Target Centermass

Day: August 31, 2004

  • Riders Clinch

    I’ve spoken before about my newfound affection for the game of baseball at the minor league level, especially the local Frisco RoughRiders. Just wanted to point out that the Riders clinched a playoff spot in the Texas League’s East Division last night.

  • Swiftboat Vets Offer a Deal to Kerry

    … and there’s no way he can accept it.

    The following letter was delivered to the Kerry Campaign today by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

    Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
    P.O. Box 26184
    Alexandria, Virginia 22313

    August 31, 2004

    Senator John Kerry
    901 15th Street NW
    Washington, DC 20005

    Dear Senator Kerry:

    As you prepare for your address before the American Legion in Nashville, Tennessee, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth encourages you to use this opportunity to clarify your actions in Vietnam and your statements about your fellow Veterans and shipmates when you returned home. Since you have made your four-month tour in Vietnam the centerpiece of your campaign, we respectfully insist that you be truthful. The public is owed a full and honest accounting of your actions. Veterans are owed an apology from you and an acknowledgement that there was no basis in fact for the accusations you made against them.

    We urge you to:

    1. Apologize for your conduct once you returned from Vietnam. Your exaggerated testimony before the US Senate; the blanket indictment of your fellow veterans; throwing away medals and ribbons; all of these actions dishonored America and the armed forces. Your rhetoric and actions were not only wrong, they aided the enemy and brought great pain to POW’s, veterans and their families.

    2. Clarify the conflicting accounts involving the Bay Hap River incident of March 13, 1969 (Bronze Star and 3rd Purple Heart). You have now described three different versions of this incident. In the first version of this incident presented during the Democrat National Convention, you stated: “No man left behind,” suggesting to the American people that you alone stayed on the river to rescue Mr. Rassmann. Later, when forced to acknowledge conflicting eyewitness testimony from fellow swift boat veterans, you said that your boat left the scene to return moments later to retrieve Jim Rassmann from the water. Yet, in another version of the same incident discovered in the Congressional Record, you reported that your boat struck a mine and Rassmann fell off the boat. Mr. Kerry, please explain to your fellow veterans and the American people which version is the truth.

    3. Affirm that the injuries for which you received your purple hearts never required any medical treatment beyond perhaps a bandage and that, in all instances, these injuries were self-inflicted and came from your own weapon. Further, that if any of these purple hearts were falsely awarded, that you would not have been eligible to leave Vietnam after serving only four months.

    4. Acknowledge what your own biographer is now saying, that the Christmas in Cambodia claim is “obviously wrong,” that you were never in Cambodia over Christmas or any other time during your brief, four-month tour in Vietnam and that your statements before the United States Senate in 1986 were false.

    If you undertake these steps we will be satisfied that the American public has been sufficiently apprised as to these aspects of your career, and we will discontinue the media advertisements you have sought so fervently to silence.

    Please know that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are eager to close our own personal chapters on Vietnam and instead focus on the war we’re currently fighting — the ongoing war on terrorism. In the absence of full public disclosure and a public apology, we will continue efforts to carry our message to an ever-expanding base of grassroots supporters.

    Senator Kerry, we want to get Vietnam behind us. But, we can only do so if the truth is told.

    We respectfully await your reply.

    Sincerely,

    Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

    EDIT: I’ve been checking through my blogroll and I have yet to see a mention of this, even from The InstaMeister. Wow, thank you TexAgs. Of course, I’m sure I’m overlooking somebody.

  • Upcoming Smithsonian Exhibition Honors Service Members

    The Department of Defense is working with the Smithsonian Institution on a new permanent exhibit scheduled to open on Veteran’s Day.

    “The Price of Freedom: Americans at War” will occupy about 18,000 square feet in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History here. The exhibition will cover 250 years of American history, beginning with the French and Indian War of 1756 and running through the current war on terrorism.

    “The overall theme of the exhibit is that wars have been defining episodes in American history,” said David Allison, project director for the exhibition. “But wars have multiple dimensions — political, economic and social — and this exhibition explores how Americans everywhere were impacted by wars.”

    The exhibition will focus on the servicemembers who fought the nation’s wars, but it also will examine the sacrifices made by American individuals, families and communities during wartime, Allison said. It contains more than 800 artifacts, including weapons, uniforms, equipment, flags and medals. Hundreds of images, diary entries, video and audio pieces will help tell the story of what servicemembers and other Americans experienced during war.

    “It’s not our words, but the words of those who lived these experiences that tell the story. It’s their words that carry the message,” Allison said. “The personal stories are really a very important part of this exhibition.”

    Most of the stories in the exhibition will focus on the servicemembers who fought in the campaigns, rather than on senior military or civilian leaders.

    “This exhibit is less about military strategy and grand campaign plans, and it is more about the soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen,” Allison said. “We are telling their story in their words, using voice narratives.”

  • Putin Okays Iraqi Arms Sales

    Iraq’s interim government got another boost in its legitimacy when Russian President Vladimir Putin okays arms sales by Russian firms to Iraq.

    The document calls such sales part of efforts to fulfill a U.N. Security Council resolution in June that endorsed the interim Iraqi government. It says the transactions are not subject to earlier arms embargoes against Iraq.

    The order says the sales of weapons and military equipment are to support the new Iraqi government and multinational forces in the country.