Another Swift Boat Vet Says the Swift Boat Bushies Tell Lies

CHICAGO - A Chicago Tribune editor who was on the Vietnam mission for which John Kerry (news - web sites) received the Silver Star is backing up Kerry's account of the incident.

William Rood, 61, said he decided to break his silence about the Feb. 28, 1969, mission because reports by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are incorrect and darken the reputations of veterans who served with Kerry, according to a report in the Tribune's Sunday editions.

Rood, an editor on the Tribune's metropolitan desk, said the allegations that Kerry's accomplishments were overblown are untrue. Kerry came up with an attack strategy that was praised by their superiors, Rood said.

"The critics have taken pains to say they're not trying to cast doubts on the merit of what others did, but their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us," Rood said in a 1,700-word first-person account published in the newspaper. "It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there."

Or as Michelle Malkin would say, "Have you ASKED if Mr. Rood shot himself? I wish someone would! Don't you want to KNOW? And while you're asking questions, ask if I'm a fool or an idiot. I think I'm just a fool but SOMEONE SHOULD ASK! Don't you want to KNOW?"

[ed. note: Trust us, Michelle, we know.]