A slap by any other name

Would still feel so sweet....

I can call it a bitchslapping, but in reality it's one of the most concise, professional, and polite rebuttals of the whole "Bush was AWOL" meme, written by a Col. in the Air National Guard.

Finally, the Kerrys, Moores and McAuliffes are casting a terrible slander on those who served in the Guard, then and now. My Guard career parallels Lt. Bush's, except that I stayed on for 33 years. As a guardsman, I even got to serve in two campaigns. In the Cold War, the air defense of the United States was borne primarily by the Air National Guard, by such people as Lt. Bush and me and a lot of others. Six of those with whom I served in those years never made their 30th birthdays because they died in crashes flying air-defense missions.
While most of America was sleeping and Mr. Kerry was playing antiwar games with Hanoi Jane Fonda, we were answering 3 a.m. scrambles for who knows what inbound threat over the Canadian subarctic, the cold North Atlantic and the shark-filled Gulf of Mexico. We were the pathfinders in showing that the Guard and Reserves could become reliable members of the first team in the total force, so proudly evidenced today in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Knowing what I do, I can easily picture this officer being polite and respectful while giving a public rebuttal, but once the cameras were off and he and Kerry were in a private room..... I don't think Mr. Kerry would have much to say after that.