Swift Vets and POWs for "Truth" v. The Truth
[Formerly Swift Boat Veterans for "Truth" v. The Truth]

Acknowledgements

LATEST UPDATE - 10/12/04
To send me news/information tips or comments, please click here. 
I will acknowledge sources via initials -- unless you are fine with my using your full name.

I am done with Bush flip-flops at Compassiongate (172 flip-flops) - now it's back to more important work! 

1. NEW WEBSITE: I've just kicked off today, a new website - Vote2004.eRiposte.com - dedicated to tracking voting irregularities, vote suppression, vote fraud, voter intimidation and other such acts of compassionate conservatism during Election 2004. Do bookmark it and make it part of your daily browsing until Election 2004 is over! 

2. IMPORTANT UPDATE [via Dailykos and Talkingpointsmemo]: The Swift Boat veterans have evidently formed a new entity "Swift Vets and POWs for Truth", merging with the group ("POWs for Truth") that sponsored the anti-John-Kerry movie "Stolen Honor". That this movie is likely to be a hate infested fraud should be no surprise to readers of this site. The issue now is that the right-wing Sinclair Broadcasting group has decided to pre-empt regular prime time programming on its vast network of TV stations in the U.S. to air this movie free a few days before the election. This travesty should not go unfought. What should we do? DailyKos has links you need to take action. Go! Additionally the hand of Karl Rove has become clear in this dirty tricks operation - go read The Progress Report, Digby, Sid's Fishbowl, Blue Lemur, Atrios, and more Atrios, for more details and suggestions for action. If you want to figure out if you live in a Sinclair media market so that you can ID their advertisers and call them, click here. If you want to call their investors, click here.

3. MUST-READ UPDATE: Eric Rasmussen has done a great job reviewing the SBV book "Unfit for Command". Please be SURE to pay his site a visit and review his research. His main page is here. The summary of his rebuttal/refuting of the charges in "Unfit for Command" is here. I hope to read more of his website in a week or so (assuming I get done with my ongoing project by then) and will post relevant excerpts here at that time. 

4. MUST-SEE MOVIE: Reader E. L. pointed me to the movie about John Kerry's great contributions to the U.S. in the Vietnam era - "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry". The website for the movie is goingupriver.com. Alternately go to keepitgoing.org. I watched the movie on opening night and I was moved by Kerry's bravery in not just going to Vietnam (a fairly unpopular thing to do) but his courage in taking on a corrupt, lying Government (Nixon's) after he returned - something, arguably, that was a far more unpopular act. If there is any doubt in your mind that Kerry puts values and principles above popularity, this movie will remove that doubt. Indeed, who could me a more appropriate choice for President in these times?! 

ARCHIVES

INTRODUCTION to Swiftvets.eRiposte.Com 
(email: feedback-at-eriposte-dot-com)

Welcome! This website (a sub-domain to eRiposte.com) is dedicated to revealing the real truth behind the so-called "Swift Vets and POWs for Truth" [formerly "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth"] (SBV for short), more appropriately referred to as Swift Boat Veterans (and POWs) Who Have a Major Problem With The Truth. (On the blogosphere you will find other, equally appropriate names for SBV - such as Swift Boat Veteran Flip-Floppers for Bush or Smear Boat Veterans for Bush or Swift Boat Liars for Bush). Pick the name you like. I'll stick with SBV.

Many media outlets (see below) have been providing a relatively easy opening for SBV (at least until 8/19/04) - sometimes parading these folks before viewers (or readers), often without critically examining the full breadth and depth of their egregiously false charges against Senator John Kerry (some media, "journalists", and serial liars are far worse than others on this). SBV has also permeated their misleading and false attacks through a book titled "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry". In an attempt to correct the lack of balance in the media's treatment of this group and to refute the false allegations that form the basis of the book, this website explores SBV's charges in detail and shows you the truth behind the so-called "truth". 

What will become clear when you review the material here is that SBV has major ultra-right-wing, partisan, Bush supporters and Kerry haters and GOP slime operators who are merely kicking off Part II of "The Hunting of the President" - while creating the appearance of being an "independent" group.

What is even more remarkable is that SBV's hate-filled mendacity is nothing other than a direct attack on the integrity of the American Armed Forces - something that Republicans like them claim to hold dear. 

As Digby has eloquently noted:

It has struck me lately what a terrible indictment of the military these charges are and how once again the Republicans have absolutely no limits in terms of how fully they are willing to trash the American institutions they allegedly love in order to win. What these people are saying is that the US Navy awarded some of its highest medals for bravery to a coward. The many officers who signed those glowing fitness reports and awarded those citations are either liars or they are incompetent. The word of his shipmates, even the man whose life he saved, are worth nothing. You can't believe military documentary evidence. It was all bullshit, every last piece of it.
And because of this it can now be said that all medals awarded for bravery are suspect. A superior military record is no longer a recommendation. Who can ever believe the government on this issue, now?
...
The conservative attack on the military is, on the other hand, so small minded, so parochial. For puny, partisan reasons they are accusing the military of widespread corruption --- merely to excuse the behavior of their less than stellar candidate.
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Too bad for the men and women who are risking their necks as we speak for Junior's Big Adventure. Any act of bravery on which the military might bestow a medal is now subject to interpretation. Nothing is sacred to these people.

Some veterans agree:

As was shamefully done previously against decorated veterans like John McCain and Max Cleland, extreme right-wing groups such as the so-called 'Swift-Boat Veterans for Truth' are again spreading lies meant to discredit a decorated veteran. A veteran who volunteered for combat, who was brave enough not only to withstand the rigors of battle but then the equally difficult struggle to speak the truth about war's inevitable dark side: savagery, stupidity, recklessness, maiming, and death. These are the truths of every war -- those necessary and those avoidable; those just and those unjust.

"The slander about John Kerry's Purple Hearts and courage in command is fallacious at best and spuriously shameful. More, the attacks against Kerry's post-discharge protest of Vietnam represent a concerted attempt to prevent others from speaking the necessary truth of their experience by those too cowardly to admit their own share in our flawed humanity...
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If they succeed, hundreds of thousands of young soldiers and Marines will find it that much more difficult to tell their difficult stories -- whether heroic, tragic, barbaric, or all three -- when they return from Iraq and Afghanistan. So that another generation of veterans will not be rent by the difficult choice between living with a lie and feeling shamed for telling the truth, we ask you: do not listen to those who would distort a brave man's struggle.

Please select one of the menu options at the top of this page to see the facts.