Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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Christmas in Cambodia

Rich Galen

Friday August 20, 2004

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On the troop withdrawal front, it seems our Mr. Kerry is talking out of both sides of his policy again. According to the crack crew at the Republican National Committee research office, this was a piece of Sen. Kerry's conversation on that topic with ABC's George Stephanopoulos:

George: "Can you promise that American troops will be home by the end of your first term?"
Sen. Kerry: "I will have significant enormous reduction in the level of troops. We will probably have a continued presence of some kind, certainly in the region if the diplomacy that I believe can be put in place can work, I think we can significantly change the deployment of troops not just there but elsewhere in the world. In the Korean peninsula, perhaps in Europe perhaps. There are great possibilities open to us."

That exchange, by the way, didn't take place 18 months ago. It took place 18 DAYS ago on August 1, 2004.

So what did Senator Kerry say Wednesday of the President's plan to reorganize overseas troops? The AP's Ron Fournier wrote that Kerry's new position is, it "would weaken U.S. security and embolden nuclear-armed North Korea" with Kerry saying, "This is clearly the wrong signal to send at the wrong time."

Here's the lesson: Never, never, never announce a military reorganization on August 17. You should always do it on August 1. Clear? Fine. Let's, as the Left likes to say, MoveOn.

Let me remind you, as we move into this next section, that I have never been awarded a medal for anything having to do with bravery, because I have never done anything to merit one.

If you have been wondering, as I have, why the Kerry campaign and its allies are so ferocious in their defense of Kerry's Vietnam record, Mr. Fournier, in that same AP piece, helps us out.

Fournier writes: "Senior Democrats inside and outside the campaign say they're worried about indications, some based on polling, that the criticism might be undercutting gains Kerry made against Bush" at the Democratic Convention in Boston last month.

In the words of that famed political analyst, Scooby-Doo: "Ruh-Roe."

Here's another lesson: If you've built your campaign around one thing - no matter how worthy that one thing might be - and the edges of that one thing begin to fray, your campaign is in trouble. Deep trouble. Deep Scooby-Doo�
doo.

The Washington Post dove headlong into the Mekong Delta with a 1,300-word front-page piece yesterday morning in which reporter Michael Dobbs, takes to task author Larry Thurlow's account of what happened during the action for which Sen. Kerry and Thurlow were awarded Bronze Stars.

The post filed a Freedom of Information Act request to gain access to Thurlow's military records. Thurlow's award citation states that the boats were under heavy fire directed at all of the five boats in the action.

Thurlow, who commanded a Swift boat alongside Kerry's, has claimed that there was no enemy fire and that he was awarded the Bronze Star for coming to the aid of the boat which had been mined.

When he was read the citation, Thurlow didn't try to find some weasel room to explain the discrepancy. According to the Post piece, "Thurlow said he would consider his award 'fraudulent' if coming under enemy fire was the basis for it."

Ok. It's one-to-one. Kerry says he was under fire, the guy in the boat next to him says no. Who else can we ask? Hey, how about two OTHER Swift boat commanders who were present at the time?

Fine. Travel with me now through this piece � Still with me? � Hang on � Must be here somewhere � 200 words � 500 words � 700 words�

AHA! Here it is. In the 16th graf, 850 words in:

Two other Swift boat skippers who were direct participants � Jack Chenoweth and Richard Pees, have said they do not remember coming under 'enemy fire.'"

Four skippers. Three remember it one way, one remembers something entirely different.

Three words: "Christmas in Cambodia."

Now you understand why the Kerry campaign is so worried about all this.

On the Secret Decoder Ring Page today: NO photos of women beach volleyball players. Don't even look. Not there. But there are links to the two articles referenced above; a nice Mullfoto and a perfectly indecipherable Catchy Caption of the Day

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