Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

I received a CD with photos from Birdie yesterday (See his link in the left column). I will try to cycle different ones through every few days for those who are interested.

It’s time to put in a plug for my boys, Sarah’s husband, and all their compatriots.

Ralph Peters has written, among other really well-done pieces, this editorial on what our military have done, and continue doing successfully.

For those of you with no real concept of logistics, consider moving an entire city of 150,000 from one location to another. You must move their businesses along with basic household goods and vehicles. And you must replace this population with another of like size. While you are doing this, criminals are trying to pick off easy targets and you must continue to keep them under control.

Thanks to Jim for the pointer.

well it’s me again. i’m trying to send you this picture of me, and it just doesn’t want to play. it’s a good picture too. the other day we raided a house and found a painting of saddam with this little girl. of course we cut out the head of the girl and everyone started to take their picture with saddam. other than that nothing else. pop i got your package the other day, the one with the two packs of double stuffed oreos in it. they only lasted me about two hours though, God i’m so fat now. i got more good pictures to send everyone as soon as i get the chance to send them i will. take care and i’ll talk to you later.

Well, at least he capitalized God.

I just spoke with Birdie in Baghdad. He said there was a long convoy of M1A1s coming into town yesterday. “That road will have bombs on it tomorrow!” was his main comment.

Sarah, are you listening? Don’t worry. Birdie will watch out for the LT while he and his men get settled.

Stolen from Jim Lago’s web site:

TROOPS IN THE FIELD – so we are up in the mountains at about 0100 hrs looking for a bad guy that we thought was in the area. Here are ten of us, pitch black, crystal clear night, about 25 degrees. We know there are bad guys in the area, a few shots have been fired but no big deal. We decide that we need air cover and the only thing in the area is a solo B-1 bomber. He flies around at about 20,000 feet and tells us there is nothing in the area. He then asks if we would like a low level show of force.

Stupid question. Of course we tell him yes.

The controller who is attached to the team then is heard talking to the pilot. Pilot asks if we want it subsonic or supersonic.

Very stupid question.

Pilot advises he is twenty miles out and stand by. The controller gets us all sitting down in a line and points out the proper location. You have to picture this: Pitch black, ten killers sitting down, dead quiet and overlooking this about 30 mile long valley.

All of a sudden, way out (below our level) you see a set of four 200′ white flames coming at us. The controller says, “Ah– guys– you might want to plug your ears”. Faster than you can think a B-1, supersonic, 1000′ over our heads, blasts the sound barrier and it feels like God just hit you in the head with a hammer. He then stands it straight up with 4 white trails of flame coming out and disappears.

Cost of gas for that: Probably $50,000

Hearing damage: For certain.

Bunch of bad guys thinking twice about shooting at us: Priceless.

I sat down to write something and found a comment from Don Bendell regarding his essay I posted several days ago. He sent me the full post, along with the link to his web site. Following is his full editorial:

GUEST OPINION

My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year, and the recovery is terribly painful. Then, she developed a staph-epi infection, and they had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just thinking about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a second time in the same wound, makes me cringe. That experience, however pales in comparison to what I am going through right now, in my heart.

The old hurts are surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow citizens, and their leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart again. I am being cut in the same scar. How did we who served in Vietnam suddenly become cold-blooded killers, torturers, and rapists, of the ilk of the Nazi SS or the Taliban? Most of us were American soldiers who grew up idolizing John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and all the other heroes. That was why I volunteered. But for political expediency, John Kerry has rewritten history, again. After spending only four months in the country of Vietnam, John Kerry testified before Congress in 1971 with these exact words about incidents he supposedly witnessed or heard about from other vets: ?They personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam.”

I was a green beret officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and fought in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces A-team on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the elite. We saw the most action. Everybody in the world knows that. But we did not just kill people, we built a church, a school, treated illnesses, passed out soap, food, and clothing, and had fun and loving interaction with the indigenous people of Vietnam, just like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon, and everywhere American soldiers ever served. We all gave away our candy bars and rations to kids. Our hearts to oppressed people all over the globe.

My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced, unprincipled liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and all my fellow Vietnam veterans. Sure, there were a couple bad-apples, but I saw none, and I saw it all, and if I did, as an army officer, it was my obligation to stop it, or at the very least report it. Why is there not a single record anywhere of you ever reporting any incidents like this or having the perpetrators arrested? The answer is simple. You are a liar. Your medals and mine are not a free pass for lifetime, Senator Kerry, to bypass character, integrity, and morality. I earn my green beret over and over daily in all aspects of my life.

Eight National Guard green berets, and other National Guard soldiers, have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you totally dishonored their widows and families by lumping National Guard service in with being a draft-dodger, conscientious objector, and deserter, just so you can try to sabotage the patriotism of our President who proudly served as an Air National Guard jet pilot. I have a son earning his green beret at Fort Bragg right now, and his wife serves honorably in the Air National Guard, just like President Bush did, and I am as proud of her as I am my son. I volunteered for Vietnam and have no problem whatsoever with President Bush being our Commander-In-Chief. In fact, I am proud of him as our leader.

John Kerry, you personally derailed the Vietnam Human Rights Bill, HR2883, in 2001, after it had passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote, and thousands of pro-American Montagnard tribespeople in Vietnam died since then who could have been saved, by you. Earlier, as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on MIA/POW Affairs, you personally quashed the efforts of any and all veterans to report sightings of living POW?s, when you held those reins in Congress. You have fought tooth and nail to push for the US to normalize relations with Vietnam for years. Why, Mr. Kerry? Simple, your first cousin C. Stewart Forbes, CEO, of Colliers International, recently signed a contract with Hanoi, worth BILLIONS of dollars for Collier?s International to become the exclusive real estate representative for the country of Vietnam.

?Hanoi John,? now that it works for you, you beat your chest about your Vietnam service, but to me, you are a phony, opportunistic, hypocrite. You are one of those politicians that is like a fertilizer machine: all that comes out of you is horse manure, and you are spreading it everywhere.
Medals do not make a man. Morals do.

Don Bendell
Canon City, Colorado

Don Bendell served as an officer in four Special Forces Groups, is a best-selling author with over 1,500,000 books in print, a 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame, and owns karate schools in southern Colorado.

God bless you, Don and Shirley Bendell.

I keep hearing people talk about how we need to charge prisoners in custody or let them go.

This is a symptom of the War on Terror as a Law Enforcement issue.

These prisoners are being held because of their involvement in armed conflict with US forces. They are not being held on suspicion of committing a crime. Throughout modern history, POWs have been detained until conflict was over. Prior to the 20th century, many countries simply sold them off as slaves or retained them as conscripts to help fight. Never have they been given access to lawyers or charged as criminals.

This war is a combination of military and police work, and each will be the prime focus at different times. But those who believe this should simply be a legal action need to ask themselves who will arrest Osama bin Laden, or who could have arrested Saddam.