8.22.2004

Fighter vs. Fake: Before I devote any more pixels to the apparently illegal Swift boat ads launched by GOP insiders against John Kerry, I feel the need to back up and note: John Kerry volunteered to go to Vietnam, fought hard, and was injured. If those are values we want in our president, great. By contrast, our "commander in chief" didn't volunteer to fight in Southeast Asia and shirked the obligations he did sign on for. If those values are the kind we want leading our military, swell. But just as there are obligatory inclusions in every news account of the fight over these ads (f.ex. the definition of a 527 organization, named after the legal code that allows such groups to exist), there should also be an mandatory mention of this fact: Kerry fought, Bush faked. Bush didn't show up for his National Guard physical, and the evidence still suggests he went AWOL from his duties in the Guard. And he continues to fake, from his glib, erroneous pronouncement of "Mission Accomplished" 840 US deaths ago to his current flag-waving assertion that he supports our troops while at the same time he's cutting veterans benefits. Let's keep track of those facts.

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