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Give me a break!

Boston.com / News / Nation / Authenticity backed on Bush documents

The documents are real - but. . .. who cares?

Kerry was in Vietnam in combat.

Bush took the standard way out of the war for the rich and connected at the time - join the National Guard.

Collin Powell denounces this route in his autobiography and the Air National Guard confirms itself as an escape route in its own official, online history. If you were powerful enough to get in the National Guard you avoided the war - if you were poor and black you went to Vietnam and frequently got killed.

So what was Kerry - a rich, well-connected white kid doing in combat in Vietnam? He was doing the right thing. And what was Bush, a rich, well-connected white kid doing in Texas? The dishonorable thing - avoiding the war while giving the appearance of being a soldier. If he had had the guts to stand up and be a pacifist you could respect him - but he didn't. He wanted it both ways.

So forget the details about whether the documents are real or not. Forget the details about what Kerry did or didn't do to earn his medals. No ones going to sort this out and they don't need to. The facts are simple.

Kerry acted bravely and honorably - Bush didn't.

Ok - so you agree - but you want to know if these documents are real or not? Well - one more thing. Have you noticed a pattern yet? the Republicans NEVER - absolutely NEVER - address an issue. They always engage in character assassination. They always take the cowards way out and people - unfortunately -e at it up because people thrive on peoiple controversy. It's what drives every TV drama and news show.

But in the above artilce the Globe does a good job of proving that the documents are real - and they do it with the testimony of the expert who first said they were not real. That's right, the guy has flip-flopped. Seems the IBM Selectric wasn't in his database. This was a fairly common electric typewriter of that era - I remmeber it well - and it produced the kind of type you find in the documents. And yes, there is evidence the Army was purchasing that type of typewriter three years before the documents were produced!

Ah well . . .