We're a Military Family

My dad was in the Army . . . Special Forces . . . where he was wounded four times, shot down three times, and awarded the Silver Star.

Like my dear old Dad, I joined the Army as a teenager. My brother joined the Army the same way. Another brother spent four years in the Navy.

Four of my sons were in the military. One was a teenaged combat engineer sent to Iraq in the spring of 2003, just as that war got started. Lots of tears the morning we dropped him off, not knowing if we'd ever see him again. Another son volunteered for the Army and served in an Intelligence Company.

Another son volunteered for the Infantry and spent four years in the famed Stryker Brigade. He was in combat in Iraq, nearly constantly, for a year. He fought in Fallujah, Samarrah, Tal Afar, Mosul and a dozen other places. His wife and children paid the price of families who stay behind and wonder about the safety of their soldier.

Another son was a flight navigator on a spy plane in the Air Force. He spent so much time away from home, flying over Korea and the Middle East, that his poor wife and young son wondered whether the Air Force would really be as 'family friendly' as they thought. He got out of the Air Force as a Captain, after 8 years.

I love and support the men and women who make the effort to join the military.

However, I want to comment about the bureaucracy that places them in harm's way.

Stop sending America's sons and daughters to war unless you really need them there. If you want them to show up in these dangerous zones, don't shackle them with Rules of Engagement that place their lives in a lower priority than the bad guys.

Don't send them at all, unless there's an absolute need to destroy evil. Violence against humanity must be viewed as either 0% necessary, or 100% necessary.

You can't wage war if it's only 95% necessary.

You can't wage war without killing innocent people.

You can't wage war without destroying homes, cities and places of worship.

Stop spilling our American blood, and the blood of others, unless it's 100% necessary.

It's my opinion, that the Americans dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, are dying in vain. Why? Because rather than sending them to DESTROY THE BAD GUYS AT ALL COSTS, and come home, we're sending them to limited engagements, shackled by rules, in a war that could be WON, but is instead allowed to drag on and on.

We could never have defeated the Nazi's or the Japanese Empire by fighting this way.

America's treasure and her blood must be more highly valued than this.

Destroy the bad guys or bring the troops home.