This blogging experience has been interrupted for many reasons. My life is hard and time is precious and being so boneweary so often I fear these printed remarks will embarrass me and mine one day. But these are terrible times for many. Just now I have finished signing a pledge to withhold financial support to any Republican who fails to support President Bush as he reinforces our soldiers in Iraq. I have begun contacting them. I pray for the President and our gallant warriors who ought to be turned loose to wage war.

    President Kennedy motivated my enlistment in the Army. My brother enlisted in the Marines. We both arrived near Hue in February 1968. The TET offensive demoralized Walter Cronkite such that he turned the nation around. He spoke eloquently of his disdain for the warmakers in the government, Nixon more than Johnson and the Senators of that day began preparing for our defeat in the field. The rules of engagemment, always a problem, became more so. We went through the motions with increasing certainty that our leaders were deserting us and so it went until total defeat in 1975. Kennedy moved me with words alone.

    We were attacked for years before 9/11. We are at war. We must pursue victory. We must give our soldiers the confidence that they risk all for a purpose greater than finding an accomodation with loathesome regimes. The greater powers that finance our opponents are carefully calculating and calibrating just how far they can go. Only we can stand against these forces and if we acquiese to the pressure of the moment and withdraw we will find that truly dreadful consequences await us. These are terrible times. Courage and fortitude are needed. Our soldiers have that. Our politicians may not.