And A Cheap Shot It Sure Is

This is a good, thorough review of what Swift Boat Veterans For The Truth and their anti-Kerry activities are all about. What worries me is not the fact that such activities are ongoing, but the fact that a certain, non-negligible percentage of the populace is willing to even seriously consider the bogus claims against Kerry. Indeed, as Gerald Rellick laments,

There was a time in America that no one disrespected military service. Veterans from World War II and Korea didn’t challenge each other about whose service was the most dangerous, the toughest. Not everyone could serve in combat, and of those who did, not everyone was in the first wave of a beachhead assault or was in the lead plane in a bombing mission. Everyone in combat understood the fickle nature of war, that luck was everything. It was enough to leave it alone.

Apparently, no more so. Attempts to undermine the reputation of warriors who later in life decided to enter politics are now rampant. Notably, most of those attempts are the work of those who have never seen combat themselves. It is also worth mentioning that most of the time their allegations do not include those of war crimes,- which would be a legitimate concern, merely of not being much of a warrior. Apparently, the time when just being in combat and doing your job was enough to earn a soldier respect and recognition is in the past.