I don’t think “swiftboating” means what you think it means
DJ Bell sends us a link to an article about how the founder of Special Operations for America PAC, Ryan Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, is under attack from VetPAC’s Dick Klass, vice-president of VetPAC, and a retired Air Force colonel, who is questioning the character of Zinke’s service as a SEAL;
“We heard some things about this founder,” Klass continued, referring to Zinke. “If a guy has had two combat tours and retired as a lieutenant commander, he did not have a brilliant career.”
Klass, a former Air Force pilot with over 500 combat hours, is referring to claims by former military officials — who declined to be quoted on the record — that Zinke left the Navy SEALs acrimoniously after being accused of improprieties surrounding his travel reports in the late ‘90s.
Yeah, Zinke returned to the SEALs after 9-11 – so those “improprieties” must’ve amounted to a popcorn fart or he never would have been allowed to come back. Klass calls the mere existence of Special Operations for America PAC “swiftboating” in reference to the swiftboat veterans’ sinking of the Kerry campaign in 2004. But, I don’t see how it could apply, since Obama isn’t a veteran and, therefore has no military record to impugn.
I thought Klass’ name sounded familiar so I scoured our archives and TSO wrote about him during the 2008 campaign when he was spewing lies as the Co-Chair of Veterans for Obama Policy Group and hiding behind VetPAC;
VetPac is truly a vision of nonpartisanship though. They’ve endorsed 28 candidates and only 26 are Democrats. One is a Republican. Who’s still in school. And has no chance of winning.
I wrote about him again this last May when Klass attacked a most excellent video from Veterans For A Strong America in the Huffington Post when he also tried to use the term “swiftboating” out of context. Klass is a partisan hack who wraps himself in veteran clothing to work against veterans.
Category: Veterans in politics
CDR (ret.) Sen. Zinke was a SEAL and also member of JSOC’s Seal Team Six. Basically, along with Delta the military’s highest priority units. Thats some achievement. Just to get into the regular Teams is incredibly difficult, but to be the few selected to try out for ST6 (Naval Special Warfare Development Group)is mindblowing. Smug Colonel should be careful about starting a food fight.
BTW Zinke retired as a full Commander. Smug Colonel should know that not all people chase “rank” – yeah I know its crazy, but there are some who sacrifice promotions for job satisfaction.
Colonel Smug might be confusing Sen. Zinke with ST6 founder and former CO – CDR ret. Dick Marcinko, who was implicated in improprieties and spent time in federal prison for his troubles.
The only possible way (and this is a stretch) that the term “swiftboating” might apply to the current occupier would be if some ACORN members, or maybe Bill Ayers himself, were to come out with actual truths of the occupier’s record as less than stellar, even questionable, during their associations. Of course, the reason the term is used so dirisively by the left is because they simply deny the truth.
Wonder what the odds are that some former associates would finally come out with the truth? Naw, it’s not going to happen.
I don’t know how this clown thinks he can just throw crap at a SEAL and expect it will stick. Let alone an ST6 member.
I remember Dick Marcinko’s biography well. I always wondered how he was viewed by current SEALs, but there’s not a lot to find on the issue and I don’t know any myself.
I think you’re overlooking one way in which the term is appropriate in this case. As I understand the history of the group, Swiftboat Veterans for Truth was formed by Kerry’s former boatmates (is that even a word? apologies to the swabbies if it’s not) whose images were being used to imply support of the Kerry campaign against their wishes. When Kerry refused to stop using their honorable service as an implied endorsement, they took steps to make their lack of support for him explicit.
While Obama never served with the SEALs (obviously) he’s spent a lot of time trying to conflate their accomplishments with his leadership ability. If you understand “swiftboating” to mean the act of explicitly repudiating a politician’s attempt to use your accomplishments as an endorsement of his campaign, I think using it here is completely appropriate.
Of course, that’s not what leftists mean by swiftboating. What they mean is warriors are saying mean things about their political betters, that are hurting leftists chances to advance their political agenda. I see no reason why we need to accept the lefts corruption of language and revision of history.
Wow
VetPAC sounds a lot like what VoteVets turned into.
Any connection between the two?
That is stupid to say a guy with two combat tours and was only a lt-cmdr didn’t have a good career. I wasn’t an officer, but i do know that similar to us enlisted folks, you can choose to do things that will fast track you, but you can also do things to keep you exactly where you are, because you love what you do, and sometimes that means not being on the ticket puncher list for promotion.
Maybe “Dick” would like to explain how he was able to retire in 1980 with only 18 years of active duty time. According to the USAFA records, he graduated in June of 1962. Even if he retired on the last day of the 1980, that would still only give him a little over 18.5 years. Even stranger, are some sources on the net claiming he had over 22 years of service – sorry – time at zoo does not count for squat (unless, you become a Federal civilian). Also, how was he able to retire(?) as a full bird Colonel? Usually you have to put in 3 years time in grade and that would mean he had to have been below the zone to Major, Lt Col, and Col. If he was such a fast burner, then why did he retire at 20? Theoretically, he would have had a star at 22 to 23 years… Something does not add up.
Yeah, Andy. I know of another guy who retired early. By all accounts, he was an excellent officer, a true gentleman who rose to lofty rank exceeding that of Klass. The man was a helluva combat commander and was wounded in one of his victorious battles. His name was Benedict Arnold.
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Obviously, the Obama people have gotten to Klass and VetPac and given “orders” to fall in line against Zinke. This can only bode well for Commander Zinke and Special Ops for America..let’s hope the real veterans and patriots will realize that they are only fools going to the slaughter if they go down the Obama road. Commander Zinke has an outstanding record that can be proven, unlike our ersatz “commander-in-chief”. God Bless America and the Special Operations forces that protect it!
Both Gallup & Rasmussen show vets going for Romney by 24-29 points. This brings out the prog attack dogs to both try & suppress the military vote (Obama campaign sues Ohio) and to smear guys like Zinke. Considering what the Big Red One in the WH is doing to the armed forces, I’m kinda surprised the vote spread isn’t something like 70-30.
For some info on Hanoi John Kerry’s derring-do during his 4-month RVN tour, see my post Not So Swift (http://crockettlives.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/not-so-swift/)
Obligatory link