The United States election is, as they promised, getting very dirty. Karl Rove (George W Bush’s Svengali) is said to have predicted, ”By November, they won’t even know whose side he fought on.” ”He”, of course, is John Kerry — the would-be next president of the US whose Svengalis (less gifted in the black arts than Rove) chose to package Lieutenant John, intrepid Swift Boat skipper, acknowledging the ovation of the delegates with a military salute and a crisp ”reporting for duty”.
Shortly afterwards, the other side hoisted (yet again) the national security level to orange and released its propaganda torpedo. The Democrats can count on the sell-out movie (Fahrenheit 9/11); the Republicans, a book (Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry) that is already number one on Amazon’s bestseller list a week before publication.
Regnery, the publishing house under whose imprint Unfit for Command appears, is part of the Eagle corporation. Its proud mission is ”to provide independent thinkers with perspective and solutions favouring the traditional American values of free enterprise, limited government, and individual liberty”. Books, that is, such as Wayne LaPierre’s Guns, Crime and Freedom (LaPierre is Charlton Heston’s successor at the National Rifle Association).
The reading public must wait for their copies of Unfit for Command. Its contents are strictly embargoed until August 15. Such embargoes are routinely flouted in the United Kingdom but not in the US, where the courts have upheld them. Not to worry, however: Web sleazemeister Matt Drudge declared, last Tuesday, ”I shall break the embargo.” Which, over the next few days, he did.
Two of Kerry’s three Purple Hearts, Regnery’s Swiftvets allege, were from ”self-inflicted wounds” (a serious military crime). None had required ”an hour’s hospitalisation”. Kerry’s bronze star was for a wound in the ”fanny” (as he was running away, one presumes).
His Silver Star (one of the highest decorations for gallantry) was for shooting (why mince words? murdering) a fleeing, unarmed teenager dressed only in a loincloth. Forget presidential aspirations; on this evidence, Kerry should be standing alongside Lynndie England at Fort Bragg, facing court martial.
Drudge is a trusted mouthpiece of the right. Given his record, one may suspect that he was fed the Swiftvet stuff by Regnery with the acquiescence of the far-right political interests that finance the Eagle publishing operation. If this is the case, Drudge is not ”breaking the embargo”. He is point man in the shit-blitz designed to counter the serious damage inflicted by Michael Moore.
The advantage of a strategic release of the poisonous allegations while unsympathetic commentators remain muzzled by embargo restriction is obvious — the supporting evidence and the credibility of the witnesses cannot be queried.
Many Vietnam veterans apparently despise Kerry for throwing away his medals, growing his hair long and hanging out with Jane Fonda while they were still getting their backsides shot off on the front line. The fact that this ”hero” was only four months in active service (relieved of his command for recklessness, the Swiftvets allege) does not help.
Basic Web sleuthing soon revealed that senior former officers among the Swiftvets are aligned with the campaign to re-elect Bush. Drudge concedes that a mysterious ”donor in Texas” has financed their book and the TV ad in which they brand Kerry a liar (the advertisement can be found at www.swiftvets.com: a website, one suspects, not paid for by the veterans’ military pensions).
It’s Godzilla versus King Kong fighting it out in the cesspit of US politics. If you believe Moore’s film, Bush was in cahoots with the Bin Laden clan. If you believe the Swiftvets’ book, the man who wants to replace Bush is a poltroon — incapable of commanding a small plastic boat, let alone the most powerful nation on the planet as it faces the greatest crisis in its history. As usual in politics everywhere, it will come down to who is telling the truest lies. — Â