Poor Glenn Reynolds

Once again he learns that redundantly posting and posting and posting whatever the Corner or Freeperworld tells him, doesn't make it true, in fact, it makes it LESS likely (I'm such a cockeyed optimist...Reynolds, learn? Hah!).

But if it is a "talking point" or a "mantra" it is true right?

Well in that case:

Instapundit's a fool,
Instapundit's a fool,
Instapundit's a fool,
Instapundit's a fool,
Instapundit's a fool.

Oh, wait a minute, no need to repeat it, because it is true from the first line.

The blogger bound and determined to show that he's a toady to whatever the Right-Wing vomits up, has been screaming incessantly about Kerry & Cambodia for a few weeks now, getting ever angrier about the fact the mainstream press isn't focusing enough upon it. (No links, I'm not giving Reynolds hits, even minimal ones)

Nevermind the fact that we cannot even discover where in hell along the Gulf Coast of AMERICA that George Bush was during a huge gap in his service, it is all Kerry in Cambodia all the time.

Well, sorry Glenn, but the Cambodia thing is, as it should be, a non-starter because, as Fred Kaplan shows, it's accurate.

We know that Kerry's boat and two others were in those reeds on Christmas Eve '68.

The Cambodian special forces' incursions—which were conducted without the knowledge, much less approval, of Congress—were escalating around that time. Just over a month later, on Feb. 9, 1969, Gen. Creighton Abrams, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, requested a B-52 bombing attack on a Communist camp inside Cambodia. (Richard Nixon, the new president, approved the plan on March 17; the first strikes of Operation Breakfast—the secret bombing of Cambodia—started the next day.) Shawcross writes that special forces were always sent across the border to survey the area for targets just before an air operation.

Did Kerry cross the border or just go up to it? We may never know for sure. Not much paperwork exists for covert operations (officially, U.S. forces weren't in Cambodia). Nor is it likely that a canny Swift-boat skipper (and Kerry was nothing if not canny) would jot down thoughts about such covert operations in a diary on a boat that might be captured by the enemy.

The circumstances at least suggest that Kerry was indeed involved in a "black" mission, even if he had never explicitly made that claim. And why would he make such claims if he hadn't been? It was neither a glamorous nor a particularly admirable mission—certainly nothing to boast of.

But one thing is for sure: Lieut. Kerry did not spend that Christmas Eve just lying around, dreaming of sugarplums and roasted chestnuts. He had plenty of time to cover the 40 miles from the Cambodian border to the safety of Sa Dec (he did command a swift boat, after all). More to the point, the evidence indicates he did cover those 40 miles: He was near (or in?) Cambodia in the morning, in Sa Dec that night.

Glenn Reynolds is no more a historical scholar than he is impartial and objective in these matters. He's taken the Swift-Boat Choad because it fits into the meme picture they wish to portray about Kerry, or any liberal, that they couldn't possibly be brave, vigorous, or strong.

It would be sad, but for the fact that so many people hit his site. It is passing on baseless slanders.

The truth is that the Vietnam conflict was a tragedy, particularly for residents of southeast Asia, but also for us. There were a variety of illegal actions that occurred without the consent of Congress or the knowledge of the people.

Not only are conservatives trying to keep Kerry out of the White House, they are trying to do two other things. One, re-write history regarding Vietnam. Two, keep people off of this other discomforting fact -- illegal acts in Vietnam having occurred at the direction of the Executive Branch (LBJ & Nixon) the likelihood of similar malfeasance in the current Executive is also there.

-- Abu Ghraib;
-- Overstating WMD;
-- Lack of Planning for Occupation;
-- Capitulation in Fallujah;
-- Demonization of Al Sadr;
-- Manufacturing of Al Qaeda links;
-- Overstating of foreign influence;
-- Overplaying Al Zarqawi;
-- Massive fraud in the disbursement of funds ($8.8 Billion)
-- 80% Desertion Rate, still, in the Iraqi Police & Military;
-- The fact that we only control, to an extent, where our troops are
in Iraq and no other;
-- Losing Bin Laden because we focused too much on Iraq;
-- Giving up Afghanistan to Warlords Again;
-- The Malfeasance of the Pakistanis both in regard to nuclear
secrets and the war on terror.

But who is counting.