I'm troubled.

I'm troubled.

I'm troubled by my Republican brothers and sisters who somehow can find no fault with anything George W. Bush says or does.

I'm troubled by folks from both sides of the political spectrum who still think we were right to invade Iraq and try to justify it by invoking 9-11.

I'm troubled by those who insist that Americans who are not for George W. Bush are automatically against America.

I'm troubled by my fellow combat veterans who say that Cindy Sheehan is lending aid and comfort to the enemy by insisting that her son died for nothing.

I'm troubled by those who scream that you cannot support our troops without blindly supporting an unjustified war.

And, most of all, I'm troubled by my own feelings about some things.

I vaguely remember Harry Truman as President (I was born in 1946). I remember every one since then very well.

I remember those with whom I agreed and those with whom I disagreed.

I remember those who I liked and those I didn't.

But I respected them all.

Now, though, I've lost all vestiges of respect for my Commander in Chief. I despise him. I have reached the point where, if the man said it is dark at night, I have to disagree with him. His lies have led us into a war which has killed nearly 2,000 American soldiers and Marines.

Clinton lied about sex and the Republicans impeached him. Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction and no one is talking impeachment. (To be fair, I don't want to talk about impeachment. If Bush has been a terrible President, Dick Cheney would be a disaster!)

Bush's lies have killed and wounded untold numbers of Americans and Iraqis. When Clinton lied no one died.

I understand how hard it is for the average American to admit he/she was wrong. I understand that he/she doesn't want to admit he/she fell for Bush's lies during the campaign and during the run-up to war.

And, today, the Washington Post reports new lows in Bush's approval ratings. The numbers are such that some of those being polled and reporting they disapprove must be Republicans.

But, still, many Republicans insist on running and hiding from the truth. They have called American combat veterans "traitors" because they don't support Bush's war. They have accused the mother of a dead American combat veteran of everything but littering.

I am watching my country being torn apart. It is rapidly approaching the divisions of Vietnam (which I remember well).

And I'm troubled.

Color me confused

I guess I don't get it. In fact, I know I don't get it. I don't understand how one person can view similar situations and come up with totally different reactions.

President Bush has recently been doing a lot of praising of Ariel Sharon and his pull-out from Gaza. He calls it part of the roadmap to peace. This "peace," of course, is being gained by giving in to the demands of the Hamas terrorists and unilaterally pulling out. Notice that Hamas and the Palestinians have made no promises about their actions toward Israel. Surely, if Bush is sincere in his position that giving into terrorist demands will bring peace, he will now pull U.S. troops out of the Middle-East to achieve peace there, right?

No, no, Grasshopper. You don't understand. Giving in to terrorist demands that we leave Iraq will significantly weaken the United States.

So, let me get this straight.

If Israel pulls out of Gaza in response to terrorist demands, that's a good thing.

If the United States pulls out of Iraq in response to terrorist demands, that's a bad thing.

I don't get it. My head hurts. Color me confused.

The American Legion

For seven consecutive years, and more than 10 years overall, I have been proud to be a member of American Legion Post 16 in Huntington, WV. After much consideration and soul searching, my association with the Legion ended today.

Problems within the Post, itself, made the final decision. But I have been leaning this direction for several months. It seems a waste, though, to make a decision of this nature and to not explain why.

The National Commander of the Legion often speaks on matters of importance. When he speaks, it is presumed that his words reflect all of the members. When he speaks on matters of Veteran's Affairs, he probably does.

But when he speaks about political matters, things are no longer quite so clear.

Recently, he spoke about the prisoners at Guantanimo Bay. He compared their being placed in "brace positions" for prolonged periods of time with the efforts of being a waiter. I cannot help but wonder when the last time was that he was required to stand at attention for four hours; or to remain in the "front leaning rest" (the "up" position of a push-up) position for an equal period of time.

Members of the Legion are veterans who served their country in time of war. Many are also quaified for membership in the Veterans of Foreign Wars (meaning they served in a combat zone). But, equally, members of the Legion are from every political spectrum. There are liberals as well as conservatives. There are Democrats as well as Republicans. There are those who support the war in Iraq and those who oppose it.

But when the National Commander speaks, it is with the voice of all of us. And when he speaks on political matters, it is with the voice of every member of the Legion.

But the time has come to make it clear that he has one less voice behind him.

He does not speak for me. And, after today, he never will again.

Is Iraq the same as Vietnam?

In a comment about another post, Dave Peyton again raised the point that Iraq and Vietnam are similar. Before the invasion, I made the same point in posts on "Huntington News . Net".

