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	Name:	MAJ USA RET -
	Subject:	Major's Reply
	Date:	12/2/2009 3:28:55 PM

I was drafted in 1968. Everyone else in my AIT (combat engineer) was deployed to Viet Nam. I speak German and was eventually sent to Germany. I did not ever serve in Viet Nam. (I was discharged from active duty as an E5 in 1973. I received a direct commission and returned to active service as an engineer officer in 1980)

As a private in 1968, my world was heavily compressed to my level in the food chain. I neither understood the politics of the time nor spent much time thinking about such. I did know it was a bad time to be a soldier. People in my own age group disparaged me because of my being in the Army. Thank God, the reverse is true today. Soldiers do not make politics but the conundrum is that war is the violent prosecution of politics.

Yes, the politicians ran the Viet Nam War then… and they did badly. Generals were forced to resign or did so in disgust. Body counts and other such misinformation were rampant.

Most of my buds as I progressed to NCO ranks had Viet Nam experience. Their perspective was that I did not miss anything.

Technology has advanced such that Strategy is formulated in Washington DC and Tampa, directed from Tampa (McDill AFB), and refined to Tactics in theater… via satellite.

Three very important considerations:

1- We have true combined arms and services now. All of the services seamlessly support one another. A combat unit on the ground can have Navy or Air Force air-to-ground or air med-evac within minutes… even seconds now.
2 – Our technology to “see” and “touch” the enemy is… uh… beyond belief. Our equipment is superb (hmmm… I would have preferred a 1911A1 over the M9).
3 – The American people understand and love American service men and women. The outpouring of support from home occasionally brought tears to my eyes during my service in Baghdad (2007).

However… As in Viet Nam our ignorant, ill trained enemy makes up for his deficiencies with irrational fanaticism. We are trying to respond rationally to an irrational enemy. Like Viet Nam, the people of the countries wherein we are fighting have a very low regard for life itself, much less any understanding of Western culture and freedom. When we arrived, they knew we were leaving and the status quo is held in suspense until we do.