I happened upon an interesting story coming out of the Associated Press today (for instance, see this story at foxnews.com). General Tommy Franks has been critizing Senator Kerry for his views on Iraq and his anti-war statements after returning from Vietnam:

Franks praised the Democratic challenger’s military service during the Vietnam War, but said Kerry’s later anti-war activities upset him.

“The men I served with in Vietnam weren’t war criminals and I’m proud I served with them,” Franks said.

Of course, Kerry’s people jumped right on this:

Kerry spokesman Sean Smith accused Franks of distorting Kerry’s Senate voting record.

“He reads (Bush political aide) Karl Rove’s talking points very well,” Smith said…

But the best part comes a couple of lines further down:

Kerry never branded any U.S. troops in Vietnam as war criminals, Smith added.

The dishonesty and hypocrisy of that last statement is breathtaking. These are the same people who complain that when Republicans criticize Sen. Kerry’s record on defense votes, they are accusing him of being unpatriotic. It’s OK to draw wild inferences from Republican statements.

But apparently, we must parse Senator Kerry’s statements much more carefully. When he accused troops in Vietnam of committing atrocities and (dare I say it?) war crimes, he wasn’t branding them as war criminals. How does that make sense?

I would just accuse Senatory Kerry’s spokeman of being in denial, but that would be unfair to people in denial. He’s just plain lying.