John Kerry famously returned from the Vietnam War to denounce the men he had served with as war criminals who routinely committed "atrocities" with the full knowledge and approval of their superiors.

* John Kerry famously returned from the Vietnam War to denounce the men he had served with as war criminals who routinely committed "atrocities" with the full knowledge and approval of their superiors. The media are finally pressing Kerry on whether he stands by these allegations (see Mackubin Thomas Owens's piece "They Charge War Crimes" in the last issue for a primer on their falsity). Kerry, typically, is straddling. On Meet the Press, he said, "I think some of the language that I used was a language that reflected an anger. It was honest, but it was in anger, it was a little bit excessive." He continued, "I'm not going to walk away from that, but I wish I had found a way to say it in a less abrasive way." This won't do. The issue isn't Kerry's emotions at the time or the specific phrasing of his charges. If he believes what he said was true (as he still apparently does), all Vietnam veterans should know that John Kerry thinks they participated in a great criminal enterprise. If Kerry now realizes he was mistaken, he should straightforwardly apologize. Expect more straddling.