One of the immutable laws of political science is,
supposedly, ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL. Nothing is
immutable, except of course NOTHING. But there is much
truth in that axiom, ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL. Here are
two very encouraging news stories from formerly red
states, now red, white and blue states...And two more names for the John P. O'Neill Wall of Heroes: former Green Beret Bill Boggs of West Virginia and Swift Boat veteran Bob Anderson of Montana...
Paul J. Nyden, West Virginia Gazette: The man who John Kerry
pulled from a river in Vietnam in March 1969 came to
West Virginia on Wednesday and denounced ads
questioning Kerry’s heroism as lies.
“People are angry at the Bush administration,” Jim
Rassmann said. “And a lot of veterans are offended by
the swift-boat ad controversy. What is being said in
these ads is absolutely not true.”
As he walked toward the West Virginia memorial, one of
the first people Rassmann met was Bill Boggs, a major
in the U.S. Army’s Fifth Special Forces Group who
supervised Rassmann and Kerry.
Boggs, who lives in Salem, Harrison County, called
himself a “repentant Republican.”
“I voted for Bush in 2000. I thought he would
bring something new to our country,” Boggs said. “But
he has shown no leadership. His policies have ended up
creating more terrorists.”
Rassmann and Boggs, who was wearing a green beret,
said they had not seen each other since they served
together in Vietnam.
LINDA HALSTEAD-ACHARYA, Billings Gazette: Swift boat
veteran Bob Anderson of Columbus is ticked.
It bothers him that Sen. John Kerry's swift boat
history has become such a political hot potato. But
he's even more irritated that his name was included -
without his permission - on a letter used to discredit
Kerry.
"I'm pretty nonpolitical," the 56-year-old Anderson
said Tuesday. So, when he found out last week that his
name was one of about 300 signed on a letter
questioning Kerry's service, he was "flabbergasted."
"It's kind of like stealing my identity," said
Anderson, who spent a year on a swift boat as an
engine man and gunner.
The letter, which was posted on the Swift Boat
Veter-ans for Truth Web site, claims the Demo-cratic
presidential candidate has "grossly and knowingly
distorted the conduct of the American soldiers,
marines, sailors and airmen of that (Vietnam) war."
The letter also criticizes Kerry for trying to change
his image from a critic of the war to a war hero.
"After reading the letter," Anderson said, "it kind of
got under my skin. I had never come across a situation
where someone used my name without my support or
approval. It's not a very comforting feeling."
What's worse, he said, he disagrees with the letter.
"Had they asked me to use my name, I wouldn't have
allowed them to," he said.
Cleanse the White House of the Chicken Hawk Coup and
Its War-Profiteering Cronies, Show Up for Democracy in
2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090304W.shtml
Rescued Swift-Boat Vet Stumps in W.Va. for Kerry
By Paul J. Nyden
West Virginia Gazette
Thursday 02 September 2004
The man who John Kerry pulled from a river in
Vietnam in March 1969 came to West Virginia on
Wednesday and denounced ads questioning Kerry’s
heroism as lies.
“People are angry at the Bush administration,” Jim
Rassmann said. “And a lot of veterans are offended by
the swift-boat ad controversy. What is being said in
these ads is absolutely not true.”
The group called Swift Board Veterans for Truth,
financed by backers of President Bush, has run ads
attacking Kerry on television stations in West
Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. They question whether
Kerry deserved the medals he received in Vietnam, and
say Kerry dishonored his fellow soldiers when he
returned to the United States and protested the
Vietnam War.
“When I saw the ads, my first reaction was extreme
disappointment,” Rassmann said. “They all served this
country faithfully. When they first came out with
their story, I said, ‘Why?’ They were calling John
Kerry a liar, a traitor. They were saying the same
about me.
“The longer this dispute goes on, and the more
people report it in the press, the more the truth will
come out,” he said.
Rassmann says Kerry rescued him, under gunfire,
from the Bay Hap River in South Vietnam on March 13,
1969. Kerry received a Bronze Star for valor and a
Purple Heart for a wound that day, and a citation
signed by U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Elmo Zumwalt.
“If it wasn’t for John Kerry, I’d be dead meat,”
Rassmann said, recalling his rescue after a mine
exploded under his boat and blew him into the water.
On Wednesday, Rassmann stopped in Mingo, Logan and
Boone counties, then met about 50 veterans and friends
near the Veterans Memorial at the state Capitol in
Charleston. Today, he is to visit Parkersburg,
Clarksburg and Wheeling.
“I want people to know John Kerry performed
admirably, intelligently and courageously,” he told
the group in Charleston. “That is the kind of courage
we want in a leader.”
He also criticized delegates at this week’s
Republican National Convention who mocked Kerry by
wearing “phony bandages with purple hearts. That
discredits everyone who served in our military.”
As he walked toward the West Virginia memorial,
one of the first people Rassmann met was Bill Boggs, a
major in the U.S. Army’s Fifth Special Forces Group
who supervised Rassmann and Kerry.
Boggs, who lives in Salem, Harrison County, called
himself a “repentant Republican.”
“I voted for Bush in 2000. I thought he would
bring something new to our country,” Boggs said. “But
he has shown no leadership. His policies have ended up
creating more terrorists.”
Rassmann and Boggs, who was wearing a green beret,
said they had not seen each other since they served
together in Vietnam.
Rassmann’s praise for Kerry included his testimony
to Congress after returning from Vietnam. “When you
are involved in madness — and war is madness — then
terrible things happen. That is what he said in 1971.”
He defended the right to dissent then and today.
