Top Ten Reasons Why George W. Bush Doesn’t Deserve a Second Term
Rall, Ted. Generalissimo El Busho: Essays and Cartoons on the Bush Years
Rampton, Sheldon & John Stauber. Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq
Rutherford, Paul. Weapons of Mass Persuasion: Marketing the War Against Iraq
Scheer, Christopher. The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us about Iraq
Sims, Bennett. Why Bush Must Go: A Bishop’s Faith-Based Challenge
Solomon, Norman. Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You
Sperry, Paul. Crude Politics: How Bush’s Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism
Sterling, Robert. 50 Reasons Not to Vote for Bush
Suskind, Ron with Paul O'Neill. The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill
Turner, William. Mission Not Accomplished: How George Bush Lost the War on Terrorism
Unger, Craig. House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties
Vidal, Gore. Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta
Waldman, Paul. Fraud: The Strategy Behind the Bush Lies and Why the Media Didn't Tell You
Williams, Ian. Deserter: George Bush’s War on Military Families, Veterans, and His Past
Willis, Clint. The I Hate George W. Bush Reader: Why Dubya Is Wrong about Absolutely Everything
Wilson, Joseph. The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Exposed My Wife's CIA Identity - A Diplomat's Memoir
Wuerker, Matt. The Madness of King George: The Ingenious Insanity of Our Most "Misunderestimated" President
No author is completely free of hidden agendas, but being an educated voter means knowing both sides of the issues. It’s often difficult in he-said-she-said situations like Vietnam war stories to evaluate conflicting recollections, but only consuming “news” that confirms one’s own biases is a very shallow and incomplete type of intellectual curiosity. (See the “Quotes of the Day” below.)
Caveat emptor, and happy reading!
Quotes of the Day:
“Slighting the three R’s in the beginning, and neglecting the liberal arts almost entirely at the end, our present education is essentially illiberal. It indoctrinates rather than disciplines and educates. Our students are indoctrinated with all sorts of local prejudices and predigested pap. They have been fattened and made flabby for the demagogues to prey upon. Their resistance to specious authority, which is nothing but the pressure of opinion, has been lowered. They will even swallow the insidious propaganda in the headlines of some local newspapers.”
Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book: The Art of Getting a Liberal Education, pp. 99-100)
“Since it is difficult to distinguish true prophets from false, it is as well to regard all prophets with suspicion. It is better to renounce revealed truths, even if they exalt us by their splendor or if we find them convenient because we can acquire them gratis. It is better to content oneself with other more modest and less exciting truths, those one acquires painfully, little by little and without shortcuts, with study, discussion, and reasoning, those that can be verified and demonstrated.”
Primo Levi (The Reawakening, p. 229)