I didn't know squat about the world at that time, only that we were at war with a country called North Vietnam. I didn't understand the politics behind it all, nor who had started it, nor did I know the names of the wounded soldiers I saw being evacuated by helicopter every evening on TV. I just remember my mom crying a lot. It wasn't until a few years later that I learned that several of her childhood friends had been killed in Vietnam.

At that time, my narrow little world was filled with GI Joes, little plastic green army men, cap guns, BB guns, building plastic models of cars and airplanes, and enough Tonka toys sitting about to excavate half the backyards in the neighborhood. I really had no interest in anything else. For all I knew, girls still had cooties, and I was going to live on macaroni and cheese and hot dogs for the rest of my life. I was also pretty sure that someday I was going to have to go off to war. After all, we had been at war as far back as I could remember. To me, it was just the way the world was.

I remember sitting in the family den one evening, along with my parents, watching the helicopters taking off from the roof of what I later learned was the U.S. Embassy building in some place called Saigon. My mom was in tears, and my father, a former Marine who had participated in the Korean War, was livid. I really did not understand it all, as it really made no sense to me then. All I really knew at the time was that we had just "lost" a war. Well, that is what everybody was saying, anyway.

In the years since, I have studied much about the history of this country, from the Revolutionary War all the way to the present day. WW II is the one I grew up reading the most about, which still holds true to this day. Up until Vietnam, the only war "we" had ever lost was the Civil War, or so my relatives always said.

I remember at a certain point a few years later, when I was in my early teens, I discovered that we didn't actually lose in Vietnam, we up and quit. I remember reading how many American soldiers had died, only to see us give up. I read about Tet and everything that had happened afterwards.

Most every male in my family had been a soldier at one time or other. Many had lost friends in Vietnam. I remember thinking what a waste it was for so many of our guys to die and then we just pack up and leave before it was finished. In my reading, I learned that Tet was a strategic disaster for the North Vietnamese. They had, it was said, "blown their whole wad" in that attack, yet, with victory in sight, we still quit.

I also read about the millions slaughtered after we had left the region, and learned about some clown named Pol Pot. I was appalled at the things I was reading. I had a model collection of just about every WW II fighter there was. We didn't lose wars. I thought back to those images of the helicopters lifting off the roof of the embassy, many of those same aircraft being pushed over the sides of carriers, and all those poor souls gathered at the locked embassy gates, most of whom were destined to live in utter slavery. I felt truly humiliated.

There are four children in my family ranging in age from six to eleven. I don't want those kids to see us do the same thing we did in Vietnam again in Iraq. Many innocent people would die as a result. We are too close to finishing it to just up and quit. Vietnam was not a direct threat to us, but if we quit in this fight, as some would have us do, those four children are going to grow up in a very different world than I did.

I am of the belief that Hillary Clinton, despite the fact that I despise this woman in ways that you would not believe, would not be stupid enough to order our troops out of Iraq, as she is smart enough to realize the consequences of doing so. For all her blustering to the contrary, if elected, she is going to go through that first national security briefing. Whether she would be willing to admit it or not, it will have an impact. Besides, she is not about to purchase the tag of "defeat" for her party, no matter how badly she may want to leave.

I cannot say the same for Barack Hussein Obama. Based on his public comments to date, if elected, he apparently intends to surrender to Osama at the first opportunity. I do not believe he is of sufficient intelligence to be swayed by the national security briefings. In a word, he is a fool. A very dangerous fool.

What is more, I am now of the opinion that he stands a better than even chance at being the presidential nominee for the Democrat Party. I had long thought that the Clintonista "machine" was going to take this guy down at some point. However, with each passing day, this appears to be less and less likely. If Barack Hussein Obama is, in fact, the democrat nominee, I may very well have to reconsider my decision to not vote for John McCain under any circumstances.

I could not bare to see us quit another war once again, with victory literally in sight. We owe those who have given their lives in Iraq far, far more than that. It would be a horrible tragedy if, for a second time in 33 years, we cut and run, which would mean many American soldiers will have died in vain once again.

What is more, I would hate for the four children in my family to see it, too.

None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free. -J.W. von Goethe

Sorry, Blonde, but I will not vote for John McCain.  If there is no one I like on the Presidential line, I won't vote on that line at all.

Heard him on Glenn Beck today

http://www.rootforam...

He sounds like a solid conservative running on the libertarian ticket. Lets create some noise guys.