Maj. Mark A. Smith, USA, Ret.

As one watches the Israeli maneuvers in Gaza, one can but wonder at the reports coming from the leftist media and politicians.

Though fairly silent as Hamas and other so-called “Palestinian” groups laid waste to civilian areas with rockets from Gaza, a constant drum-beat of Israeli “atrocities” comes from our media.

The twenty-third Psalm of David
The words came to my mind,
While starving in a prison camp.

“You forget who you are, black or white, American or African, and where you come from when you are before God circling the Kabba (the large masonry cubic structure near Mecca) in a two-piece unstitched garment.”

As historians and former staff try to set up to honor the participants in long ago fights and battles in the Vietnam War, the differing roles become again glaringly clear.

We who served as platoon leaders and company commanders for indigenous forces find ourselves once again responsible for them when they show up sick, broken and hungry in a refugee camp somewhere.

Down through the years, we who fought and watched our fellow warriors die, have striven to ensure that never again a screaming minority would presume to speak for our nation in time of crisis and war.
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But today, those ignorant of war and arrogant of character once again sally forth to lose us a war on the streets of America. They cannot be allowed to once again rob an Army in the field of a hard-fought victory.

I recently watched former Vice President Al Gore’s award-winning “documentary,” A Planet in Peril, and I am once again amazed at how much our media and some “leaders” can make out of nothing.

First, he forgot what the old general said; “Want to sell it? Get a professional briefer.”

[Editor’s Note: Conclusion of two-part series. See “How a System Became Rigged,” April 11.]

Will our own gov­ernment stoop to illegalities to protect the myth of death surrounding all missing Americans?

Not only will they stoop that low, but will try to get you killed in the process. I gave little credence while a Special Forces Commander in Asia, to LTC Bo Gritz’s claim over the Voice of America that the U.S. government had betrayed his team.

Down through the years people, knowing the government has satellites and polygraphs available, assumed that technical means have been used to investigate eyewitness reports on POWs/MIAs.

The polygraph is routinely used by the U.S. government for those in sensitive positions as it is used by Walmart/K-Mart to prevent employee theft.

But getting an eyewitness to a maj­or war crime tested is near to impossible. If one is administered, a series of fallback positions are prepared in advance.

Part 2

[Editor’s Note: Here is the concluding installment of an essay that Maj. Mark A. Smith, U.S. Army (ret.), himself a former Prisoner of War, wrote in 1999, before Sen. John McCain’s first run for the White House in 2000. See Part 1, “Why I Cannot Support Sen. McCain for President,” Feb. 22, in Op-Ed.]

The reason I cannot support Sen. John McCain is simple.

His life in prison, his supposed expertise on Asia and MIAs, his knowledge of even who the longest-held POW of the Vietnam war is, are all based on myth.

[Editor’s Note: In view of The New York Times’ accusations against presumptive Republican Party Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, this two-part essay by our columnist, written before the senator entered the 2000 Presidential race, is particularly timely.]

29 August 1999

I wish I could support John McCain, and as a fellow returned POW.

I have found I am expected to support him, but I cannot.