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

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.

For those of you who have never seen a loved one depart for a combat zone, read what Sarah has to say.

I remember watching my father board a plane at Dallas Love Field enroute to Vietnam in 1966. I was a teenager, but lost control of my tear ducts once he was out of sight. Later in life I was the one leaving–several times. I now have two sons in the sandbox, and think of them and what they are doing. As an old commander, I understand the necessity. As a father, I am proud, yet still concerned.

This war needs to be finished, and not in the same way as Vietnam was finished. Won, as in how WWII and the Cold War were won, with new democracies replacing old autocracies.

One man’s opinion worth reading. Don Bendell served as an officer in four
Special Forces Groups:

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