John Kerry seems genuinely surprised by his fellow veterans attacks on his anti-war activities after he returned from Viet Nam. He seems actually to believe that Bush is somehow behind the Swiftvets ads. This attitude might be surprising if one weren't aware of his prior activities. Take his Senate Testimony in 1971. He provides a lengthy list of supposed war crimes committed by U.S. troops:

They told stories that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Ghengis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

And if he is to believed, these crimes were not sporadic.

These were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.

So according to Kerry, the troops in Viet Nam were monsters, raping and pillaging throughout the countryside. Yet he later condemns America's response to her returning veterans.

I understand 57 percent of all those entering the VA hospitals talk about suicide. Some 27 percent have tried, and they try because they come back to this country and they have to face what they did in Vietnam, and then they come back and find the indifference of a country that doesn't really care, that doesn't really care.

Even as Kerry's testimony contributes to the myth of widespread war crimes in Viet Nam, he complains that Viet Nam vets return to face what they did in Viet Nam. Perhaps if he and others like him weren't making unfounded, outrageous accusations about their conduct in Viet Nam, the vets would have returned to a more welcoming nation. Kerry seems unwilling to accept the effect of his own actions. You can't call people rapists, killers,torturers, and modern-day followers of Ghenghis Kahn without consequence. Back then, the public - for whatever misguided reason - allowed Kerry to get away with his slanders. Today, the Swiftvets are doing their best to ensure that he is called to account. You can help them in their cause here.