This Was Worse
The 4-foot deep and 5 1/2-foot long underground cell I was chained in made Abu Ghraib look like a walk in the park.
I was starved and brutalized.
My 38 wounds, including six bullets, were treated with iodine and covered with rags.
Wrong Side, They Said
My crime?
I was a uniformed soldier, captured in armed combat in Vietnam.
Do not ask my sympathy for terrorists who used the civilian population as shields so they could kill again for their God.
Covered, Right?
I was a uniformed soldier.
I was covered by the rules of the Geneva Convention.
But the “progressive” Vietnamese told me the Geneva Convention did not apply to them or to me.
As I and my fellow POWs held on, many “progressives” from my own country journeyed to Hanoi to praise my enemy and to damn me.
A Hero to Us
At that time in Hanoi, a Thai Special Forces Master Sergeant, Chaicharn Harnavee, smuggled food and messages to his American allies.
M/Sgt. MSG Chaicharn was not “progressive,” either.
But he did receive the Silver Star from the United States Army for “gallantry” in action.
Being “gallant” beats being “progressive” every time.
Let’s Be Clear
On certain foreign policy matters, “advise and consent” belongs to the United States Senate, not to Speaker Pelosi.
Conduct of foreign policy belongs to the executive branch of government.
The woman Pelosi can make no deals.
Defining Parameters
She does not speak on behalf of any branch of the United States government on her jaunt.
Should she do so, she will be in violation of the Logan Act, which precludes her from acting on her own.
I must add, though, that this act never has been enforced.
Why? Because we tolerate fools loosely.
Proof of Tolerance
After all, we have the Democratic Pennsylvania congressman, Jack Murtha.
He is a veteran of Vietnam, but he also was involved in the ABSCAM federal sting operation where he was talking about “honor.”
As to the latest rant from Dr. Frederickson and his posturing, here is a word even he will understand without his dictionary:
Nonsense.
Maj. Mark A. Smith, U.S. Army (ret.), served in Vietnam and Cambodia, and he was a Prisoner of War.
