Citizen Smash on Swift Boat vets

Citizen Smash has a well written post on the Kerry in Vietnam stories and what he thinks about them and this sort of tactic in general. His Conclusion:

But the bottom line is that I think it is a mistake, both for Kerry to repeatedly bring up Vietnam, and for Bush supporters to attack his service record during that war because this election isn't going to be about Kerry in Vietnam. Like it or not, it's all about Bush in Iraq.

I agree with this. I also think it is interesting how much of an emphasis Kerry has made of his Vietnam service. I think He has placed far more emphasis on his military service than any candidate since Eisenhower (and you really can't compare 4 months in a swift boat in Vietnam to being Supreme Allied Commander: Europe and beating the Nazis.) I wonder if this is a bit pathological on his part. My understanding is the a good part of the reason Kerry volunteered for the Navy in Vietnam was emulation of his hero, JFK. Nothing wrong with this, in fact this is laudable. He served in Vietnam and came back with medals to prove his heroism. My understanding is that he thought this would help him launch a political career (something he had wanted since childhood, once again nothing wrong with this) but when he returned from Vietnam he found that his service wasn't worth anything politically. According to his story he turned against the Vietnam War while he was over there (in Cambodia???) but I find it more plausible that he turned against it, or at least became much more solid in his feelings, when he returned and faced the fact that his heroism was worthless. At this point it seems to me he went after a new form of heroism: anti-war hero and courageous teller of truth to power. Eventually this would launch his political career. John Kerry still felt that he was a war hero though, and this election has given him the chance to revitalize this image of himself, to walk in Kennedy's footsteps as it were. So, even if it is politically unwise to spend so much time on Vietnam, John Kerry can't help himself. This is just a guess, and could be dead wrong, but to me it seems to explain things that otherwise appear inexplicable.