Thanks Gary for voicing my feelings and anger so well for me. I was a member of U.S. Central Command when it was formed and knew before the war what an Invasion of Iraq would mean for my comrades and the tribal “eye for an eye” thinkers in Iraq and Islam. I felt incredulous that our President and his Attention Deficit Administration of Spoiled Brats would be so foolish and cavalier. I didn’t believe that Saddam was tied to Bin Laden or that he couldn’t be controlled with sanctions and inspections. I was retired from the Air Force so I had no way of knowing what his WMD capability was, but I thought the inspections could work to keep the threat low and that military force should only be used as an absolute last resort.

When George H. W. Bush decided not to go to Baghdad in the first Iraq conflict, I had just retired and was pretty much an alone voice among those still on active duty in saying what a wise decision that was because I was convinced that what has happened the second time would have happened the first. What made me so angry in 2002 was not that I was a genius who saw the future when others couldn’t. I was so angry because I couldn’t understand why our government, including our congress, couldn’t see what was so obvious and how many of my comrades would die and be maimed and how many innocent Iraqis would suffer and die.

My fellow military are wonderful people who love our country and because they must remain out of politics, they only want to do the most professional job they can. In their eagerness to do that, many of them often don’t consider non-military methods for solving problems. That is why at Squadron Officer’s School when the Pueblo was captured by North Korea, and I strongly opposed all my colleagues cries of “nuke em,” my in box was filled with bars of Dove soap. It’s why during the Vietnam War, that when I admired the war protestors who poured blood on my files, twice, once in Arkansas and another in Hawaii, my comrades couldn’t understand how that could be supporting our troops by believing that the war should be ended.

The angry retired military voices that Killed John Kerry’s presidential campaign through wanting to believe political nonsense and false war stories could only have happened because these military patriots can still not get over the emotional trauma of having to face the fact that their cause was unwise. They get angry at anyone who dares to burst the balloon that is blinding their eyes to the truth that American political leaders with weak character or venal purposes can cause far too many brave Americans to die in a misguided or unjust cause. That is why it is so hard to have the political will to withdraw our forces from Iraq.

I fervently hope that my frank comments on this Memorial Day are not conceived in any way as critical of those heroes who have to struggle with this psychological challenge. But, we can’t prevent another disastrous war in the future if we, the military, don’t learn from the past. We need brave military leaders like Gen. Shinseki to stand up and be counted when political leadership is not considering all the consequences of their military decisions. We can’t keep saying “yes sir,” when receiving orders that are politically and militarily ill conceived. We have to stop being foolish to believe that our technology and military prowess can overcome any challenge, when military might will not ever be able to make things politically right. Above all, we better understand the thinking, religion, culture and politics of the “enemy” far better than we did in Iraq before we enter the battle field again.

Each hour of each day I think about my comrades in Iraq. I then inevitably get angry at my fellow Americans who used parochial or personal morality reasons to elect a president who was clearly not qualified to be President. Voters who let political mantras deceive them into electing a drinking buddy instead of a thoughtful leader who seeks out dissenting opinion and takes responsibility for past mistakes. George W.’s clearly inadequate performance in the last six years and the deaths of so many that we have to memorialize on this day has to show us the importance of carefully considering who we elect in 2008. We owe that to all who have died to protect our great nation.