On your second response, no, it
is not a surprise to me, but the wicked are more freely and despicably
wicked than they were 50 years ago. Again, that is mostly personal
opinion. WWII was filled with horrors, just as the conflict today is.
Until the Lord returns, this world will always have despicably wicked,
who have given their minds over. Our military, and the military of
other countries, laws, and efforts at the control of despicable evil
exist because it WILL overcome all the world if it is not kept in check.
The despicably evil are never content...
The Taliban actively
trained in Afghanistan. When young lions attack, destroy and kill, it
doesn't do any good to just kill the young. You have to go to the den
and kill the two which are producing the young lions.
No WMD,
surely you personally know a Soldier who will tell you of finding a
cache. Read the Wikileak documents. Old Bradley isn't just in prison
for 30 years to get his sex change operation taken care of at government
expense... Those are very real documents of the DoD. I don't
understand the politics of it, why it is still denied, but they still
deny things about WWII and WWI. After all Patton was promoted and
allowed to lead even after he gave the order for those 70 Italian pow's
to be shot because they would "eat too much." They were not prosecuted
because it could not get out that Patton had given the order. His
portrait hangs very prominently in the White house. Go figure...
He
was a nut job Nazi sympathizer who wanted to keep the Jews in the
concentration camps... and he is hailed as a national hero... If you
choose to believe there were no WMD, it can't be because the information
is not readily available. I think that when the first yellow cake
dirty bomb explodes in this country, people will rethink the WMD of
Iraq. You can fool some of the people some of the time....
That
brings up the VA. I have no way of knowing who you are personally, but
dozens of young men and women who answered the call, and went to fight a
war, only to observe less than stellar leadership, have sat on my couch
and poured out the same feelings. You are not alone in your
estimations of all that has happened. It has really helped a great many
of them to be able to tell someone other than a paid professional of
the military what happened to them. Some things I have heard, I wish to
God I could unhear. Maybe I could sleep better at night.
We live
down in South Texas on a small ranch near Houston. I would like to
extend to you an invitation to visit us. We have horses and other
domestic animals, wild hogs come around too, and before I get myself
labeled as a complete nut job, just do a search for black panther
sightings in Austin County Texas. We have 11 coming out to shoot dove
at 6 in the morning. I will make chicken fried steaks with mashed
potatoes and cream gravy, some more vegetables, red velvet cake, and
sweet tea. We will sit on the porch, or down on the dock and fish, or
they can go take a nap in the cabins during the heat of the day, and I
will cook their dove up for supper, and add a peach cobbler.
I
hear the anger and disgust that you feel, and I can't imagine how you
have sacrificed, but the door is always open, and you are always welcome
if you find you need to get some things off your chest, My old Air
Borne Ranger will sit on the couch and listen, and affirm that those
wrong things that you have observed were indeed wrong things, and should
have never happened... Come and visit us at Soldier's Heart Ranch.
Relax and stay awhile, it is a beautiful and peaceful place set aside
somehow from the world. Like the sign says on the gate, "even a Soldier
needs a quiet place to rest." God's blessings on you, He loves you,
the most famous of all soldiers, King David, was "a man after God's own
heart." God loves Soldiers in a special way, because they are willing.
I hope that young man will accept our hospitality... I want to re-publish a poem whose message I hope one day this Veteran comes to know personally.
Old Soldiers Sleep Soundly at Night
When they lay down their gray head old soldiers sleep soundly at night.
They have borne the battle; they have fought the good fight.
When liberty and the freedom which Our Almighty ordained,
Was threatened forever to be forgotten, and liberty to be stained.
The call had gone out for men with bold courage and heart,
For those willing to wage war, yet from honor never to depart.
He had been young then, confident, and full of vim and vigor.
Muscled and strong, he had possessed the necessary will to pull the trigger.
Soon he learned just how hard and unforgiving meeting the enemy would be.
In those moments another life would be taken, no other way could he see.
Because the enemy had been impossible by any words or reason to hold at bay,
Inside without pause he realized he could defend all he loved in no other way.
After that first battle when the stranger lay dead at his feet.
His mind had reeled in despair knowing that he had sent him his Maker to meet.
It seemed forever he was in a foreign land where all he could see was sand.
Victory could be won only by making a committed stand.
Years had rolled by as in service to the conflict he came and he went.
His children grew up while he was at war, the enemy would not relent.
The sparkle in the eyes of his beautiful wife had slowly died.
For too many nights she lay lonely and sad as she had cried.
They both had known that his absence had been without doubt required.
While she grieved at time forever lost, his dedication she deeply admired.
At long last he had put in his time and had come home never to leave.
For a long time what he had seen caused him deep inside to quietly grieve.
Then the years and hard gained wisdom softened the wounds of his soul.
Peacefully and never forgetting the cost of freedom, he had grown old.
The nightmares and images seared on his heart at the time,
Always he had deliberately kept in a contained corner of his mind.
Whenever the flag passed or the pledge of allegiance was said.
Love of his country and memories of the fallen caused a tear to be shed.
More than most, he knew the price that always had to be paid,
To preserve the country from those whose vanity sent them on evil crusades.
His own answering of the call for defenders of all that we hold dear,
Was the thing that caused him to sleep without worry or fear.
His own debt for the privilege of life in our country whose truth is self-evident.
Had been paid and he knew that his final sleep was growing eminent.
Sometimes good men must do dreadful things in order to pass on to those they love,
The benefits and opportunities of that great precept from above.
When they lay down their gray head, old soldiers sleep soundly at night.
They have borne the battle; they have fought the good fight.
