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Please excuse my feeble attempt at levity. I am all too familiar with the cost paid by our returning combat veterans.

Some never come back - KIA.

Some never come back - WIA.

I had a motto on my helmet cover - "For those who have fought for it - Life has a flavor the protected will never know."

I believe in my heart this is true. The men and women I encounter now in my daily life have no concept of what combat is or how it affects those who have been there.

They all say that War is cruel, evil, etc. But they this without knowing the enormity of human suffering occasioned in War.

Yes it is cruel. Yes it is evil. The consequence of War is the massive killing of men, women and children, many of whom have done no wrong to anyone.

But far worse than this is the fleeting peace that is gained by failing to fight fiercely against the likes of a Hitler or other megalomaniac when first he emerges.

We have seen the wages of appeasement before, and we see them now in the feckless dithering of the Obama Regime.

Our children will pay the price.

I guess I've gone a little far afield from the actual topic of this thread. The returning combat Vet has been an object variously of disdain, fear, and patronization since long before I returned home from the Vietnam War. The "experts" on the sidelines will continue to categorize those of us who have been there from now until the end of Time.

But when the next band of villains comes after them - as it comes now - on whom will they call to defend them from sword, bullet and bomb?

"I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces which guard my country and our way of life.
I am prepared to give my life in their defense."