Ceertainly, there is no similarity in terrain. And that may be why many people are so willing to dismiss the things that are similar.

In Vietnam, we faced a determined, implacable enemy. We faced an enemy whose level of technology was a fraction of ours. We faced an enemy who did not wear uniforms. We faced an enemy who could easily hide among the populace. We faced an enemy willing to use terror as a weapon. We faced an enemy who used kidnapping, assassination, booby traps and "improvized explosive devices."

Does any of this sound familiar?

In Vietnam, we went in as "liberators" determined to help the people be free. We went in with the idea that conventional military force could easily defeat the poorly equipped guerrillas. We went in with the idea that our overwhelming power would bring the enemy to his knees in a short period of time.

Does any of this sound familiar?

In Vietnam, we went into a war with absolutely no idea who we were going to get out. With no "exit strategy."

Does that sound familiar?

Official pronouncements from our leadership are now taking on the "we don't know quite how or when, but we're gonna get out of here somehow" quality that sounds so much like things we heard from President Johnson and President Nixon.

In his comment, Dave Peyton suggests the time is no far off when we will, pretty much as we did in Vietnam, declare victory and come home. I find that a realistic assessment.... and a sad one. It is sad because, militarily, we did win in Vietnam. Our defeat was in the propaganda war.

This is NOT the fault of our troops. It is not for lack of training or equipment or desire or committment on their part.

It is a simple matter of our going to war unprepared; with no long range planning; with no idea of what we would do "IF"; believing that our powere made us invincible. We went to war with the idea that the people of Iraq would ALL welcome us as liberators and with no plan to deal with the situation if, as it proved, they didn't all welcome us.

We went to war with no plans for dealing with the inevitable destruction of infra-structure, leading to many Iraqi civilians being without basic necessities such as water and electricity.

In doing these things or, more accurately, not planning for them, we have turned Iraq into the finest recruiting tool that al Qaeda ever had. We have provided them with "live fire" training. And the world of the terrorist is Darwinian. Those who survive will be tougher, smarter, and better able to hurt us. We are not safer because of Iraq. In fact, we are in more danger from our failure to apprehend or kill bin Laden.

My Cavalry troopers and the Infantry and the Marines and the Air Force are kicking butt..... but it isn't enough. We aren't winning the "hearts and minds" of the people.

The time has long since come for the people of the United States to demand an accounting from the current administration. I will be accused of feeling as I do because I am not a Republican. So be it. I would demand the same accounting from a Democratic administration which got us into a similar mess.

We lost more than 58,000 men and women in Vietnam over the course of more than 20 years. That was a much higher intensity conflict and the physical number of troops was much higher on both sides than currently in Iraq. We have already sacrificed nearly 2,000 of our soldiers in Iraq. We should be able to see where this is leading. As the song said, "You don't have to be a weatherman to see which way the wind is blowing."

60 percent of the country thinks we're on the wrong course. It is time to bring our people home. Home to bands and welcoming parades and their families. It is time to bring them home.

Rex Bowers - a LONG time ago. July, 1970, Tay Ninh, South Vietnam.

Irony

A local church, in the Huntington area, annually puts thousands of crosses on their property. Each cross is to remember an aborted fetus.

Several years ago, someone who apparently disagreed with their position on abortion drove a truck through the property one night, damaging and destroying many of the crosses.

Now what's amazing about this was the reaction from both ends of the political spectrum. The "right" was upset that their rights of expression had been stomped. The "left" was equally upset because, believing in freedom of expression, they were concerned that the "right's" freedom of expression had been stomped.

(Fast Forward)

Monday night, someone drove a pickup truck through a display of crosses, each representing an American serviceman or woman killed in action in the Middle East. The display, if you've been asleep, was put up by Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, and a war protestor.

Now what's amazing about this is the reaction from both ends of the political spectrum. The "left" is upset because their rights of expression have been stomped. The "right?" As near as I can tell from news reports, the "right" thinks she got what's coming to her. I even heard mutterings that "it's too bad, she wasn't in the way."

The woman lost her son in a war that she feels was unjust. Apparently, a lot of Americans agree with her, since polls are showing less than 40 percent of Americans support the way President Bush is conducting the war. I'd call that (60% +) a pretty substantial majority.... certainly more than the percentage who wound up voting President Bush into office. Cindy Sheehan has every right (and, to his credit, President Bush has made it clear that he agrees with her right to express her opinion!) to suggest the war is wrong and we should get the troops home.

But it appears parts of the "right" think the right to expression applies only when it is their opinion that is being expressed.

And I call that "Irony."