Bob Kerrey lies
Former Senator Bob Kerrey is on a book tour, and NPR did a lovely puff piece about it this morning. Kerrey was asked about the raid on Thanh Phong, in which he led a Navy SEAL team now accused of war crimes. Kerrey dismisses those accusations as the lies of former Viet Cong soldiers. But by no means all of Bob Kerrey’s accusers are former “enemy” soldiers. His account of the raid on Thanh Phong is disputed by Gerhard Klann, a member of Kerrey’s own team. As reported in The Nation,
“Upon arriving at a hut on the outskirts of the village, the team killed five members of a family consisting of two grandparents and their three grandchildren. The SEALs used knives in an attempt to preserve silence. Klann says that when he had trouble killing the grandfather, Kerrey held the man down with his knee while Klann cut his throat. The team, Klann goes on, proceeded to the village, where it ordered about a dozen women and children out of their bunker, lined them up and executed them at close range.”
Kerrey whines that there is a “double standard” applied to his account of the events of that night, and the accounts of those who say he’s lying. No, I’d say there’s just one standard: who’s got a motive to lie? Kerrey, who has been protecting a political career? Or Klann, whose account is against his own interests?