Dan Rather, Pot calling the Kettle Black
As Dan Rather defends the documents that he used to smear President Bush, somehow expecting all to simply trust him with no further documentational proof, let us take a bit of a deeper look into Dan Rather.
I return again to the book "Stolen Valor". On page 107 the story of Dan Rather appears. Perhaps in other times Dan Rather's shaving of the truth would make me simply shrug, feeling as I do that he tends to present only his viewpoint anyway, using CBS as a vehicle. But this time is different.
I feel this way because I believe that for the first time since Vietnam, this may be the year of "Vietnam Vets Vindication" Since John Kerry has put such a premium on his Vietnam 4 month experience, he opened a whole can of worms. I believe it is high time that there is a groundswell that not only finally debunks those myths, but also a groundswell against those who perpetrated those myths.
Dan Rather has described himself as a Marine. In the book "Bias" he is quoted as having enlisted in the Marines twice. Of course ultimately, that quote becomes Rather's word against the author's, but please note that Rather does describe himself as a Marine.
From a book review of "Semper Fi"
Great Reviews for Semper Fi "This reporter has seen Marines leading the way from Danang to Kuwait and every dateline in-between: Ive also seen ex-Marines leading the way in offices and boardrooms across America. Semper Fi tells it like it is, with a point-by-point analysis of what makes a Marine a leaderin and out of the Corps. This is NOT one of those mumbo-jumbo, pseudo-philosophical books on leadership that try to make blue look like orange, and are of no use to anybody but their authors accountants. Semper Fi is a book you will actually USE, read, and refer to again and again. Dan Carrison and Rod Walsh remind me that I might actually have made something out of myself if my own Marine career (brief, undistinguished) had lasted longer."Dan Rather
Brief and undistinguished is a bit of an understatement. The reality is this.
Dan Rather joined the Army Reserves during the Korean War, when he finished college. He stayed in the Reserves until the Korean War was over, effectively sheltering him from a draft to Korea. To hear Dan Rather now and in the past, doing guard duty in time of war is akin to being a draft dodger. After he left the Army Reserves he went back to school and then joined the Marines. HOWEVER, he did not complete basic training. As a child he had Rheumatic fever, weakening the heart, and he could not complete the rigorous basic training Marines go through.
So let me see if I have this right. Rather joined the Army Reserve so he didn't have to go to Korea, left them when the war was over. Joined the Marines, but didn't get through basic, but still calls himself a Marine.
This sets up a couple scenes for me.
1. He prefers to call himself a Marine because Marines are looked at as the toughest of the tough, an image Marines I think can rightly claim. But do you get to call yourself a Marine if you didn't get through basic?
2. He doesn't refer to himself as Army because it would bring attention to the fact he went into the guards during wartime to shield himself from possibly going to the combat theatre of Korea. If he called attention to this it would make it a bit more difficult to paint say, George Bush, with the same brush wouldn't it?
Ok then. We have a national news anchor, someone beamed into our living rooms night after night as an authority on what is happening in the United States, giving the pulse of the country per se and he is exaggerating his own service record at the same time he is using false documentation to smear George W. Bush's service record, coming some 16 years after he used bogus Vietnam Vets in the program "The Wall Within". And even after B. G. Burkett could prove after two years of research, that 5 of the 6 men featured in this "documentary" were frauds, selling a fraudulent story both CBS and Dan Rather refused to retract the story. ABC did feature this travesty on a 20/20 feature, winning themselves an award, but what is important to me is that Dan Rather did not apologize for it, didn't even say OOPPPS.
Again, something that makes one say hhhmmm. It begs the questions of why and for what gain?
Ponder that, while I work on an article that shows John Kerry's connections now and in the past with other posers.
In the end, ask yourself this also. Why is this important right now, in this election? Why should any of us care about things that happened some 30 years ago? Because it impacted our world immensely and gave us the social culture that we live with today, and if we are unable to break the hold of the myths of Vietnam a large segment of the people of this country may very well push us into a situation where we are unable to effectively fight Islamist Terrorism, and fight it effectively we must.
