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In the interest of truth in packaging, I am not a veteran.

I am obviously concerned how my piece will come across to the guys who served in Viet Nam, presumptious, maybe, or offensive in some way I didn't intend.

The piece was inspired in part by conversations, over a period of several months, with a friend who served there in the very early sixties. I like most of you here believe that despite everything, what he and the others did very much did have a purpose, that in the end we did win, and his feelings that it was all for nothing are misplaced.

His feelings that the leaders of the time were not worthy of the men they lead, that I fully agree with, and it should be a cautionary note to us now. If you put men in high office who are not worthy of the office they hold, bad things happen.

I am worried about the charges that Iraq is turning into a quagmire; it will be a quagmire if we lose heart, and lose our sense of direction. But if we hold fast, as we have in the past, we can remake reality. If we lose heart, bad men rule.

I am conscious of the corruption of the original South Vietnamese government, which made everything very difficult. Some of our leaders at the time discounted that as a factor, at the time, because many people are hesitant to inject moralism into foreign policy. Many are given over to "balance of power" calculations, and "enemy of my enemy" calculations, which certainly have their place, but if you lose track of the underlying principles that you are defending you will lose your way.

At the same time, though, it is a mistake to demand perfection from our allies. You aren't going to find it, and if you wait for it you will have no allies at all. So its a process. You have to take the help you can get, and work it. Compromise to achieve moral goals, but not only for the sake of compromise. Build alliances with flawed governments in order to defeat a gathering danger, since there are no other kinds, but not only for the sake of alliance.

A flawed ally who is prepared to fight is worth gold; a perfect ally who is not prepared to fight is worthless. But you have to keep your principles front and center, or you will lose your footing.

And I see this as a danger in Iraq, as we try to help these people pull together some kind of humane government. Balance of power considerations have their place, as we try to balance the concerns of all the various players, but always in service to moral aims. You can't expect moral perfection from flawed humanity, if you wait for it you will lose; but you have to keep track of your principles or you will lose your way.