by Iowa's Ted Remington



For the third straight day this week, “The Point”
devoted itself to attacking the character of John Kerry. This has
become standard operating procedure at Sinclair, given a lack of
anything positive to say about the Bush administration.



This is
also the third straight “Point” in which Mark Hyman has put on the mask
of an “investigative journalist,” claiming to find hidden evidence that
proves some sort of dastardly conduct on the part of Kerry. As we’ve
noted often before, this is also part of Sinclair’s ongoing efforts to
blur the lines between opinion and news. Mark Hyman attempts to assume
the ethos of a newsman, but hides behind the cover of “commentator”
when called on his partisanship.



This
time around, Hyman goes after Kerry for his participation in the
“Winter Soldier” investigation, which ultimately led to Kerry’s
testimony before Congress. The tactic employed is guilt by association,
tarring Kerry with the words and deeds of others. For example, Hyman
claims that participants in the Winter Soldier investigation claimed
that the U.S. committed atrocities on POWs, but that the North
Vietnamese did not. It’s possible that someone, somewhere said
something along these lines, but Kerry certainly did not, nor did
anyone with any sense. The Winter Soldier investigation wasn’t about
challenging evidence of Communist war crimes; it was about the
circumstances that led some Americans to engage in similar behavior.



We also
have a nod to Jane Fonda, who helped organize the Winter Soldier
investigation (along with many others). Hyman trots out the photos of
Fonda sitting on North Vietnamese anti-aircraft guns as well as a photo
showing Fonda and Kerry both in a large crowd at a rally. Hyman uses
this as evidence that Kerry was somehow in cahoots with Fonda and that
Kerry’s denials of meeting with Fonda personally are lies. For Hyman,
having a photograph of two people at the same gathering makes one
responsible for the misdeeds of the other. We’re just wondering, Mark:
if that’s the case, what about this picture?



Despite
Hyman’s protestations, the Winter Soldier investigation was not
“anti-American.” In fact, the organizers specifically wanted the
investigation to not pass judgment on America in general. The goal was
to look at the circumstances that had led American servicemen to become
so desensitized to indiscriminate violence that decent individuals were
capable of committing monstrous acts. It was an indictment of the
faulty war planning of the administration and the military
establishment, not America.



If you want a firsthand account of the motivations and purposes of the Winter Soldier investigation, read this overview
by William Crandall at the University of Virginia’s online resource
center on the Vietnam War. From this page, you can also find any number
of other documents, both primary and secondary sources, related to
Winter Soldier. The truth is out there; we don’t have to rely on
Hyman’s self-serving distortions.



As for
the validity of the charges of Winter Soldier, that atrocities were
committed by Americans, there is, unfortunately, no doubt that such
events occurred. The only debate is on how widespread they were. The
non-partisan Factcheck.org has an analysis
of the claims that Kerry “betrayed” America in his anti-war testimony
that provides several sources that back up claims of U.S. atrocities,
in addition to a helpful overview of Kerry’s testimony and his
attitudes about it today.



The
entire purpose of Winter Soldier in general and Kerry’s testimony
specifically was not to condemn U.S. troops in the field, but warn of
the costs of fighting a war in which the enemy is indistinguishable
from innocent civilians. To fight such a war, soldiers are conditioned
to accept a level of brutality and indifference to suffering that would
be unthinkable in any other context. It creates conditions in which
horrific events can happen.



And that’s The Counterpoint.