A Swift Boat Kick in the Teeth.

• Author: Granfield, Luke
• Position: Letters - Brief Article - Letter to the Editor

I can find only one place in Matt Welch's "A Swift Boat Kick in the Teeth" (November) where Welch actually addresses something he found to be untrue in the swift boat vets' claims: "For instance, in the original commercial, military doctor Van O'Dell said, 'John Kerry lied to get his Bronze Star.... I know, I was there, I saw what happened.' In fact he wasn't there, neither when Kerry was wounded nor when he gave his account of the incident."

If Welch is such a great chaff separator, what are his sources for this statement? Did Van O'Dell ever change his claim? Welch has a Maureen Dowdish ellipsis in there. What did he cut out from what Van O'Dell said?

Welch never addresses the most damning claim of the swift boat vets, that Kerry behaved traitorously after...