[Old and Reliable]

[quote=George Lander;39494]Francis: "Life is indeed a strange twist of fate" The English,The Germans, The Jappanese The Koreans, The Chinese, The Vietnamese and now, most probably, The Afgans & The Libyans have all built booming economies with the help and money of the Good Ol U.S of A
(well maybe not the English, but that was a long time ago)All our former enemies. And we are in serious debt to most if not all. God must be sitting up there on his throne and laughing out loud at our stupidity. All the lessons that welearned in Vietnam seem to have been forgotten by our current government.
--And ignored by the administrations of LBJ and Tricky Dick as well from 1964 and the Gulf of Tonkin SNAU to 1975 and the exit of the American Embassy, under guard by my beloved USMC.. The only ones from the Vietnam War era that took those lessons to heart have their names on the Black Wall-LBJ went back to Texas to practice lifting Beagles by their ears, Nixon went on to be the ONLY President to resign his office in disgrace (although Slick Willie the Draft Dodger should have), MacNamara and his band of cost cutters went back to other endeavours (the cheap SOB didn't want to revamp the POS M-16's for combat reliablilty (like the great M-14 and M-1 Graand) at the cost of many American lives-- You don't win a war with politician or Dan Rather/Walter cronkite coverage (and Hollywood airheads posing for pin-ups with NVA SAM batteries).

One of my regrets in having to pass on your invite for the pending Southern event about a month away is I won't have the chance to sit and sip some bourbon and branch with you and others and thrash over all of this--but that is indeed, one of the many blessings we have in America- and our brave fighting men are sent into Harm's Way by men who have never worn the uniform or field-stripped a weapon, and we are free to discuss and criticise, not so under Tojo, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Ho Chi Min, the Czar, the kaiser- and the list goes on. Thanks for your reply and by doing so, also your support of all the men (including Colonel Bruce Day) who recently honored those American and other allies who perished at the hands on the cruel oriental powers of WW11- "lest we never forget their sacrifices"!!