Hmmm.

Ok. I got my copy of "Unfit for Command" at the office today but didn't get a chance to read it until 8pm or so. Took me a couple hours to read it and another hour to reread selected portions of it.

HOLY ****!! (edited out expletive)

Please excuse the language but I've never read anything more damning in my life. If these guys aren't telling the truth then they're in for the libel/slander/defamation suit of the century.

The book is only 200+ pages so it's not a hard read, but it's riveting. You get guided through every aspect of Kerry's Vietnam service and it's unreal. There are several points that should be considered.

1. Nobody liked Kerry or trusted him. Many of the officers in the SWIFT boats requested that they never go on missions with Kerry.

2. Kerry had an intense fantasy life where he was a John Wayne style hero confronting his superior officers about supposed issues. Instead he was a suck-up in real life. He was only the hero in his journals, which is the basis of his many biographies.

3. Kerry was unreliable. He would often "disappear" for long stretches of time from patrol. On one patrol, only 7 miles from Saigon, he actually deserted his post by taking his boat into Saigon for a night of drinking. He was also prone to firing without warning and exercised poor, or non-existant, fire discipline.

4. Kerry lied like a rug. He changed scenarios, times, situations and reports in order to gain medals. The action in which he won the Silver Star was actually completetly contrived. The night before the mission Kerry talked to his crew and the crews of two other boats. The basis of this "talk" was to convince them that, upon recieving fire, they would beach their boats and charge the enemy. The reason for this was to garner medals. What's more interesting is that each boat carried around 10 SVA soldiers who did the bulk of the fighting, and yet they weren't even mentioned in the citation.

5. Kerry didn't just think of the "3 Purple Hearts and you go home" routine himself. He was asked, or told to rather, to use this clause and get the hell out of Vietnam. The other SWIFT boat officers didn't want him anywhere near them anymore because he was such a liability.

6. Kerry, according to this book, was a physical coward who bitched about any level of danger and who either hung back or RAN the moment there was any danger. As an example Kerry spent only a week at An Thoi, a dangerous posting, because he bitched so much nobody wanted him around. So he got transferred to a much less dangerous post.

This literally goes on and on and on.

I didn't serve in the USN but I do a term in the USMC (starting in 1982, medical discharge in 1984) and I think I would have shot Kerry if he had done any of this crap to me or my buddies.

It's one thing to be a glory hound medal hunting bastard. It's another thing to leave wounded comrades to die by running away.

One thing is for certain. Someone is going to pay a heavy price for this book. Either it's the Swiftees, if they're lying. Or it's Kerry, if they aren't lying. Or it's the liberal media, once enough people have read this book.

Sooner or later there's going to be an accounting.

.... cross posting this from R.L. Simon's blog.

Well, Novak published his story on the 9th:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20040809.shtml
It's reasonable to estimate that he got his copy on the 8th or 9th at the latest.

The Spectator article was date/time stamped just after midnight on the 10th:
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=6955
It's not inconceivable that the Kerry campaign wangled a copy or two on the 8th or 9th as well and rammed a damage control read through.

My shipping advice from Amazon came through on the 10th.

It's well within the realm of possibility, although more difficult to assess the probability.

John Kerry requests Purple Heart for Moqtada al Sadr

Teheran Times ^ | 8/13/04 | Abu al Dimikrati

Abu al Dimikrati reporting from Detroit USA for the TEHERAN TIMES

Detroit USA (TT) – Speaking before a crowd of Arab Americans in this city’s enlightened East End district, Favored Infidel of Allah John Kerry demanded that Spawn of Satan George W. Bush press the Navy Department to issue a Purple Heart to Moqtada al Sadr for a heroic scratch he received from infidel American shrapnel in action in the holy city of Najaf.

FIOA Kerry explained to the raucous, cheering crowd of true believers how this was his first initiative in his Sensitive War on Terror. FIOA Kerry brilliantly explained -

“As soon as I take office, my Sensitive Warriors will be forcefully directed to conduct serious studies to find out why all the world’s true believers were so mad at America. Then I will craft a warlike but sensitive, powerful but wise apology to al Islamia before pushing a massive reparations bill through my Democrat controlled House and Senate. This is the one true way to make America safer.”

He went on blaming SOS Bush for this

“…terrible state of affairs we find ourselves in with the entire world mad at us.” He continued that “After apologizing and reparating al Islamia he would wisely but powerfully direct his Sensitive Warriors to start the same process with the French, Germans and Russians. This is my vision for a peaceful world where America is loved, not hated.”

In a later one on one interview he averred to me –

“When I grew up in France I was taught the beauty of the Holy Koran and I knew that someday I would save the enlightened people of al Islamia from the Satans of the West.”

I am happy to report that America will soon be on our side when FIOA John Kerry smashes SOS Bush in November, and to that end we must kill as many Americans and

http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/08/john_kerry_requ_1.html

John Kerry requests Purple Heart for Moqtada al Sadr

Teheran Times ^ | 8/13/04 | Abu al Dimikrati

Abu al Dimikrati reporting from Detroit USA for the TEHERAN TIMES

Detroit USA (TT) – Speaking before a crowd of Arab Americans in this city’s enlightened East End district, Favored Infidel of Allah John Kerry demanded that Spawn of Satan George W. Bush press the Navy Department to issue a Purple Heart to Moqtada al Sadr for a heroic scratch he received from infidel American shrapnel in action in the holy city of Najaf.

FIOA Kerry explained to the raucous, cheering crowd of true believers how this was his first initiative in his Sensitive War on Terror. FIOA Kerry brilliantly explained -

“As soon as I take office, my Sensitive Warriors will be forcefully directed to conduct serious studies to find out why all the world’s true believers were so mad at America. Then I will craft a warlike but sensitive, powerful but wise apology to al Islamia before pushing a massive reparations bill through my Democrat controlled House and Senate. This is the one true way to make America safer.”

He went on blaming SOS Bush for this

“…terrible state of affairs we find ourselves in with the entire world mad at us.” He continued that “After apologizing and reparating al Islamia he would wisely but powerfully direct his Sensitive Warriors to start the same process with the French, Germans and Russians. This is my vision for a peaceful world where America is loved, not hated.”

In a later one on one interview he averred to me –

“When I grew up in France I was taught the beauty of the Holy Koran and I knew that someday I would save the enlightened people of al Islamia from the Satans of the West.”

I am happy to report that America will soon be on our side when FIOA John Kerry smashes SOS Bush in November, and to that end we must kill as many Americans and

http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/08/john_kerry_requ_1.html