He's a Complex Man

"We generally see ourselves as we were, or as we want to be, rather than as who we really are."

  - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Swiss born American psychiatrist

The more I read about John Forbes Kerry, the more difficulty I have trusting him. I'm not alone in this regard. Most of my friends hold a similar view and not all of them are Republicans. There are just too many conflicting accounts about what he's accomplished, how he stands on the issues and what he's been quoted as saying for me to give him much credence.

This op-ed by Mark Steyn that I read in today's Daily Telegraph talks about the complexity of the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, not on the great questions of the day, but of the man himself:

"But with Kerry...the official narrative makes no sense. He's publicly opposed to the Vietnam War. But he volunteers for it. Then he comes back disgusted with his experience in war, publicly hurls his medals away (or someone else's: that story keeps changing), denounces his fellow veterans as war criminals, torturers and rapists, and claims that he personally committed atrocities.

But then he decides to run for president and suddenly Jane Fonda morphs into John Wayne and all those war criminals are war heroes he wants at every rally and he's got his medals back and his disgust at his wartime experience has mysteriously turned into pride in his wartime experience to the exclusion of all else."

Steyn quotes a part of Kerry's address to the U.S. Senate in 1986:

"I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the President of the United States telling the American people that I was not there: the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory whichis seared--seared--in me."

He quotes him again in an interview given to the Boston Herald in 1979:

"I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."

He also cites a similar Associated Press story from 1992, and tells us there's a slight problem with all of the Kerry accounts--they never happened. That's a strong indictment, yet Steyn seems pretty sure of himself:

"...since Vietnam seems to be the only subject on which he has anything to say, it would be reassuring to know that at least he's got that right.

For most of his adult life John Kerry has peddled as his central Vietnam anecdote--the one that drove him to turn on his nation's leaders--what appears to be a complete fantasy. Why would he do such a thing?"

Why indeed? It makes no sense to me that he would base so much of his campaign on promoting this aspect of his past. Too many witnesses are standing in the wings saying that his accounts of these events are simply untrue. Are they just blowing smoke, or is there something to what they're saying? Frankly, I'm not sure, but the more I read, hear and see, the more inclined I am to doubt the things he's telling us.

Update: Carl Frank has an interesting summary of Kerry's Cambodia stories at his weblog No Oil For Pacifists. Thanks to Glenn Reynolds at InstaPundit for the link.

Update: More on Kerry's Vietnam experience on InstaPundit. Reynolds links to many other bloggers on this story.