One thing I learned very fast when I became a veteran was that you can’t explain to civilians what it’s like, if you were never in a uniform yourself. I was in the navy from 1968 to 1972.
It is a little like being in the Mob. Only this mob tries to do good in America. Of course, there are the usual flubs and screw-ups, but overall, the job gets done, no matter how dirty. No matter the loss of personnel.
I feel we can be grateful that we held together as a nation for two hundred years. You can see this during the Civil War. The government’s primary purpose during the war was the preservation of the Union. During the conflict, we lost nearly 40 percent of the male population, both North and South.
I believe that Admiral Yamamoto described us as a “sleeping giant.” He knew what we could achieve when Japanese military people thought us lazy and arrogant in 1941. Enter, also, bin Laden on 9/11.
Today, I think we are struggling against an enemy closer to home – poverty. My own feeling is that the American dollar is not worth the paper it is printed on. Corporate America is pushing the envelope and something is going to burst.
We will eventually come to terms with a more sane economy, but it will take three to five years before some leader will even out the capitalist playing field. The alternative is possibly another Hitler in America.
Hopefully, God will put together another “band of brothers” to stave off anarchy, death, or the dissolution of our nation.
By Pierce McLoughlin
