Had drinks the other night with a couple of military combat veterans…John and Scottie. I’ve known them both for a few years but, they’re much better friends with each other than they are with me. We rendezvoused early in the evening and Scottie had just returned that morning from a six month tour of duty in Iraq. He was there to provide security for U.S. military personnel and private American contractors who still remain stationed in that hell-hole of internecine Islamic violence. Halfway through my second beer I asked Scottie if he felt his life was in danger there. “Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week,” he answered. I was grateful that he didn’t simply say, “24/7”. I’m not as quick on the uptake as I used to be and it took me a while to figure out just exactly what ‘24/7’ meant. I’m still not sure what is meant by the expression “at the end of the day”. Does that mean 6PM when day becomes evening or midnight when one day ends and the next day begins?   

         I went on to ask Scottie if he believed that the U.S. involvement in Iraq was a worthwhile venture. It was immediately apparent that he felt the question was inappropriate and he was right. That is the sort of naïve query that only a person who’d had no military combat experience would make…a person such as myself. Having met and listened to a number of combat veterans during the past thirty years, I should have known better. Each and every one of those men expressed little, if any, concern with regard to the political or so-called humanitarian objectives that placed them in harm’s way. Their sole mission was to stay alive and safeguard the lives of their buddies. They didn’t give a damn about ‘nation building’ or protecting the well-being of foreigners in a foreign land. That was especially true for the U.S. soldiers who realized that those foreigners in a foreign land posed no threat whatsoever to the security of the country and families they loved. They were put in harm’s way simply because a bunch of politicians believed in a cause to which they felt was worth sacrificing the lives of young American men and women.

         I would propose an amendment to the constitution to deal with this flagrant disregard for human life:

         No one should be allowed to run for President of the United States unless they have a child of military age. The child doesn’t need to be in the military…just needs to be of military age. Then, if for whatever reason, the President decides that military personnel should assume a combat role in a foreign country, his or her child is the first to go. That might help to curtail the foreign policy wet dreams that far too often bespatter and befoul our country’s blanket of security.