The Commons at Paulie World: Kristol on Kerry

Here's a bit from William Kristol's lead commentary at the Weekly Standard (subscription required).

And in this journey, I am accompanied by an extraordinary band of brothers.... Our band of brothers doesn't march because of who we are as veterans, but because of what we learned as soldiers.

John Kerry
Acceptance Speech
Democratic Convetion
July 29, 2004

This is significant, really it is. Even for the casual reader or listener, Kerry explicitly bases his life's work on the lessons he learned as a soldier. Because of this, his military record, must be examined closely. Not because of who he is as a veteran, but because of what he learned as a soldier [sic]. In his own words.

There must be something extraordinary in that military record, and there must be something extraordinary about the collective experience of those men. How else could Kerry claim such distinction for his band of brothers?

What Kerry learned as a sailor, according to his sworn testimony to Congress, was how to kill civilians, raze villages, and mutilate corpses. He learned how to coerce others to do the same, because, in his words, such heinous acts were the official policy of the US military. And he learned how to do so "extraordinarily," with his band of brothers.

And yet he did nothing. He did not report the crimes when they occurred, he did not go to the IG when given these orders, he did not take actions to benignly neglect the orders. I only assume he gave the orders, extraordinarily.