Bungle In The Jungle
Author: Steve May

Being a Vietnam vet during the last days of American ground
troops what I saw mostly was a job almost done. I was
positioned on different artillery firebases along the north and
central coastal areas, the land in control by the Americans and
the South Vietnamese. Though the spring offensive of 1972
spearheaded toward us from the north and out west toward the
ARVN the American firepower did halt the advance. Then they
left us alone so we would leave. Later, watching the fall of
Saigon, I wondered how they had bungled this war.

I have never been a world traveler since and my world view
has been from an armchair. What I have experienced is the cost
of everything takes most of my average paycheck. What I have
seen and read is that it seems that men have become richer than
what they need to be and people poorer that what they ought to
be. And that war has never ceased.

I have also never been a policy maker nor ever will be but
the events of 9/11 made me wonder again how they let this
happened. There had been the known threats and the earlier
Trade Center bombing; like the military high command ignoring
the signs coming from the field of the buildup to the Tet
offensive. I am also old enough to know that mistakes can
still be made and that human error can shape event but at this
scale I think I know what my parent's generation felt after
Pearl Harbor; vulnerable.

Yet from the start the reaction to Afghanistan was
directed for the enemy that caused the slaughter of the
innocents and the speed of the takeover astounding. In my eyes
and of the world America had the right to go into that country
and aim for the terrorists. Unfortunately we are dealing with
a well trained force that for a decade hid from a large Russian
army.

The switch to Iraq surprised me and most of my
acquaintances for this looked to be an expansion more than a
hunt. But what King George, Haliburton Cheney, and Quickdraw
Rumsfield have wrought cannot be undone. Now is not the time
to quit, as I remember my own tour, we should stay for the
final peace this time and not forget who we really need to
bring to justice.

Again I was never a commander nor carried much rank but I
do know that generals have to follow orders. Sending thousands
of more troops over to Iraq by these civilian men who never
endured a tour or two, much less extending for three or four,
appears to exhaust our resources to be able to carry out the
original mission. But with Gates own admission about sending
them instead to Afghanistan this may steer back the course.

As I see from the perspective of an old foot soldier the
current crop growing for the run to be the next president
wouldn't make much of a military difference. Since we are in
the thick of countries, and not just one, what the generals
need is another general. That is why my two cents, my vote,
the right that is the basis of all freedom, will go hopefully
for Colin Powell.

About The Author: http://www.altoya.squarespace.com