August 28, 2004 - Truth, they say, is the first casualty of war and that war is simply politics by other means. It is no coincidence that our political contests and other sports are described using the language of war. We speak of campaigns; of the rank and file battling it out in the trenches; of candidates under siege. We wonder which candidate is leading in this or that battleground state and as the candidate and their supporting armies launch attack after attack Truth lies in the gutter; collateral damage in the political wars.

No one engaged in the battle has any interest whatsoever in objective truth. No one cares whether Lt. George W. Bush slid out of his minimal military commitment in 1972 and no one cares whether there was Viet Cong fire from the river banks while Jim Rassmann and Larry Thurlow were being pulled from the water on March 13th 1969. Those are only facts, cold, objective and immutable. Facts have little to do with Truth in a political campaign. We are uninterested in finding the facts in a political contest. Truth is a casualty, buried in a mass grave along with justice, honor and integrity; all covered over - bulldozed over with a layer of corruption so that the facts can be hidden from sight.

A Judge would instruct a jury that they are to judge the credibility of the witnesses and that they are to consider the witness’ demeanor while testifying; his opportunity to observe; his memory and ability to relate what he recalls and the witnesses motive to testify falsely and that those factors are to be examined in the light of the jurors own experiences in life. In the trial of a political contest there is no judge to instruct the electorate for Truth is not determined by answers but only by questions.

No matter how many answers are given to a question, no matter how many witnesses in a position to observe describe what they saw, the question is repeated and repeated and repeated until the question itself becomes the Political Truth and the truthful answer becomes a Political Lie. Political campaigns do not seek to establish the truth for the objective is not to do justice but to obtain or retain power. Fair play, integrity and truth are not factors in the contest.

No matter how many records establish gaps in Lt. George W. Bush’s National Guard service; no matter how many witnesses come forward to establish that the enemy fired from ambush on March 13th 1969 the honest recollection of men has become a LIE and the cynical false accounts have become TRUTH all writ in capital letters. No matter how many contemporaneous military records are published recording the facts there is always that phantom record somewhere that holds that TRUTH that the target is supposedly hiding. And in that barrage of baseless questions the facts, the truth is always collateral damage.