I return again to the book "Stolen Valor". On page 107 the story of Dan Rather appears. Perhaps in other times Dan Rather's shaving of the truth would make me simply shrug, feeling as I do that he tends to present only his viewpoint anyway, using CBS as a vehicle. But this time is different.
I feel this way because I believe that for the first time since Vietnam, this may be the year of "Vietnam Vets Vindication" Since John Kerry has put such a premium on his Vietnam 4 month experience, he opened a whole can of worms. I believe it is high time that there is a groundswell that not only finally debunks those myths, but also a groundswell against those who perpetrated those myths.
Dan Rather has described himself as a Marine. In the book "Bias" he is quoted as having enlisted in the Marines twice. Of course ultimately, that quote becomes Rather's word against the author's, but please note that Rather does describe himself as a Marine.
From a book review of "Semper Fi"
Great Reviews for Semper Fi "This reporter has seen Marines leading the way from Danang to Kuwait and every dateline in-between: Ive also seen ex-Marines leading the way in offices and boardrooms across America. Semper Fi tells it like it is, with a point-by-point analysis of what makes a Marine a leaderin and out of the Corps. This is NOT one of those mumbo-jumbo, pseudo-philosophical books on leadership that try to make blue look like orange, and are of no use to anybody but their authors accountants. Semper Fi is a book you will actually USE, read, and refer to again and again. Dan Carrison and Rod Walsh remind me that I might actually have made something out of myself if my own Marine career (brief, undistinguished) had lasted longer."Dan Rather
Brief and undistinguished is a bit of an understatement. The reality is this.
Dan Rather joined the Army Reserves during the Korean War, when he finished college. He stayed in the Reserves until the Korean War was over, effectively sheltering him from a draft to Korea. To hear Dan Rather now and in the past, doing guard duty in time of war is akin to being a draft dodger. After he left the Army Reserves he went back to school and then joined the Marines. HOWEVER, he did not complete basic training. As a child he had Rheumatic fever, weakening the heart, and he could not complete the rigorous basic training Marines go through.
So let me see if I have this right. Rather joined the Army Reserve so he didn't have to go to Korea, left them when the war was over. Joined the Marines, but didn't get through basic, but still calls himself a Marine.
This sets up a couple scenes for me.
1. He prefers to call himself a Marine because Marines are looked at as the toughest of the tough, an image Marines I think can rightly claim. But do you get to call yourself a Marine if you didn't get through basic?
2. He doesn't refer to himself as Army because it would bring attention to the fact he went into the guards during wartime to shield himself from possibly going to the combat theatre of Korea. If he called attention to this it would make it a bit more difficult to paint say, George Bush, with the same brush wouldn't it?
Ok then. We have a national news anchor, someone beamed into our living rooms night after night as an authority on what is happening in the United States, giving the pulse of the country per se and he is exaggerating his own service record at the same time he is using false documentation to smear George W. Bush's service record, coming some 16 years after he used bogus Vietnam Vets in the program "The Wall Within". And even after B. G. Burkett could prove after two years of research, that 5 of the 6 men featured in this "documentary" were frauds, selling a fraudulent story both CBS and Dan Rather refused to retract the story. ABC did feature this travesty on a 20/20 feature, winning themselves an award, but what is important to me is that Dan Rather did not apologize for it, didn't even say OOPPPS.
Again, something that makes one say hhhmmm. It begs the questions of why and for what gain?
Ponder that, while I work on an article that shows John Kerry's connections now and in the past with other posers.
In the end, ask yourself this also. Why is this important right now, in this election? Why should any of us care about things that happened some 30 years ago? Because it impacted our world immensely and gave us the social culture that we live with today, and if we are unable to break the hold of the myths of Vietnam a large segment of the people of this country may very well push us into a situation where we are unable to effectively fight Islamist Terrorism, and fight it effectively we must.
posted by redcrabtree | 10:07 PM
1 Comments:
I love your mind! You are EXACTLY right on why it is so important NOW to make a convincing case to ordinary Americans about the lies that infect our understanding of the Vietnam War and that are part of the underpinning of so much that has infected our culture since the late 60's! Keep up the fine work.
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