A perspective from another veteran.
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_5046.shtml
A Vietnam Vet's Outrage Over a Smear Campaign
By JACK DALTON
Aug 16, 2004, 07:26
Back in the end of April, there was still a public debate taking place, at least to some degree, about George W. Bush, his Texas Air National Guard service (?), and a 6 month gap where the records show Bush never showed up anywhere to fulfill his military obligation. In other words, Bush was AWOL for a period of at least 6 months-- and during a time of war. There are men that have spent a lot of time in a military brig for less, but then none of them were as well connected as Bush.
But then, seemingly overnight, the question about Bush and his being AWOL just vanished from the media. It was not because the issue had been settled, as the final chapter about Bush and his National Guard service (?) has yet to be written. With the help of the Heritage Foundation, Fox News (?), and the Weekly Standard, AWOL Bush was replaced with John O?Neill and Swift boat Veterans for Truth (?) and their smear campaign on John Kerry.
This is not the first attack by Bush people on the integrity and honor of someone who served in uniform honorably during a time of war (unlike Bush). John McCain in 2000, Max Cleland in 2002 were two other Vietnam veterans that were smeared in much the same way as what is being done to John Kerry. Where is the outrage over these types of attacks? Or, have we in this country sunk so low as to find acceptable the politics of ?fear, hate, and smear? being thrust upon us by BushCo?
Back to O?Neill, Swift Boat Veterans for whatever and their ?magical? appearance on center stage of Fox news (?). This sudden and magical appearance is very reminiscent of O?Neill and Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace and their ?magical? appearance back in 1971. That group and O?Neill were a ?creation? of the Nixon administration in an attempt to counter John Kerry and Vietnam Veterans against the War, which at the time was a real thorn in the side of Nixon. The only difference between then and now is Karl Rove. I have no doubt that he is involved with this, as this is the type of thing Rove is noted for?dirt and smear by innuendo.
John O?Neil may be a lot of things but a seeker of truth, as he puts it, is not one them. He is, first and foremost, a conservative Republican of the neo-con persuasion and an ardent supporter of Bush; Seeker of truth?not by any stretch of the imagination.
What John O?Neill is is a Houston lawyer whose law firm ?Clements, O?Neill, Pierce, Wilson & Fulkerson, L.L.P. handles ?Commercial, Oil & Gas, Securities, Intellectual Property & Employment litigation.? In fact, one of his law partners, Margaret Wilson, was the general council for Bush from 1998 to 2000 while he was Texas governor. It just gets better from here.
It seems as though prior to working for Bush, Wilson layered for the law firm of Venson & Elkins, Enron?s main law firm. Interesting side note: Steven Cambone, the current Bush general council whose memo?s told Bush how to circumvent the law on the torturing of prisoners, also worked for Venson & Elkins. Does anyone smell a foul odor yet?
Joe Conason, writing in Salon, May 4th of this year, quoted O?Neill?s own public relations man stating, O?Neill is sounding like a ?crazed extremist.? And that comes from someone in his camp!
Wake up people! John O?Neill is one of the Houston Oil/Gas, corporate Republican good old boys. What he and his supporters are attempting to do in this baseless smear campaign directed at John Kerry is nothing more than an attempt to divert our attention from where it should be, and that?s on George W. Bush. Did I mention that in 1991, papa Bush considered O?Neill for a federal judgeship?
Hey, O?Neill, this is another Vietnam veteran that knows you for the fraud you are! If anyone lacks character, ethics, integrity and honor, you need look no further than your reflection in the mirror. You and the rest of your little Heritage Foundation backed and supported group are nothing more than another BushCo goon squad that apparently gets its thrills from the politics of character assassination.
If in fact O?Neill was what he attempts to convince us he is, a ?seeker of truth? we would still be discussing George W. Bush being AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard during a time of war.
I really do think it is past time to get back to where we were before the sudden appearance of John O?Neill with all his innuendo, false statements and just plain old everyday B.S. and that is the as yet unresolved issue of Bush being AWOL during a time of war!
LTC (ret) Bill Burkett was the senior army officer who, as a whistleblower reporting ?ghost soldier? reporting and filing false readiness reports (USA Today, Dec., 2002) to the Texas House and Senate oversight committees in May of 1998, who at that time revealed that actions by Governor Bush and his senior staff also were taken to scrub Bush?s individual military record. Bill Burkett has appeared and testified under oath before those committees, a formal Inspector General?s investigation with the Department of Defense Inspector General?s office and within civil court actions concerning these allegations. Bill became the object of national interest in February of 2004 when his story of both incidents and the retaliation that followed were included within James Moore?s book, ?Bush?s War for Re-election.?
?In the late fall of 1997, while I was just doing my job, I encountered a true dilemma; a decision point. While waiting for an appointment with General Daniel James, the Adjutant General of Texas, I overheard the Governor's Chief of Staff and special assistant telling James to "make sure there's nothing in there that will embarrass the Governor", concerning Governor George W. Bush's military service within the Texas National Guard??? The real question is anchored within attempts by Bush and his political entourage to cast a false image and then defend it with falsehood once the story began to unravel. And this sets up the question of this being the nexus issue of later framing of a War of choice and other falsehoods within his presidency. It's the credibility issue and trust rolled into one. It's not National Security at all.? (Bill Burkett, What?s an AWOL got to do with Presidential Service??
www.ommp.org for the full article).
Not only must Bush be held to account for being AWOL, those that participated in the manipulation of his records must also be held to account, as should John O?Neill for his substituting fiction and fantasy for truth and fact. The biggest culprit in this fiasco the way I see it is the media. How can they claim to be presenting us with news, fair and balanced as Fox states, when not one of them even brings up who this guy is? If O?Neill had spoken out against Bush, we would have been told everything there is to know about him and then would have watched as his character was brought into question, much the same way as has happened to all that have spoken out against Bush.
Anyone that does not see O?Neill and his group for what they are hacks for the Bush administration is living in a dream world.