Chasing the Wind

One of the cries from the left is that George Bush lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction, then took us into war with Iraq. That’s the foundation of the “Anybody But Bush” movement. Michael Moore’s movie is based on this premise that Bush lied. I find it funny that these are the same people who supported Clinton whose record of telling the truth was, shall we say, less than stellar. So you can dismiss much of the noise as partisan; designed to turn out the left vote and sway the undecided. Nothing wrong with that; it’s politics.

I for one don’t believe Bush lied. Before the war, there was no question that Saddam Hussein had WMDs. We know he did; he used them at least 3 times on his own people. France, Germany, Russia all believed Iraq has WMDs. That’s not a lie; I honestly believe Bush and the USA believed there were weapons there, and today I believe those weapons are probably hiding in Syria or buried in sand.

But if your whole “Anybody But Bush” philosophy is based on wanting a president that will tell the truth, how do you reconcile that with what John Kerry is saying? Today, the Washington Times in a story called Kerry’s Cambodia Whopper, points out that Kerry’s “Christmas in Cambodia” story couldn’t have possibly been true. This wasn’t a mere slip of the tongue; Kerry’s repeated this story many many times over the last 30 years, it was part of his allegation that the US was misleading the American public over presence in Cambodia. Kerry said, “I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared — seared — in me.” And it couldn’t have been any other Christmas – Kerry was only in Vietnam for 4 months. Kerry’s campaign lately has tried to spin this as Kerry was “near” Cambodia – but that explanation doesn’t fly. Kerry’s accusation against the USA depended on him being in Cambodia. Now Kerry’s campaign is merely saying Kerry’s memory was “faulty”.

In short, Kerry lied. He completely made up and embellished a story about being in Cambodia for the sole purpose of humiliating the United States. Those that are voting against Bush solely because they feel Bush wasn’t truthful enough can’t in good conscience vote for Kerry either – this anti-US Cambodia story, told over and over again, is a flat out lie.