“You not only have a right to dissent, but a duty
to dissent,” Rassman said. “If you go on a bus and the
bus is out of control and is about to go off a cliff,
you have a duty to go up and replace the driver.”
After retiring as a lieutenant with the Los
Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Rassman devoted
more time to his lifelong hobby of raising orchids.
Today, he and his wife live in Oregon, along the
Pacific coast.
Recently, Rassmann was elected executive vice
president of the American Orchid Society, which has
nearly 27,000 members. After the presidential
campaign, he wants to travel to South America again,
photographing and studying orchids growing there.
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2004/09/01/build/state/25-swift-boat.inc
Columbus swift boat vet angry about letter
By LINDA HALSTEAD-ACHARYA
Of The Gazette Staff
COLUMBUS - Swift boat veteran Bob Anderson of Columbus
is ticked.
It bothers him that Sen. John Kerry's swift boat
history has become such a political hot potato. But
he's even more irritated that his name was included -
without his permission - on a letter used to discredit
Kerry.
"I'm pretty nonpolitical," the 56-year-old Anderson
said Tuesday. So, when he found out last week that his
name was one of about 300 signed on a letter
questioning Kerry's service, he was "flabbergasted."
"It's kind of like stealing my identity," said
Anderson, who spent a year on a swift boat as an
engine man and gunner.
The letter, which was posted on the Swift Boat
Veter-ans for Truth Web site, claims the Demo-cratic
presidential candidate has "grossly and knowingly
distorted the conduct of the American soldiers,
marines, sailors and airmen of that (Vietnam) war."
The letter also criticizes Kerry for trying to change
his image from a critic of the war to a war hero.
"After reading the letter," Anderson said, "it kind of
got under my skin. I had never come across a situation
where someone used my name without my support or
approval. It's not a very comforting feeling."
What's worse, he said, he disagrees with the letter.
"Had they asked me to use my name, I wouldn't have
allowed them to," he said.
Anderson, a 1966 graduate of Chinook High School,
describes himself as a naive Montana kid who was
smacked by the reality of war soon after arriving in
Vietnam in 1967.
"It's not a very pleasant way to grow up," he said.
He served on a swift boat about the same time Kerry
did. However, the first time he met Kerry was during a
reunion of swift boat vets in Norfolk, Va., in March
2003.
Anderson said he cannot dispute or verify Kerry's
experience. In fact, he's forgotten much of his own.
"You remember the simple things," he said. "The rest
is what you don't want to remember."
He does, however, support Kerry's right to state his
opinion.
"We say we're protecting democracy. That's why we go
to war. As Americans, we can have our opinions,
right?"
Anderson can vividly recall the last day of 1969, when
his boat was attacked.
"The thing I remember before we got hit was the grass
dragging on the sides of the boat - the canals were so
narrow," he said. "I can also remember the smell of
napalm."
Anderson's boat was about the fourth boat back in a
string of 10. He describes the scene as an Armageddon.
Fellow swift boat sailor Bob Wedge was so badly
wounded, Anderson doubted he would survive.
"That boat was like a slaughterhouse that day," he
said. "He (Wedge) just about bled to death before we
got a tourniquet on him and the chopper got him."
Wedge, who lost a leg, was flown home. Thirty-four
years passed before the two met again. Now they find
themselves on the same side of another conflict.
Wedge, 60, of Mesquite, Nev., said his name, too, was
on the list - and he's mad.
"This is the fourth or fifth time someone has called
me or e-mailed me in regard to signing this damn
letter," he wrote in an e-mail to Anderson. "I don't
agree with it and want no part of it and especially
don't want my name on it."
Both men have tried to contact the Swift Boat Veterans
for Truth to have their names removed from the list.
Neither have had any success.
"I can't seem to get a response when I reply to their
e-mail," Wedge said.
"They come back undeliverable."
Anderson said he first learned about the situation
last week when he received an e-mail from a third
party. The e-mail, from a Tom Pyle, said Pyle had
contacted a dozen men whose names showed up on the
list. Of the dozen, three said they had not given
permission, Anderson said.
"That leads me to believe that as many as 25 percent
of the names are fictitious supporters of that group,"
he said.
Anderson does not know how the Swift Boat Vets for
Truth got his name, but it appears exactly as it has
appeared on rosters at swift boat vet reunions. He
suspects the list was pulled from the Swift Boat
Sailors Association, a nonpolitical, not-for-profit
organization linking swift boat veterans.
Wedge said he's known about the list for several
months. Unlike Anderson, he remembers receiving an
e-mail asking if he wanted to sign the letter in
support.
He speculates that his name was automatically added to
the list when he opened the e-mail.
Both men say they are angry that Kerry's swift boat
service has dominated so much of the campaign. And
they say both sides are at fault.
"You see it every campaign, there's dirty politics on
every side," Anderson said. "If the politicians spent
more time on issues than on this, we'd know more about
them."
Anderson cites the economy as one of the issues most
important to him - that and getting the nation out of
Iraq. Wedge is more focused on Social Security,
Medicare reform, prescription drugs and adequate
funding for education.
Anderson describes himself as an independent, saying
he has voted both sides of the ticket when it comes to
presidential races. Neither he nor Wedge, a registered
Democrat, say they know who they will vote for this
election.
"I don't know enough about Kerry to say whether I will
vote for him," Anderson said. "I know enough about
Bush that I won't vote for him."
Regardless of political loyalty, Anderson said he has
a message he'd like to pass along.
"Don't believe everything you read. All it tells me is
there is some politics going on there."
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