SORRY, BUT THIS IS IMPORTANT

Two more keys to the Kerrey puzzle which are worth mulling over. Vietnam was a horrible and chaotic conflict in which many men may have done immoral things. But charges of war-crimes are brought even in less chaotic circumstances. The military researcher and Vietnam vet, B.G. Burkett, has pointed out, for example, that in the last eleven months of World War II, a thousand G.I.s were tried for capital crimes against civilians, 443 were condemned to death and 96 were executed. If we were strict in enforcing the rules of a just war then, why should we simply ignore important evidence of war-crimes today? Secondly, Jake Weisberg makes a good point about the Clintonian nature of Kerrey’s fellow SEALs’ statement backing up their now-famous commander. The statement “repeatedly notes,” Weisberg observes, “”We took fire and we returned fire.” This in no way answers the charge that the killing of women and children was intentional. “No order was given or received to execute innocent women, old men and children as has been described by some,” the statement says. “… Our actions were in response to a dangerous situation that we know for certain could have resulted in our deaths. … We were young men then and did what we thought was right and necessary.”” Not a very convincing denial to me.