Jackson, Ashura and Super Tuesday

Have you seen the Bush supporters' screed about John Kerry's military record?

You know, the one that's circulating and re-circulating over the Internet, the one that goes:

"This was written by a retired admiral and Annapolis graduate. The item offers no direct testimony about Kerry, but it does provide informed background useful in assessing what Kerry seems to have claimed for himself. It confirms information I have received from other sources.

"Our media should be demanding that Senator Kerry open his service records in the same way they demanded that of President Bush regarding his NG service.

"I was in the Delta shortly after he [Kerry] left. I know that area well. I know the operations he was involved in well. I know the tactics and the doctrine used. I know the equipment. Although I was attached to CTF-116 (PBRs) I spent a fair amount of time with CTF-115 (swift boats), Kerry's command.

"Three Purple Hearts, but no limp. All injuries so minor that no time lost from duty. Amazing luck. Or he was putting himself in for medals every time he bumped his head on the wheel house hatch? Combat on the boats was almost always at close range. You didn't have minor wounds. At least not often. Not three times in a row. Then he used the three purple hearts to request a trip home eight months before the end of his tour. Fishy."

(Et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum.)

But just like the 2000 campaign's GOP libel about Hillary Clinton and the Black Panthers, it's a big lie. See http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/service.asp for the true story about John Kerry's military record.

So I have been hitting the "reply all" button, and sent back a refutation that includes the above link. In reply to my reply, I've been getting e-howls of protest. This is one example:

"This may be rumor, may not be true but nothing Kerry has said is true. He an his group try to make out like the guards were different in Vietnam then they are now." (Sic.)

Well, of course John Kerry's military service with the US Navy in Vietnam WAS different from George W. Bush's military service with the Texas Air National Guard.

Anyway, this column was written on the evening of March 2, Ashura to the world's Shiite Muslims and Super Tuesday for the Democrats. And what a day.

Across Iraq and Pakistan, Osama bin Laden's minions launched a wave of bloody attacks on Shiites who had gathered for religious services. Hundreds were killed or wounded.

So George W. Bush, apparently thinking that the American people haven't noticed that bin Laden and Mullah Omar are still at large, or that these fanatics' movement is growing rather than shrinking, or that the situation in Iraq is getting worse rather than better, went on TV to boast that two-thirds of al-Qaeda's top leaders have been killed or captured.

Later, as the Super Tuesday votes came in and Kerry's nomination became a sure thing, the Democratic challenger also spoke on television. It wasn't a particularly brilliant speech. ("And... and... and....") However, what it lacked in style it more than made up in substance.

Kerry said two things about America's role in the world that I found most impressive, even if they will probably not be the arguments upon which the upcoming election will turn.

First, he promised to work towards US energy independence, so that no American soldier would have to risk his or her life over Middle East oil supplies.

Second, Kerry pledged to lead America back into the international community, and blasted Bush for a dogmatic and ineffective foreign policy.

The mainstream media covered the negative part of Kerry's remarks much more that the positive, but that wasn't such a terrible slant. Bush IS inept at foreign policy.

He's alienated most of America's friends, even to the point of picking fights with Canada.

When freedom and democracy were on the line in Iran, Bush let his anti-Shiite bigotry --- something he shares with Osama bin Laden --- keep him on the sidelines as hardcore religious fanatics rigged the elections and hijacked the parliament against the wishes of the Iranian people. Bush should have been mending fences with Iran's pro-freedom President Khatami, but instead he indulged in silly name calling that served no purpose whatsoever.

Bush has prolonged the Iraq War by refusing to permit full democracy, because the Shiite majority would win a major role in running Iraq in the event that free and fair elections are held.

While distracting himself with Plan Colombia, trying to overthrow the elected president of Venezuela, the Iraq War and other adventures, Bush has allowed al-Qaeda to regroup and replenish its forces.

Kerry's right. Dubya's foreign policy performance has been amazingly maladroit.

But did you really expect effective, businesslike government from a guy who got a Bahraini petroleum concession due to his father's influence and still ran his oil company into the ground? Did you expect it from the Texas Rangers owner who traded away Samy Sosa for Harold Baines?

Which gets us back to the disgraceful attack campaign that's being waged against Kerry over the Internet. You know an incumbent is running scared when that's the tenor of the argument for re-election. Bush and his supporters are fresh out of positive and truthful things they can say about what they've done. Those were the main lessons this past Ashura and Super Tuesday.

Also in this section:
US State Department, Human rights in Panama
Jackson, Ashura and Super Tuesday
Weisbrot, Call it a coup
Bernal, Impunity and modernity
Noriega, Doubts about CAFTA
ICFTU, Don't associate the Olympics with sweatshops
Fisher, Scarlet Letters

opinion

Ashura and Super Tuesday