Thoughts On the Killian Documents and Bush's Service in Viet Nam
Hey.
My name is Archie Levine, and this is what I think.
I, like many of you, have about had it with this whole "prove Bush used his family name to skip over hundreds of other young men to avoid combat duty by going in the Texas Air National Guard, and then proceeded to fail to fulfill his obligation to the Texas Guard, the Alabama Guard, and the Nation, etc."
It is so obvious from the available record that this is exactly what he did (http://www.glcq.com/trans.htm) that there really isn't any need for the Killian documents, whose authenticity has been called into question.
Yes, by all means, let's examine font spacing instead of the allegation.
I happen to believe they are genuine, but I'm a rug biting liberal of the "Ann Coulter wants to personally shoot you for treason" school.
Setting that aside, just for the sake of argument, let's assume for a moment that the CBS documents ARE forgeries. Let's also assume that Dan Rather didn't know they were fakes, and he genuinely believes them to be authentic because he trusts his sources. Let's say, then, that this honest belief compels him to act in what he thinks is the best interest of the nation.
Sound familiar?
How's come when the Neo-Cons and George Bush relied on forged documents "proving" that Iraq had purchased uranium to start making "nucular" weapons of mass destruction...Which was the oft repeated justification for the invasion of Iraq and ultimately the deaths of over 1,000 Americans and an Iraqi death toll now mounting over 15,000....We're not supposed to question their fact checking ability, or presume that they were lying when making that case. We've been asked to believe that the administration was operating on the "best available intelligence" and that they acted in good faith, in the best interest of the nation.
They tell us that it is unpatriotic and dangerous to claim in hindsight that because the documents turned out to be both wrong and lacking in authenticity we should second guess our rush to war or tarnish the noble sacrifices of our soldiers who killed and died as a direct result of the claims based on those forgeries.
But, within minutes of Dan Rather making his claim against the administration's version of Bush's service record, the world is deriding Rather and CBS for not doing a better job of fact checking and clamoring for an apology.
Um, hello?
Priorities, people.
If it wasn't wrong for Bush to operate on the assumption that documents he was provided with were real until proven forged, a position which led us into the first "pre-emptive war" in our nation's history, how on God's green Earth is it wrong for Dan Rather to move forward on the assumption that the Killian documents are authentic until proven otherwise?
Thousands of people died because Bush felt it was more important to move forward on his allegation than to fact check.
How can the Republicans complain when Democrats follow their lead and contend that the allegation regarding Bush's service might also be more important than the credibility of the documents themselves?
Bush never apologized.
He strong armed Kerry into agreeing with him that he made the right choice even though it was based on falsified documents. Why should Dan Rather apologize even if the Killian papers are proved falsified?
What matters is doing what you think is right based on what you know at the time, right, George?
Right?
Nah, I didn't think you really thought that....What matters is whatever matters to you, and the rest of us can go screw ourselves.
Archie Levine
archie_levine@yahoo.com
Ref:
Dan Rather Keeps the Faith by Andrew M. Alexander, The Intellectual Conservative, 12 September 2004
See also:
Is Our President Really an Action Hero? (Archie Levine's Look at Bush's Service Record)
My name is Archie Levine, and this is what I think.
I, like many of you, have about had it with this whole "prove Bush used his family name to skip over hundreds of other young men to avoid combat duty by going in the Texas Air National Guard, and then proceeded to fail to fulfill his obligation to the Texas Guard, the Alabama Guard, and the Nation, etc."
It is so obvious from the available record that this is exactly what he did (http://www.glcq.com/trans.htm) that there really isn't any need for the Killian documents, whose authenticity has been called into question.
Yes, by all means, let's examine font spacing instead of the allegation.
I happen to believe they are genuine, but I'm a rug biting liberal of the "Ann Coulter wants to personally shoot you for treason" school.
Setting that aside, just for the sake of argument, let's assume for a moment that the CBS documents ARE forgeries. Let's also assume that Dan Rather didn't know they were fakes, and he genuinely believes them to be authentic because he trusts his sources. Let's say, then, that this honest belief compels him to act in what he thinks is the best interest of the nation.
Sound familiar?
How's come when the Neo-Cons and George Bush relied on forged documents "proving" that Iraq had purchased uranium to start making "nucular" weapons of mass destruction...Which was the oft repeated justification for the invasion of Iraq and ultimately the deaths of over 1,000 Americans and an Iraqi death toll now mounting over 15,000....We're not supposed to question their fact checking ability, or presume that they were lying when making that case. We've been asked to believe that the administration was operating on the "best available intelligence" and that they acted in good faith, in the best interest of the nation.
They tell us that it is unpatriotic and dangerous to claim in hindsight that because the documents turned out to be both wrong and lacking in authenticity we should second guess our rush to war or tarnish the noble sacrifices of our soldiers who killed and died as a direct result of the claims based on those forgeries.
But, within minutes of Dan Rather making his claim against the administration's version of Bush's service record, the world is deriding Rather and CBS for not doing a better job of fact checking and clamoring for an apology.
Um, hello?
Priorities, people.
If it wasn't wrong for Bush to operate on the assumption that documents he was provided with were real until proven forged, a position which led us into the first "pre-emptive war" in our nation's history, how on God's green Earth is it wrong for Dan Rather to move forward on the assumption that the Killian documents are authentic until proven otherwise?
Thousands of people died because Bush felt it was more important to move forward on his allegation than to fact check.
How can the Republicans complain when Democrats follow their lead and contend that the allegation regarding Bush's service might also be more important than the credibility of the documents themselves?
Bush never apologized.
He strong armed Kerry into agreeing with him that he made the right choice even though it was based on falsified documents. Why should Dan Rather apologize even if the Killian papers are proved falsified?
What matters is doing what you think is right based on what you know at the time, right, George?
Right?
Nah, I didn't think you really thought that....What matters is whatever matters to you, and the rest of us can go screw ourselves.
Archie Levine
archie_levine@yahoo.com
Ref:
Dan Rather Keeps the Faith by Andrew M. Alexander, The Intellectual Conservative, 12 September 2004
See also:
Is Our President Really an Action Hero? (Archie Levine's Look at Bush's Service Record)
posted by Archie Levine at 9:44 AM
2 Comments:
this is good information ! will carry these points to that great political battleground on the web, the Brian Wilson messageboard !
Hey Kids! Archie said it first, but Counter Punch says it pretty good too:
Speaking of Phony Documents...Attention Deficit AmericaBy PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
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