Well, hello! It seems as though I missed another week. I have a very good reason to have missed roll call. I told you I wouldn’t write of wars anymore, and I tried. Really tried! Alas, I received correspondence via electronic media asking me to continue to write what I know, and so I shall continue my diatribe. The war in Israel had just started and my thoughts were with the men and women from the United States that will be sent to that hellhole to assist our allies with whatever we have at our disposal.
I hate war! You would think that someone in Washington would open their eyes and be very vocal about reminding our leaders that we have lost a lot of our finest men and women by blindly heading into a war that we couldn’t win. Over 7,000 at last count is how many military service members we have lost fighting wars overseas since 9/11. I ask you to go back and look at that number again — 7,000, that’s almost the number of residents who live in our little piece of heaven, here in Gonzales.
During the war in Vietnam, we lost over 58,000. Does this give you pause yet? That should save us from politicians who are anxious to puff their chest. Many of the men and women who have passed cannot be here to lend their voice to mine; nevertheless I will continue to ring the bell and remind folks that if we are not at war, we should not be placing our children in harms way.
We have seen what happens when our President, who has no experience as a military leader, tries to make decisions that would make him appear what he is not. If you happened to watch the drawdown of our presence in Afghanistan, you would have seen America at its worst. We left that country in shame and left about $3 billion worth of combat gear, much of which is being used by the enemy.
This is not just a warning about our leaders who are anxious to flex our nation’s muscles. This is a cry to those who are quick to commit our young to fight in a place that most Americans cannot find on a map. On the other hand, it has been a long time since we have had a conflagration like Vietnam. The generals are all getting antsy to add more baubles to their chest. We have also seen them at their finest, failing to advise the president that his course of action could place our men and women in danger.
You may think that I have a few bones to pick with our leaders and you would be correct. This happened with a regularity that boggles the mind. Warned of dug-in adversaries in the mountains of Northern Vietnam, they would send in men and women fresh from college and younger in an attempt to show they were great leaders.
The present inhabitant of the White House has been shown to make pronouncements and decisions based on making himself look good (A Wartime President). He doesn’t seem to realize that he is poking the bear. When you threaten folks that feel that dying is a promotion, it’s very hard to negotiate.
Meanwhile, crazy things are happening here at home. Things that should be addressed as soon as possible or we will lose another generation of our finest. Do you not find it strange that so many know that all they have to do is walk into a store and steal anything they want? That seems to be the norm today.
Thousands of our finest men and women, some who have not even finished grade school, are dying due to the opioid, fentanyl. This drug is 50 times more powerful than heroin, yet it comes across our southern border with impunity, sacks of it! Shouldn’t there be a task force to deal with this? Why is there no war against this enemy?
Among the costs of war is some grey areas. These are facts that the government overlooks when the chance at war will make so many happy that aren’t involved in combat. Since 9/11, 30,300 active military personnel have died at their own hand. This overwhelms the number of active duty personnel that have taken their own life. A blind person could see that we have some serious problems.
Whose fault is all these deaths? We are! We allow our representatives in Washington to spew out all the wonderful things they are doing, but it seems that nothing changes. Perhaps if we had someone in the White House that cares more for our country than a legacy, we could stand a chance, but things are indeed looking darker and darker.
As I sit here and write these words, I think about all the members of the military that have been called. They are being asked to fight this war, although we truly have enough enemies from other fronts that it boggles the mind. Hundreds of men and women on the FBI watch list are being allowed into our country daily. There is not even a façade of control that we had at the beginning of the migration to America. Are we to see another 9/11?
I know I promised not to write about wars, but I feel we are getting closer to getting involved in a war that we cannot win. This will dwarf Vietnam, as we have become much smarter in killing the enemy. Just think, at this time we have, in the eastern Mediterranean, two aircraft carriers that contain more men and women each than live in Gonzales. These are huge ships that carry an array of weapons and are propelled by nuclear reactors, but they can be sunk.
As we approach Veterans Day, please keep our military men and women in your prayers. I leave this thought with you. Are we still “The Land of the Free and Home of the Brave”?
God Bless.
