2000 Soap Box Archives

An Open Letter To Vietnam Vets

Greetings my noble and honorable friends. First of all, let me thank you on behalf of real Americans everywhere for serving your country. I thank you for the sacrifices you’ve made whether it be an empty sleeve, emotional trauma or another one of the myriad of other symptoms this ill conceived conflict spawned. You did your duty while self seeking politicians in this country carried on a war they had no intentions of winning. While the sum of your worth was measured in body counts you fought on loyally despite the growing number of stoned out, tangle haired hippies with an aversion to soap and water and common sense who blamed this war on the brave men who fought it. History says that we lost the war in Vietnam. That’s ridiculous, we didn’t lose it, our politicians gave it away. They put you in impossible situations, they sent you on useless missions. While the press in this country concentrated on the unfortunate civilian casualties they never mentioned the systematic atrocities the Vietcong were carrying out against their own population, not to mention the fact that the battleground was the villages and rice paddies where collateral damage was unavoidable. War is truly hell. No brave ones, you didn’t lose that war. Given the latitudes and equipment you needed you could have won that war in a walk away. Why didn’t we bomb Hanoi? We bombed Berlin and Tokyo. Why didn’t we cross the invisible political line and destroy their supply lines? We went wherever we wanted in the second World War and bombed where we felt we needed to. What was so different about this war. It all boils down to, if we’re going to be in a war, we should give it everything we’ve got, go in with both barrels blazing, use whatever weapons are at our disposal to put a swift and victorious end to the conflict and bring our people home. I love George Bush and think he was a great President, but he left one thing undone in the Gulf War. He left Saddam Hussein alive and part of his war machine in tact, and before it’s over, we or some of our allies will have to pay a price for it. Our military has suffered under Bill Clinton. Not only the catastrophic budget cuts he has made but the unwillingness of young men and women who no longer enlist in a military where the Commander in Chief is a draft dodging, lying abuser of women. How can anybody want to enter such an honorable profession under such a dishonorable leader? I don’t know who our next president is going to be. I hope and pray it’s not that naive, tree hugging flower child of a Vice President. If it is, I fear we’re in for more of the same, except worse, because I truly do not believe this man has the leadership qualities to be an effective President. There is an old adage that we either learn from history or we are doomed to repeat it. Let us be diligent when we think about the war in Vietnam and all our wars for that matter. Every time we see an old timer proudly displaying his battle ribbons in a veterans day parade, let us remember who it is who has kept this country free. Every name on that black wall in Washington represents a man or woman who never meant to come back from South East Asia in a body bag. Every name represents the ultimate price that someone has paid for this nation, and I for one want to say thank you, thank you, thank you.

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

 

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