David Hackworth quotes
A lot of folks are probably thinking that since what's left of Osama's crazy crew is on the run, the war is over.
And Osama bin Laden's game plan isn't to storm Washington, D.C., with tank regiments and infantry divisions like the Reds did to Saigon but to freak us out enough to seriously screw with our economy.
Because our homeland and very survival are once more at stake, the American people can't afford to treat this new war against terrorism like they did Vietnam.
But even on the battlefield, a leader's biggest problem has always been alertness.
Even during the darkest days of the Cold War, when evil creeps like Josef Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev threatened to bury us, we bought time and saved lives by playing the containment card.
Fighting terrorism is not unlike fighting a deadly cancer. It can't be treated just where it's visible - every diseased cell in the body must be destroyed.
Fortunately, it's still not too late to develop a comprehensive global strategy to eliminate our real enemy.
Grunts on the line, where the enemy wants them dead, still goof off - even knowing that by letting their guard down they might die.
I see fewer flags flying these days, and the patriotic flame that burned so brightly after Sept. 11 also seems on the wane.
If a policy is wrongheaded, feckless and corrupt, I take it personally and consider it a moral obligation to sound off and not shut up until it's fixed.
If I die, tell Eilhys I was grateful for every moment she bought me, every extra moment I got to spend with her. Tell her my greatest achievement is the love the two of us shared.
In Bosnia, for example, Halliburton was given tens of thousands of dollars to refurbish several U.S. military camps and fulfilled the assignment by bringing them right up to snuff - only a few months before these same camps were then bulldozed down!
In my last combat tour in Vietnam with a mainly draftee battalion (the 4/39th), we didn't lose one soldier because our opponent got the edge.
In order to drill into young men the need to stay alert and stay alive, I used to punish offenders with my fists, boots and rifle butt, and with stockade time.
It's human nature to start taking things for granted again when danger isn't banging loudly on the door.
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