Thanks for your thanks, freight dawg, but I think we've come to similar conclusions via totally different routes. To make myself perfectly clear, I have no use for war heroes. I was hugely disappointed that Kerry's campaign emphasized his war record and virtually ignored his anti-war activism. If he had run a true anti-war campaign and ignored his own military service, the swift-boaters would have had nothing to attack. He copped out and wound up shooting himself in the foot.