"LLoyd Bonafide" wrote
: .... People today don't
: have the respect for veterans like they used to in the old days.

You're right, but to get respect you have to be respectable. WW2 was a
hardship for anybody in the military and thanks to them we don't have to
speak Japanese or German so the vets were universally respected. Most
Americans thought that beating back the communist attack in Korea was
important too, and hence respect the vets who got the job done. Ditto the
first Gulf War.

But Vietnam was different. A tiny group of "Whiz Kids" who came in with JFK
short circuited constitutional checks and balances and suckered us into that
fight. Then, despite the heroic efforts of most vets, they micro-managed it
into a shameful defeat. Worse yet they got away with it. The military and
Vets blamed the peace freaks and vice versa while McNamara (for one example)
went on to head the World Bank and destroy the dollar. Deja vu .....

Iraq is like 'nam all over again. Nobody can explain why it was in our
interest to topple Saddam. Oil? No, he was eager to sell all we wanted. We
imposed the embargo, remember. WMDs? Nope. He once had some he used on Kurds
and Iranians but obviously destroyed any that remained. Terrorism? Saddam
did pay pensions to families of suicide bombers who attacked Israel but as
far as al qaida or bin Ladin go he was their worst enemy in the region,
killing them out of hand to protect himself. So what are we getting out of
all this wasted treasury and 3000 lives? What is Blundering Bush getting
out of it? Same thing LBJ got out of 'nam??

Our military is being micromanaged into defeat, just like in 'nam! The
Generals wanted 500,000 men to PACIFY the country! They got enough to
topple Saddam! Saddam's army was rated 3rd best in the world - hardened
vets who had fought Iran to a draw equipped with the best the USSR had to
offer - but our guys walked through them like a hot knife thru butter ...
and that otta earn everybody's respect just as winning every battle should
have earned the nam vets everybody's respect. But nobody respects a looser
and thanks to Blundering Bush we are loosing the peace. Our troops were
trained as soldiers not cops! They had to leave tons of Saddam's explosives
unguarded because the 350,000 men needed to secure them were never provided.
So those depots got robbed just like the banks and museums got robbed and
now those explosives are being used to kill our best and finest young men
and women! Any fool could have predicted that, but not Bush and Rummy! Our
soldiers had Sadr's militia trapped in a mosque ready for slaughter - but
word Washington said back off and let them go. Predictably, that same
militia is killing our men and women - again thanks to you know who. So, as
in 'nam, even our best are being ground down. Their gear is wearing out and
so is their moral. Sooner or later word will come from Washington to leave
and when we do the military will blame the peace freaks and they will
disrespect the military and the only winners will be the politicians who got
rich off it - just like 'nam. Sorry about that .....