I spent a few hours at the Borders Cafe today, and read, "Unfit for Command."
On the "Get out with three Purple Heats," question, Kerry wrote in one of his books that he " gave it a lot of thought over several weeks." O'Neil says he got the last award on March 13th, and he was out of there on March 17th. Three of the Officers went to him and told him to use it and take a hike. He did.
The book is a well written "lawyers brief." It filled in the details of what I had heard. The reason he got away with what he did was due to the fact that the others just wanted him out of there, and were too busy trying to do their jobs to worry about him. The other factor is that no one person knew all that he had done. They were all transfering in and out of the various squadrons, on different parts of the river, and were just glad he was gone.
It really didn't all get put together until Brinkly wrote his bio of Kerry, and the Globe did their Bio last year. The Officers and men didn't like Kerry because of what he had done during his protest days, but they were getting on with their own lives and had let it go.
They Swift vets group really got going the last few years. When they all started comparing notes, and comparing their experiences with Kerry's statements, it became clear just how outrageous his behavior was. O'Neil put it all together for the first time. It was a uncompleted jig-saw puzzle until then.
My take is the same as Novaks'. Either they are all liars, or Kerry isn't fit to be elected dogcatcher. I know they all went into this mad at Kerry, but they put their lives and reputations on the line with this book. That is no small thing. I think it is true.
The saddest part is that he may well get away with it and become our next President. |
