Jewish World Review May 7, 2004 / 16 Iyar, 5764

Jack Kelly

Jack Kelly
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
James Glassman
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Roger Simon
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports


Scandals: Real and ignored


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | The hypocrisy, double standards and political bias of most in the major news media was evident in the meager coverage given a remarkable press conference held in Washington D.C. May 4.


A group calling themselves "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" declared John Kerry to be "unfit to be commander in chief." The group includes 19 of the 23 officers who served in Kerry's swift boat squadron during the time he was in Vietnam, and every officer in his chain of command, up to Rear Admiral Roy Hoffman, who oversaw all swift boats in Vietnam at the time Kerry was there.


Most of their ire was directed at Kerry's false accusation that servicemen routinely committed war crimes. But Kerry's shipmates also accused him of having "withheld and/or distorted material facts as to your own conduct in this war."


LtCmdr Grant Hibbard, Kerry's immediate superior, said he doubted Kerry deserved the first of the three Purple Hearts he was awarded during his four months in Vietnam:


"The briefing of some members of the crew the morning after revealed that they had not received enemy fire," Hibbard said. "And yet Lt.(jg) Kerry informed me of a wound, he showed me a scratch on his arm and a piece of shrapnel in his hand that appeared to be from one of our own M-79s (grenade launcher). It was later reported to me that Lt. Kerry had fired an M-79 and it had exploded off the adjacent shoreline."

Donate to JWR


Hibbard's doubts are shared by Louis Letson, the physician who treated Kerry for his wound at the Cam Ranh Bay medical facility:


"The story he told was different from what his crewmen had to say about that night. According to Kerry, they had been engaged in a fire fight. He said that his injury had resulted from this enemy action.


"Some of his crew confided that they did not receive any fire from shore, but that Kerry had fired a mortar round at close range to some rocks on shore. The crewman thought that the injury was caused by a fragment ricocheting from that mortar round when it struck the rocks. That seemed to fit the injury which I treated."


Customarily, service members are recommended for decorations by their immediate superior. But Hibbard said he didn't recommend Kerry for that Purple Heart, and doesn't know how he got it.


The controversy is important not just because Kerry may have gotten a combat decoration to which he was not entitled, but because he used it (along with his two unchallenged Purple Hearts) to leave Vietnam nearly eight months before the end of his tour. And it may explain why Kerry has been unwilling to disclose his medical records.


The Kerry campaign has responded to the charges made by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth not by providing evidence to refute them, but by charging they are part of a "Republican plot." The Kerry campaign has provided no evidence to support this charge, which is denied by the Republican National Committee and by the veterans.


"We endorse nobody at all for president," said John O'Neill, who organized the group. "If Kerry drops out and allows the Democratic Party a genuine choice, we're all going home. "We're unified on absolutely nothing, except one thing: John Kerry is not a fit commander in chief based on our experience with him."


It is remarkable that so many of Kerry's peers and superiors have such a low opinion of their former shipmate. But not to the news media, which buried their story on inside pages, if they reported on it at all. Contrast that with the massive coverage of recycled charges of alleged discrepancies in President Bush's service in the Air National Guard.


Bush missed several months of drills when he moved from Texas to Alabama to work on a campaign. Guardsmen are permitted to do this, provided they made them up later, as the record makes clear Bush did.


If this be a "scandal", surely it is a lesser one than fraudulently obtaining a combat decoration and using it as justification for leaving a combat zone early. Why is it that all those journalists who had so many questions for Bush have none for Kerry?

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.




JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. Comment by clicking here.

Jack Kelly Archives

© 2003, Jack Kelly