Kristoff Lies In NY TIMES

Dear Mr. Kristoff,

Today's op-ed (9/15) was really dumb; one might say: liberal NYTIMES dumb. It really would have been ripped up even in a high school English class. Your theme is that given Bush's military service record he shouldn't throw stones at Kerry's service record. You close with, "Bush is hurling stones without the self awareness to realize that he's living in a glass house"

Firstly, the polls don't seem to indicate that he is living in a glass house. Your words represent some combination of stupidity and deceit Mr. Kristoff. You failed to point out one single stone Bush has thrown. In fact, Bush has praised Kerry's service. He has fully and clearly admitted it was superior to his own.

The 250 swift boat veterans who served with Kerry have been at the heart of the attacks on Kerry's service; not Bush. And you know that too. That's why you didn't say one word to recognize them, let alone accuse them of lying about the sincerity of their distaste for Kerry for Kerry's service conduct .

Attacks like yours on Bush's service record have fallen on deaf ears for 30 years so why do you bother except out of desperation? He's been Commander-In-Chief for the last four years so who cares about his service 30 years ago? Kerry's service is hugely important though since he has used it as the basis of his campaign while 250 of the soldiers he served with say in their best seller that he mostly lied about his service.

To somehow compensate for your central lie about the stone throwing you did mention that Bush inquired about being transferred to Vietnam. You might have also mentioned that Kerry served only 3 months in combat where he got a ton of medals and ribbons based primarily on the "after action reports" he wrote, and that he somehow did not shed one drop of blood the entire time. You might also have mentioned that Kerry applied for a deferment to avoid combat in Vietnam just as Bush and millions of other Americans did.