It's Not a Boy Scout's Oath

My conservative friends, critics of Kerry—why are you listeing to this shit?

Several Vietnam veterans are calling for an assistant district attorney to resign after questions were raised about his statement in a recent ad criticizing Democrat John Kerry's military service.

Alfred French of the Clackamas County district attorney's office appears in the ad sponsored by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. In the spot, French says: "I served with John Kerry. ... He is lying about his record."

A group of Vietnam veterans who protested outside the county courthouse Monday said French implied he had firsthand knowledge of Kerry's war actions when in fact he had heard about what Kerry did from friends.

In an interview with The Oregonian newspaper last week, French said he relied on the accounts of three other veterans in making the statement about Kerry and did not personally witness the events. French did not return two messages left at his office Monday.

"As a senior assistant district attorney, you know as well as we do that that kind of ridiculous statement would never pass muster in a court of law," veteran Terry Kirsch said of French's account.

"We question your fitness to serve as an enforcer of the law after swearing to facts in a legal affidavit that you do not know to be true," he said.

Before recording the ad, French signed an affidavit that said: "I am able to swear, as I do hereby swear, that all facts and statements contained in this affidavit are true and correct and within my personal knowledge and belief."

If you've been sympathetic to these guys, I don't think anyone will begrudge you the decision to recast your opinion with some good, American skepticism. French now stands to be in real trouble, and depending on Oregon's bar regulations, he could very well be disbarred.

I'll have more later—this is one of those topics I'd love to laugh off, or say that I've hit my saturation point (I have) and just won't deal with it any more (I don't want to), but it's important (to me) to dig in and hash this stuff out. Important to me, even if it makes for bad reading and typical rhetoric, because it just makes me sick.

For what it's worth, I think we SBVT skeptics are better off referring to these guys by name and as individuals only. Alfred French admits that he is a liar, but as Bob Dole says, it's easier for French to blunt criticisms under the monolithic cape of a team name (i.e., "see, SBVT are liars"). So: Alfred French is a liar and his statements are not credible. That's one more down.

Posted by Kriston at August 24, 2004 5:24 PM