The Undefeated: This Is Our Land, and You're ON It!!!

"Support Our Troops" is an unconditional American Mantra, which many of you have seen proudly displayed on the bumper stickers on cars in parking lots, and on cars passing you on your war to work, if you still have a job. Those of us who served in America's misguided wars, as I did in Vietnam, find these "support stickers" merely disgusting. In Vietnam, I saw a Chinese Adviser, as I was on "our" side, killed by the "enemy" he was advising, up close and personal, at a range close enough to see him take his last breath. In Trung Lap, at the edge of the so-called "Iron Triangle" near Saigon, I ordered my counterpart in the Vietnamese government's army to return the mortar fire that was plunging into my Advisor compound. Only one hour later, as I was preparing to lead my team into another hazardous mission, I saw an old woman, and a very old young man, hobbling through the village gate of Trung Lap. The woman was carrying a tiny baby boy. When she approached me with downcast eyes, I saw that she had tied a dinner plate around the boy's abdomen, to keep his shredded intestines from falling out. Though I immediately called for helicopter evacuation, I realized that I was merely attempting to assuage my own deeply felt guilt, since I was totally responsible for his imminent death. With that background behind me, I do not have the temerity to lecture others for their misdeeds, since I am still wrestling with my own.