Kevin,

My point was that if the same standards were used as the content of the swiftboat ad to create an ad on Bush's background, the ad I described could exist.  And it would be a terrible ad. 

As for Kerry leaving early, I have read of two accountings - one was that if a person is injured three or four times, then they were eligible to leave; the second was his disenchantment for the war and his changing views.

As for Cleland, you are obviously using Ann Coulter's description of his injuries.  Go to Esquire.com.  Link below. It has the actual description of the event (if I recall, he was either getting on a helicopter or getting off one and someone had dropped a grenade.  He thought it fell off of his gear and bent to pick it up and it exploded.  I believe it was later learned to come off of a fellow solider's gear because they did not affix it properly - what Cleland admitted was a rookie soldier mistake all around). 

Better yet.....here is his accounting of what happened:

I stood on the edge of our bomb crater, that had been my home for five days and five nights, stretched out my six-foot, two-inch frame, and was caught up in excitement. The battle for Khe Sanh was over and I had come out of it unhurt and alive!

I had scored a personal victory over myself and my fears .... As Stephen Crane states in his great book on war, The Red Badge of Courage, "I went to face the Great Death and found it was only the Great Death."

... In another month I'd be going home ....

Oh, Captain Cleland .... The battalion needs a better radio hookup ....

With two men, I pulled together some antennas and a generator and some radios and loaded them on a chopper.... The helicopter lifted off.

I jumped to the ground .... Then I saw the grenade. It was where the chopper had lifted off. It must be mine, I thought. Grenades had fallen off my web gear before .... I bent down to pick up the grenade. A blind explosion threw me backwards.

Now, Kevin G, can you honestly read that and for one, not think a person that happened to is a hero, and secondly, want to go kick that bitch Coulter right in her ass?   (And then later, this man faces a campaign where a draft dodger - Saxby Chambliss - runs a campaign that uses an ad that depicts Cleland with Hussein and Bin Laden - Jesus, if you aren't made angry by this bullshit, regardless if a democrat or republican, then you are a true partisan).

But go to Esquire.com and get the article.

http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2004/040803_mfe_max_1.html

As for Kerry using his Vietnam experience - this is right back a Bush for running around flapping his gums that he is a "War President."  That is utter bullshit and sickening to hear from any politician.  This man in the Whitehouse has not had to been baptised by any "war."  Just witnessing does not allow him to claim such a thing. 

And like I've said in the past...just being around people, even in geographic proximity, does not allow you to always see their true character.

Now, why post a link to that ad by the Swiftvets?  If you really want to be geniune, find the post to Kerry's actual testimony so we can read that.  You guys on the right keep harping about cut and past jobs. 

What is disgusting is when I saw that ad yesterday, if I did not know there was a larger statement to it, I too would have thought Kerry was "accusing" soldiers of committing war time atrocities.

It seems that to those on the right that you care little for the intent of the person (trying to stop more soldiers from dying) and care more about just winning an election. 

And as for the video footage - you show me any solider who has been around the world that doesn't have photos or video of him or herself in flattering positions, I'll show you a very rare individual.  Hell, for all we know Kerry was trying to film something so he could get laid back home while on leave.