HHhhmmmm... Interesting. I'm
not sure the answer today is the same it would have been 10 or 20 or more years
ago.
I know that I'd be mighty lonely if I just issued a blanket "yes!"
I remember driving through communist East Germany on the Helmstadt-Berlin autobahn. I remember wandering around East (communist) Berlin in the early 80's, and the look in the eyes of the people there who would recognize my uniform... the incredible responses... the hope in their faces. I remember the exhibits in the CP Charlie Museum that showed the amazing ways people would crash the border to leave that hell hole to get to whatever we call what we've got here..
I remember guarding the border, watching them, watching us, an AK hanging in the commo shack... souvenir of a departing East German border guard.
I remember how worthless I felt in the Army of the immediate post Vietnam era... a military suffering in ways not unlike those we're suffering now, under a clueless moron named Carter.
That all turned around under Reagan. Just like it's all turned around to the bad under Obama.
I've always loved my country. My oath to the Constitution is still as much in effect today as it was when I first took it on August 7, 1972... the day after I turned 17.
Yes, we as a nation and as a military are suffering because, as they say, the fish rots from the head down... and the stench becomes stronger every day.
As the military of Russia and China expand, ours contracts. We have been badly diminished across the world because the president is a lying coward. The people have no real appreciation for what we've done, now or during my time that started some 41 years ago.
At some time or another, we may be called upon to make the tough decisions. I am reminded here of Franklin, who said something to the effect that we must all hang together, or we will most assuredly hang separately.
Would I die for America? I would like to give a blanket "yes! Damned straight!" But then I think of those guys wasted in Benghazi, likely thinking to the last that some form of the Cavalry was riding to the rescue... never knowing they had been abandoned in the name of the president's re-election campaign... because they were fighting for their friends, to protect others... and THIS country, By God, NEVER abandons its people.
Well, as it turns out, that's been reduced to "almost never." The last line of the Code comes to mind: I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.
And I used to believe that at the cellular level. I don't quite believe it as much as I used to. But I am possessed of the hope that at some point, our ship of state will be righted... one way or the other... and we will once again become that "bright, shining city on the hill."
Because it's difficult for me to believe that's where we are today.
I know that I'd be mighty lonely if I just issued a blanket "yes!"
I remember driving through communist East Germany on the Helmstadt-Berlin autobahn. I remember wandering around East (communist) Berlin in the early 80's, and the look in the eyes of the people there who would recognize my uniform... the incredible responses... the hope in their faces. I remember the exhibits in the CP Charlie Museum that showed the amazing ways people would crash the border to leave that hell hole to get to whatever we call what we've got here..
I remember guarding the border, watching them, watching us, an AK hanging in the commo shack... souvenir of a departing East German border guard.
I remember how worthless I felt in the Army of the immediate post Vietnam era... a military suffering in ways not unlike those we're suffering now, under a clueless moron named Carter.
That all turned around under Reagan. Just like it's all turned around to the bad under Obama.
I've always loved my country. My oath to the Constitution is still as much in effect today as it was when I first took it on August 7, 1972... the day after I turned 17.
Yes, we as a nation and as a military are suffering because, as they say, the fish rots from the head down... and the stench becomes stronger every day.
As the military of Russia and China expand, ours contracts. We have been badly diminished across the world because the president is a lying coward. The people have no real appreciation for what we've done, now or during my time that started some 41 years ago.
At some time or another, we may be called upon to make the tough decisions. I am reminded here of Franklin, who said something to the effect that we must all hang together, or we will most assuredly hang separately.
Would I die for America? I would like to give a blanket "yes! Damned straight!" But then I think of those guys wasted in Benghazi, likely thinking to the last that some form of the Cavalry was riding to the rescue... never knowing they had been abandoned in the name of the president's re-election campaign... because they were fighting for their friends, to protect others... and THIS country, By God, NEVER abandons its people.
Well, as it turns out, that's been reduced to "almost never." The last line of the Code comes to mind: I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.
And I used to believe that at the cellular level. I don't quite believe it as much as I used to. But I am possessed of the hope that at some point, our ship of state will be righted... one way or the other... and we will once again become that "bright, shining city on the hill."
Because it's difficult for me to believe that's where we are today.
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