RICEBALL

Swift Boat Accounts Incomplete: Critics Fail to Disprove Kerry's Version of Vietnam War Episode (Michael Dobbs, Washington Post, 8/22/04)

As they were heading back to the boat, Kerry and Rassmann decided to blow up a five-ton rice bin to deny food to the Vietcong. In an interview last week, Rassmann recalled that they climbed on top of the huge pile and dug a hole in the rice. On the count of three, they tossed their grenades into the hole and ran.

Evidently, Kerry did not run fast enough. "He got some frags and pieces of rice in his rear end," Rassmann said with a laugh. "It was more embarrassing than painful." At the time, the incident did not seem significant, and Kerry did not mention it to anyone when he got back on the boat. An unsigned "personnel casualty report," however, erroneously implies that Kerry suffered "shrapnel wounds in his left buttocks" later in the day, following the mine explosion incident, when he also received "contusions to his right forearm."

So, some of Senator Kerry's wounds were self-inflicted (which is not the same as intentionally self-inflicted). I assume that Chris Matthews will immediately apologize to Michelle Malkin.

Posted by David Cohen at August 21, 2004 10:18 PM