I just saw the new Swift Boat ad at:
http://humaneventsonline.com.edgesuite.net/unfit_video2.html
This ad is really quite different from the other because it is completely narrated by John Kerry. In some ways it is a powerful ad for Kerry.
Apart from the vets sense of betrayal, the ad is very moving, because Kerry's voice is so honest and sad, so sombre. Most of all, what he says is all true, and most people know that.
The obvious response to this ad is to turn it around:
"Yes, these things did happen. They happen in every war. That's what war is. Death, and fire, brutality, and unjust suffering, both given and received. And that's why it's important we have a commander-in-chief who will never, ever, send us into a war unless it is absolutely the last option."
The worst thing he could do is to apologize or back off these comments.
The power this ad has for Kerry is that it shows he was willing to face an ugly truth, and to speak that truth. To tell Americans what they didn't want to hear, no matter the cost.
While the betrayal felt by the vets is also moving and genuiine, it would help to underline the point that it is misplaced. Yes, they were betrayed, but not by John Kerry; by the men who cynically sent them over there, knowing they could not win.