Let's reduce this bit to what it is really about (again)...

There is simply a number of soliders angry at Kerry for his AFTER-war activities and this is what this is all about.  Oh, and that he is now running for president.

I wholeheartendly agree that probably ALL people gloss over and polish their past, especially politicians.  However, in this incident there are too many factors that discredit Thurow and this SwiftBoat for Fabrication bunch.  Other people have discounted what has been said, documentary evidence exists to the contrary of what Thurlow "recalls" and the man pulled from the river by Kerry, a republican, says he was under hostile fire.  Even one of the founders (O'Neill is out there lying about how much money he has given to republicans - he says 7k when FEC records show 15k).

Back to Thurow,  in L. Thurow's Bronze Star citation paper work it mentions the boats were under enemy fire.  Thurow claims he had NEVER read that information.  Oh, right....and they hand out Bronze Stars for pulling people out of a river with nothing else going on?  Come on...if that were true the GWB would have a chest full of Bronze Stars for flying his obsolete fighter plane over the shark ridden waters of the Gulf of Mexico. 

Unless you are a Jerry Lewis type character, about everyone in the military receives some sort of award or ribbon in their time there.  When it is given to you not only do you have the certificate, but you also get the actual paperwork filed on your behalf.  On the certificate, the action for the award is typed out and read aloud at presentation (and remember, so much of this award business is done for the higher ups, so they love to type that stuff and read it aloud - and I know this because I have a few myself). 

So now what we have is a very partisan person, Thurlow, seemingly now stating that HE received an award for nothing and lacked the integrity to correct the supposed lied about story at the time for the award he got. 

This story is getting torn apart from so many angles it is pathetic it is still out there.

One bright spot though....saw a republican on CNN today, Shays from Conn, who stated the repubs should drop this turd and move on  because it is hurting the GOP and Bush. 

I say, keep it up...because after Kerry's words today, it will only hurt Bush in the debates, though I predict that very soon Bush will discount this ad.