It's more than just Christmas in Cambodia.

Can't say that I'm always a fan of Washington Post columnist Colby King, but I do admire his honesty. The left-of-center columnist today writes why the Swift Boat Veterans concerns are legitimate, and it has less to do with where John Kerry was on Christmas 1968.

Like the rest of his mainstream media counterparts, King had taken the Swift Boat Vets to task in his August 28 column , calling the accusations in "Unfit for Command" the predictable "swan dive into McCarthyism."

Amazingly, after receiving countless letters from Democrat and Republican veterans explaining just why Kerry irks them, King admits he was wrong. Particularly so when former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force under Clinton, Rodney Coleman, wrote King to say:

"I vividly recall Kerry's antiwar testimony in April 1971. I was a White House fellow at the time, on a leave of absence from active duty, as were five of the 17 fellows selected. Two of them had Vietnam experience with Silver and Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts awarded for their heroism. In early April 1971, I volunteered to go to Vietnam after my year as a White House fellow. I could have very easily taken steps to forgo a tour in 'Nam, but as an Air Force captain committed to the ideals of the oath of office I took, Vietnam was the only game in town."

He continues:

"When Kerry made those critical statements of the war," Coleman wrote, "my parents, God bless them, went ballistic about their son going in harm's way. My military colleagues in the fellows program who had been there and were shot up were incensed that a so-called military man would engage in such insubordinate actions. At the time Kerry made those unfortunate remarks, America had POWs and MIAs, among them my friend, Colonel Fred Cherry, the longest-held black POW of the Vietnam War. How could a true American fighting man throw away his medals, while thousands he fought alongside of were in the midst of another example of man's inhumanity to man?"

Coleman wraps up to say, "Kerry still hasn't satisfied me and many others. . . . It's September and I'm still conflicted. Speaking for myself, it is NOT enough that he served!"

King rightly concludes that the concerns of Coleman "aren't the thoughts of a Republican-funded, right-wing, over-the-top Swift boat veteran."