The Vets' Case

A detailed analysis of the Swift Boat affair

Jesse Walker | August 25, 2004

(Page 3 of 4)

DR. WILSON: I'm sorry, we seem to be having technical difficulties again. Two of our interventions are getting mixed up.

READER: Well, it sounds like Bruno could use an intervention, 'cause maybe that way he'd learn that the Swift Boat Vets for Truth are a bunch of liars and partisan hacks.

BRUNO: That's what the liberal media wants you to believe. It took big media months to look at the Swift Boat Vets' charges. Compare that to the way they just jumped on those smears about Bush going AWOL from the National Guard!

TED: Hold on. What are you talking about? The Boston Globe broke that story in 2000. It was four years before it became a hot issue in the press.

LYNN: Ted! We're not supposed get sucked into a political argument with the readers. That's called..."enabling," right?

DR. WILSON: Yes, it's enabling. Cut it out, Ted.

READER: The press is covering up Bush's desertion! And they aren't giving you all the facts about the Swift Boat Vets either. Jerry Corsi co-wrote the Swift Boat Vets' book about Kerry. Did you know he also posted a bunch of bigoted comments about Muslims and Catholics on FreeRepublic.com? That's what Bush is doing to this country!

TED: Dude, what's that supposed to prove? So the guy's a jerk. That doesn't mean you can write off everything he says—you have to examine the claims one by one.

BRUNO: Right on.

TED: And even if some of the stories are proven false, that doesn't mean they're all false. Sometimes truthful testimony comes from tainted sources.

BRUNO: Exactly!

DR. WILSON: Hold on, Bruno. That's not what you said when you guys caught me in a lie about whether my wife recommended me for the Niger trip. You said that meant you didn't have to believe anything else I said.

(stunned silence)

READER: Whoa. Are you Ambassador Joseph Wilson? I'm a huge fan.

DR. WILSON: Thank you, but I'm trying to put that part of my life behind me. I've been politics-free for a month now.