Smith: We can't handle the truth (overseas)

I like the cut of Patrick Smith's jib. This is the second time this year he's caught the scouts' eye, this time on America's Iran policy and the "liberal" U.S. media that supports it:

The adage among properly cynical diplomats used to be that they were sent abroad to lie for their country. During the Cold War, as Washington’s sponsored atrocities grew evident, the thought took a turn: Diplomats were sent abroad to lie to their country.

Consider it a template and apply it to our press folk.

Correspondents used to be sent abroad to keep the country informed (in theory, at least). Now correspondents go forth to send home a simulacrum of truth, a semblance, while keeping their country misinformed.

So why is all this lying necessary? It's our fault. We don't want to know. We don't want to know what's being done in our name, ostensibly in "the interests of peace," or the interests of the world. Wrote Smith succinctly:

We cannot bear to see things as they are because things as they are constitute a refutation of our dearest mythologies, but we must see things as they are if we are to make sense of ourselves in the 21st century.

This is what I was getting at when I said the U.S. needs a moral foreign policy. Our leaders' actions abroad don't support our moral myths at home -- life, liberty, equality, tolerance, etc. -- and what with the Internet and pesky mushrooming terrorists popping up all the time reminding us what we're really up to, it's becoming increasingly hard for us average Americans to ignore the disconnect between over here and over there. Still our politicians and media do their loyal best to iron out the wrinkles in our brains.

Chomsky’s right: The New York Times’ latest big lie

By Patrick L. Smith

November 15, 2013 | Salon

URL: http://www.salon.com/2013/11/16/chomskys_right_the_new_york_times_latest_big_lie/

The 'Swift Boating' of Obama underway

Probably these bogus charges will hurt Obama, no matter what.  After all, similar dirty tactics worked well against Sen. John Kerry, retroactively turning a decorated Vietnam war hero into some kind of pompous show-off.  

Anyway what the Romney campaign is doing is Hardball 101: turn your opponent's greatest strength -- in this case, Obama's lonely decision to assassinate bin Laden -- into a liability.  There's a good chance it'll work again.  

Are 'Swift Boat' attacks on Obama bogus?

By Peter Bergen

August 19, 2012 | CNN

URL:  http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/17/opinion/bergen-obama-swift-boat/index.html?iref=obinsite 

Kerry accepts $1 M Swift Boat challenge

Let's see if this despicable old Texas oil fart is man enough to stand behind his words and accept Kerry's challenge!

BTW, in case you were wondering if Bush wasn't personally involved in those scurrilous Swift-boat lies, check out this and this. It was GOP campaign dirty tricks at their very worst.

And here are statements on the public record by the Chair of the Swift Boat Vets for Truth, proving he was full of shit. Not to mention this.

You may or may not like John Kerry. But if these f---ers could get away with calling Kerry, a genuine decorated war hero, a lying war criminal, they could get away with anything.

Kerry takes $1M challenge to disprove Swift Boat claims

BOSTON (AP) — Sen. John Kerry, whose 2004 presidential campaign was torpedoed by critics of his Vietnam War record, said Friday he has personally accepted a Texas oilman's offer to pay $1 million to anyone who can disprove even a single charge of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

In a letter to T. Boone Pickens, the Massachusetts Democrat wrote: "While I am prepared to show they lied on allegation after allegation, you have generously offered to pay one million dollars for just one thing that can be proven false. I am prepared to prove the lie beyond any reasonable doubt."

Kerry, a Navy veteran and former prosecutor, said he was willing to present his case directly to Pickens, who provided $3 million to bankroll the group during Kerry's race against President Bush.

Kerry said he would donate any proceeds to the Paralyzed Veterans of America.

The senator said Pickens issued the challenge Nov. 6 in Washington, while serving as chairman of a 40th anniversary gala for American Spectator magazine.

In the letter, Kerry offered to travel to Dallas to meet with Pickens in a public forum or to invite him to come to Massachusetts. He suggested the two could visit the Paralyzed Veterans of America in Norwood to see firsthand how Pickens' money could be used to help veterans. A copy of the letter was provided to The Associated Press.

Pickens spokesman Jay Rosser asked to review the letter before commenting.

First in the book "Unfit for Command," and then in a series of television commercials, Kerry's critics challenged the circumstances for his military awards, accused him of doctoring reports and argued he never traveled into Cambodia as claimed.

While fellow veterans and reporters disproved many of the group's claims at the time, Kerry refused to air ads responding to the criticism. His own response was muted for fear of legitimizing his critics' attacks. The senator conceded after losing to Bush that his lackluster response likely cost him the election.

Ever since, Kerry has worked to lay the criticisms to rest.

In May 2005, he began allowing reporters access to his full Navy personnel and medical records — something he refused to do during the campaign.

Those records mostly duplicated documents Kerry released during the 2004 campaign. In addition, they included numerous commendations from commanders who criticized Kerry's service during the presidential race.

That disclosure renewed questions about why Kerry did not respond more forcefully with control over the White House at stake.

Kerry decided against launching a second bid for president, but vowed to defend his record and prevent other candidates from being "Swift-boated."

In his letter to Pickens, the senator challenged the billionaire's honor.

"I trust that you are a man of your word, having made a very public challenge at a major Washington dinner, and look forward to taking you up on this challenge," Kerry wrote.