Ben Smith reports that Medal of Honor recipient Col. Bud Day, one of the veterans defending McCain’s service, was a member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Smith notes the apparent irony that “The Arizona Republican was among the first to condemn the Swift Boat ads, calling one ‘dishonest and dishonorable.'” But Smith fails to mention is that McCain also told CBS in 2004 that “what John Kerry did after the war is very legitimate, political discussion and controversy.” And if any reporter took the time to watch the actual ads put out by the Swift Vets, he would see that the ads primarily focused on John Kerry’s 1971 congressional testimony that American troops tortured, raped, and murdered Vietnamese civilians “on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.” As Vietnam veteran Mackubin Thomas Owens wrote in January of 2004:
