Oh, This Is A Must See!

GO HERE to see the video.

The Eastern Shore Iris Society

Click on images to enlarge.
It's always cool to have such incredible subjects to take pictures of, making it look like I'm the one doing a great job. However, once again the subjects above are what makes these photos so cool, IMHO.

Yesterday was a competition of those within the Iris Society and the clear winners were overall, Joan Wood of Delaware as the Grand Prize Winner. The Best in Show went to Dee Hunter with her Siberian Iris.

Congratulations to all and Happy Mother's Day.

Is This News To You? Have You Seen this on CNN or Fox? I Didn't Think So

• Did you think he had dropped out of the race when all the others did?

• Have you heard ANYTHING about him on the Mainstream Media?

• Did you think this guy doesn't have snowballs chance in hell?

• Did you think that the Presidential race is only between Obama, Clinton, and McCain?

Well, you better think again...

The MSM has virtually ignored this phenomenon.

The MSM has done such a disservice to this country and it's voters by not covering this story, they are manipulating how we elect a President.

Over One Million Votes for Ron Paul

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 7, 2008

ARLINGTON, VA - Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul eclipsed an important milestone in yesterdays primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. By winning over 71,000 votes, Dr. Paul has earned the backing of over one million supporters across America. “By voting and caucusing for Dr. Paul, one million Republicans have sent a powerful message to our leaders that they want the GOP to return to its traditions of limited government, personal liberty and a strong national defense,” said campaign spokesman Jesse Benton. “Dr. Paul and the grassroots movement he has inspired are building a bright future for the Republican Party and the United states of America.”

Did any of you hear any of this? I doubt it.

What about this one?

Ron Paul's Book on New York Times Bestseller List

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 7, 2008

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul’s newest book, “The Revolution: A Manifesto”, is number one on the New York Times Best Sellers list for May 18th, 2008. The ranking is yet another of the many successes Dr. Paul has had during his presidential candidacy spreading his message of personal freedom and constitutional government.

Upon its official release on April 30th, “The Revolution: A Manifesto” was the number one bestseller on Amazon.com and remains the number one bestseller in political books.

If you are interested in what his stance is on the real issues that are affecting each and every one of us, and his solutions to them go here http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/ and read what he has to say.

Obama and Hillary are the same package in two bodies, and McCain is aligning himself with some pretty strange folks who want to help God bring about Armageddon even if that takes 100 more years in Iraq.

Let's do something different in November people...Lets Vote for a Man who believes in the Constitution the way it was written and cut the head off of this monster that these liars and thieves have created!

Happy Mother's Day Lewis Family

E-4 Robert Lewis of the United States Army returned home from Iraq yesterday to give his Mother an early Mother's Day present, life.

Mr. Lewis will be home on a 30 day leave and more than likely head right back to Iraq. In the mean time, the baby girl he's seem with in photos above was born on the day he landed in Iraq. His Wife went into labor just before he was leaving for Iraq and I'm told the two paced the floor and did everything possible hoping the child would be born before he left. The Army was willing to give him an additional 2 weeks at home IF the baby was born before he left. Sadly, this wasn't the case and he was deployed and is now enjoying this reunion with his two Daughters and his beautiful Bride.

It's photos like these that remind you just how fortunate we truly are and thankful for all those Soldiers like Robert Lewis who keep us safe and free. So a special thanks goes out to the Lewis Family this Mother's Day. May it be the most enjoyable one you have ever experienced. God Bless You All.

Another Potential Fire Station Thrown Away Again By The City Of Salisbury

As most of you will recall, The Centre of Salisbury Mall offered the abandoned Montgomery Wards Service Center up for FREE to create a Fire Station on the North end of the City.

However, what most of you didn't know is that the building above near the Powerhouse Gym across the street from the new $10,000,000.00 Fire Station 16 was offered to the City for a song and a dance and they refused to accept that building as well.

At this point you have to start thinking, why would they drop two opportunities in perfect locations to house TWO Fire Stations at a fraction of the cost of just one?

Could it be that there was more advantages financially the other way around?????? I could go on and on with this Post but you know what, you know where I'm going with this. Now you know the truth and the comments should clear the air on how you feel now that you've been informed.

They could have left the old Station 16 where it is, added the other one, (photo above) with 5 PULL THROUGH BAYS already in place and would have housed ANY Ladder Truck and other major equipment and had a Station on the North end.

How's this Mayor working for you now Folks?

It Smells Like INSIDER TRADING With the NEW SBY Firehouse Purchase in 2005

Joe Albero has written a lot and brought up some very valid points about the city WASTING money on the new TEN MILLION DOLLAR firehouse. Everything rests on land so I checked the real estate transaction for the property and it has INSIDER TRADING written all over it.

After digging a little on the original real estate transaction all I can say is; folks I thought Boss Hogg in Pocomoke was crooked but he has a few lessons to learn from the 'Big City Politicians' in Salisbury...

A search of the Maryland Public records shows the City purchased this property from Salisbury Trust LLC November 27'th 2005 for the sum of $636,000.00

Salisbury Trust, LLC is owned by Curtis C. Coon LLC (An LLC owned by another LLC usually spell SCAM) of Towson, MD but don't stop reading, it gets better:

Curtis Coon (and/or unknown associates) purchased this property a few months earlier from a Cecil L. Decker Jr. for the sum of $175,000.00 on May 27th 2005.

$636,000.00 Sale price to City of Salisbury
$175,000.00 Purchase price
$461,000.00 PURE PROFIT

Everyone now realizes that Fall of 2005 was the "peak" of the real estate bubble but based on this simple prima facia evidence SOMEONE was probably trading on inside information to realize $115,250.00 PER MONTH PROFIT from a real estate transaction to a local government entity.

Lets be real for a moment here; how often does a municipal government make a mid six-figure real estate purchase decision in less than 120-days start-to-finish?

Heck they have not even decided how to hose the citizens on "disposing" the old firehouse yet and that has been on the table for over three-years.

How would the 'secret undisclosed by state law owner' of the property know that they would be able to realize a quick six-figure profit in exactly 120-days? (In Pocomoke the answer would be The Boss Hogg form of Government but Salisbury does not have a City Manager)

A copy of the documents is available on the Maryland State websites & I uploaded it to the web you can read it by clicking this link just in case some of you want to read the documents instead of spending time searching a government website.

As Columbo would say...

One more thing, this Salisbury Trust, LLC which is now defunct or an entity not in good standing because after the Fire House transaction they did not file taxes or corporate documents, can someone explain this one. (after telling us who really owned the property)

Having worked in the real estate industry for over 20-years, I know when an LLC who makes a quick profit that is owned by another LLC someone is hiding something.

The LLC that owned the LLC that bought and sold this property; is Curtis C. Coon LLC, but they are not listed in the data base of Maryland businesses. That would indicate it was either formed in another State and not properly registered as a foreign corporation to do business in the State of Maryland, is now defunct or it never existed to begin with.

So I checked the State database several ways and viola:

There is a Curtis C. Coon P.C. (Professional Corporation) listed at the same address as both LLC's involved in this transaction. He appears an attorney who once applied to be on the US District Court Bankruptcy 'Dispute Panel' in Baltimore but a Google search of his phone number only shows someone desperately trying to sell condos in Baltimore.

BACK IN 2005 EVERYONE WAS A REAL ESTATE INVESTOR BECAUSE PROPERTY VALUES NEVER GO DOWN...

Maryland has laws surrounding the use of LLC's that require a court order to obtain information on its 'Members' or shareholders. Most people do not know that Maryland Corporations are second to Delaware in popularity because of how well ownership is shielded from prying eyes.

Non-corrupt municipalities (and the federal government) have disclosure laws which require LLC's doing business with the government to disclose who the 'members' (shareholders) are to avoid the potential for any undisclosed conflict of interest. (Boss Hogg's Pocomoke City has no such laws and it looks like neither does Salisbury)

From where I sit it looks like the taxpayers of Salisbury not only got hosed paying $10-Million dollars for this firehouse, they were raped out of an extra $1/2 million by insiders who did not want their identities known.

Full story after the indictments are unsealed... this should be interesting.

Any comments?

________________________
Billy Burke, Publisher
www.pocomoketattler.com
Exposing our 300 year history of corruption
It's Pocomoke..

A Mothers Day Tribute

I have to say that I had a Mom that was unlike any other mother I have ever met.
She was way before her time, and so misunderstood. She had me when she was 18 after being married for one year. She had been brought up to be a proper Southern Lady, yet lived in the tumultuous 60's that began to challenge everything she knew.
Fortunately she gleaned much from her parents, and took to heart her own life experiences and diligently shared them with me. Below are a few of the things that my Mother taught me.

• She taught me to be brave.

• She taught me to trust my instincts.

• She taught me to believe in myself, and the God given talents that I had been given.

• She taught me that my greatest job in life was to at all times possess integrity.

• She taught me that if I did make a mistake to admit it and go on. Not to try to cover it up. Things covered up stay moist and fester, things uncovered dry up and blow away.

• She taught me do my very best at whatever I did.

• She taught me that mediocrity was not an option.

• She taught me that the things that people don't want to talk about are always the most interesting and usually the most important.

• She taught me it was always better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. Begging for forgiveness, meant that I had tried to do something and failed. Asking for permission meant I was second guessing myself and if I had to do that then the internal answer should always be NO!

• She taught me that you don't have to be rich to be clean.

• She taught me that to have a beautiful home was stimulating to your mind and to that of your family.

• She taught me to surround myself with beautiful things even if it is simply a dandelion flower in a simple clear glass. It is good for the soul and makes you appreciate the littlest things.

• She taught me that less really is more. As it leaves room for the really important and beautiful.

• She taught me to find a partner who made me laugh, who made me smile and who loved me more than any other woman he had ever known. No matter what he looked like, no matter what he did for a living (as long as he was of honest means and integrity) that nothing matters more in a relationship than complete devotion and joy.

• She taught me to love deeply with complete abandon.

• She taught me to tell my family and friends how much they mean to me as often as possible.

• She taught me to never be satisfied with all that I know.

• She taught me to pursue new things each and every day.

• She taught me to develop a broad vocabulary, so that I would always be able to effectively communicate my thoughts.

• She taught me constantly question authority, because we can't trust someone just because they hold a certain title.

• She taught me to ask as many questions as it takes to come to full understanding of any situation.

• She taught me that stupid people always think every one else is stupid.

• She taught me that while I may have many friends throughout my life, that my standards of loyalty would be so high that at the end of my life I would be able to count my true friends on the fingers of one hand.

• She taught me to live my life like it was going be printed on the front page of the New York Times tomorrow and if I could live with that headline then I was alright.

• She taught me that a mothers love is unconditional, just like Gods and that the day that she dies, you better know who you are and be good with it because there would never be another person on the face of the earth who loved you like she did.

I lost my Mom in 1986. She was 42 years old. She had a congenital heart defect which I apparently have inhereted from her. When I found her lying in her apartment I knew in an instant what she had said was true. I felt the void of that mothers love it was gone with her last breathe.

I married the man who made me happy and made me laugh and still does to this day.

I have taught my children all that my mother taught me, and I pray that they engrave it in their hearts as I have. Not all the lessons are easy, not all the lessons make you popular, but all of the lessons leave me with the ability to lay my head down every night and know that I have lived my life to it's fullest. That I have done everything that I know to do to make my world and my surroundings the very best that it can be, with the resources that I have available to me.

This being Mothers Day weekend take the time to remember the things your Mother taught you, and if you still have her thank her for these timeless lessons.

I would love to hear from you the things that your Mother taught you

Question of the Day, Sun 5/11

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

What memory do you have of your mother as a child? What 3 words best describe your mother? What do you do for your mother on Mother's Day? What do your children do for you on Mother's Day?


Barbara,

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you dearly and cannot imagine my life without you in it everyday. You are my best friend. Thank you for always being there, no matter what, because I know I'm not perfect in any way. You have made me the mother I am today. I hope I make you proud. I will love you forever and ever and ever! Have a safe trip to Myrtle Beach. I will keep your Sophie safe!!!

Love,

Wendy

A Smart Texan

Three men... a Canadian farmer, Osama bin Laden and a Texan are all working together one day.

They come across a lantern and a Genie pops out of it.

'I will give each one of you one wish, which is three wishes in total', says the Genie.

The Canadian says, 'I am a farmer and my son will also farm. I want the land to be forever fertile in Canada .'

POOF! With the blink of the Genie's eye, the land in Canada was forever fertile for farming.

Osama was amazed, so he said, 'I want a wall around Afghanistan , Palestine , Iraq and Iran so that no infidels, Americans or Canadians can come in our precious lands.'

POOF! Again, with the blink of the Genie's eye, there was a huge wall around those countries.

The Texan in his easy going west Texas draw says, 'I am very curious. Please tell me more about this here wall.'

The Genie explains, 'Well, it's about 5,000 feet high, 5oo feet thick and completely surrounds the countries. Nothing can get in or out; it's virtually impenetrable.'

The Texan sits down, cracks a beer, smiles, and says, 'Fill it with water.'

IRAQ FOR SALE: The War Profiteers

GO HERE to see the video.

Soldier Comes Home From Iraq Today At 1:50 PM

The mother of Army E-4 Robert Lewis is going to get a wonderful Mother's Day gift: her son is returning to Salisbury from Iraq TODAY, AT THE AIRPORT AT 1:50 p.m.

A shout out to EVERYONE: Please join "We Care About Wicomico County", the American Legion and V.F.W. in welcoming him back home. Be at the
Airport by 1:50 p.m.--we have the banners and flags! Just show up and
help us welcome him HOME!!!!!!!!!!! It only takes a few minutes of your
time and is time well-spent to honor his service.

East Church Street Closed!

East Church Street is closed indefinitely between Naylor Street and Linwood Avenue due emergency sewer repairs. The closure is expected to last several days, though East Church Street may reopen on May 14? If you have any questions you can call, 410-548-3105.

Saturday Morning Funnies - William Shatner's Rocket Man

Courtesy of Tequila Mockingbird, Hollywood California

Delaware State Fair Ticket Sale Dates

2008 Delaware State Fair entertainment ticket online sales are scheduled for May 14th, 15th and 16th, at 10:00 AM.

For a full online ticket sales schedule please visit www.DelawareStateFair.com.

Please remember gate admission to the Delaware State Fair is not included in your online entertainment ticket purchase. All patrons coming to the Delaware State Fair must purchase a gate admission ticket in order to gain admission to the fairgrounds.


May 14:
Demolition Derby Thursday, July 17, 2008
Demolition Derby Friday, July 25, 2008
Monster Truck Show Sunday, July 20, 2008

May 15:
Brooks & Dunn Friday, July 18, 2008
Carrie Underwood Monday, July 21, 2008
Trace Adkins with Bucky Covington, Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Martina McBride with Chris Young, Thursday, July 24, 2008

May 16:
3 Doors Down, Staind & Hinder,Saturday, July 19, 2008
Daughtry, Tuesday July 22, 2008
Tony Hawks’ Boom Boom HuckJam Saturday July 26th, 2008 2:00pm & 7:00pm

Is The "GW" Stimulus Package "BS"?

Just Curious?

Is there ANYBODY out there who actually got the amount promised in the George Bush "stimulus" package?

I was told over and over and over, my household, i.e. my wife and I, would get $1,200.00.

BALD FACE LIES!!

Try $678!!!!!!

My sister - in - law and her husband got $600.00. He was furious and asked everyone he knew and couldn't find ANYONE who got the amount promised!

Has any of your readers gotten the full amount??

I made a whopping $25K last year and am losing my factory job in June. Thanks a lot, W!!!!

This email is absolutely restrained compared to what I'm thinking!

Presidential Proclamation

The Wicomico County Sheriff's Office will recognize the Presidential Proclamation of former President John F. Kenedy that sets aside May 15 as National Peace Officer's Memorial Week and the week of May 15th as National Police Week. This year, National Police Week will run from Sunday May 11, through Saturday May 17th.

Everyone is welcome to join the WCSO in honoring not only their fallen Officers but the Officers that put their lives on the line each and every day. The Presidential Proclamation will be read on Monday May 12, 2008, 1:00 pm. at the Wicomico County Historic Courthouse on Main Street and Division Street Salisbury, Maryland.

Borrowed From On Your Side

GO HERE to see their Website and article.

Delayed Budget Information Is Dual Eye-Opener

At yesterday’s budget work session, Ms. Turner of the Department of Public Works (DPW) provided an excellent forecast model she created on the water and sewer fund relevant to the impact on its surplus given some different scenarios. Ms. Turner deserves our thanks for her initiative and outstanding work.

Two eye-openers resulted from council receiving this information. One is, to replace our aging infrastructure over the coming years, sewer and water rates have to be increased at some level very soon. This in itself is not a surprise, but DPW Director Jim Caldwell’s recommended level of 25% in the first year and 20% in year two, with inflationary increases afterward, coupled with even more hard-hitting possible scenarios, was a stark revelation. The council will need to consider deeply and quickly the numerous factors involved in order to develop budgetary policy to deal with these scenarios in the most balanced way possible.

The forecasting tool that now provides us with the ability to understand the actual financial impact of annexations given sweet deals and a long-standing policy of allowing the city’s deteriorating infrastructure to continue to decline. Every time you see a pot hole or crumbling sidewalk, the Hearne and Sassafras annexations, the Salisbury Mall TIF and numerous developer reimbursements will come to mind.

The good news is – and there is good news – this tool will allow this and future councils to properly fund the water utility and bring greater transparency and order to the budget and financial management process. Our goal is to see this long-overdue process applied to the entire budget.

The second eye-opener is, this information was available as early as April 3, but the council did not receive it until nearly a month later on April 30 – two weeks after the presentation of the proposed budget by Mayor Tilghman. The mayor did not make a recommendation for a rate increase, instead saying at her public budget presentation that she just plugged in over $4 million dollars of surplus to balance the water and sewer fund budget until she could have “discussions” with the council.

Wednesday’s work session was apparently intended to be one of those “discussions,” but the mayor was not present. Is the mayor’s proposed budget her budget or not? What scenario with what level of rate increase did she plan to recommend since she had the forecast in enough time prior to presenting her budget to make a recommendation? Especially given that the administration was copied on the council’s budget session schedule, did the mayor not think that it would be beneficial to have this discussion sooner than five weeks after the information was available, and with just a month left before the budget must be struck?

First the mayor’s proposed budget has inconsistent representations of the department heads’ funding requests granted and denied, which the council learned a week after the budget had been presented by the mayor. Then, we had to ask to see actual requests to reconcile them against the budget, and these came 8 and 10 days after the budget was presented. Now, with only a month to go in the council’s budget process, we are briefed on this critical situation with the water and sewer fund with serious implications for both our infrastructure and our taxpayers.

Like last year’s last-minute revelation of a huge tax hike, the mayor’s pattern of suppressing information and severe budgetary changes until the last possible moment does not serve the city and its citizens well. When the mayor is not forthcoming with full information in a timely manner and is not clear regarding her budget recommendations, the council and the public cannot know the true status of our city’s financial picture, any more than they could with late audits and delayed updates on the current year-to-date expenditures.

The mayor’s budget process takes place largely out of the view of the public, while the council’s process is open to full public view. The taxpayers of Salisbury have a right to know exactly where the mayor stands on spending their money and her rationale for doing so. They have a right to the transparency of full and timely information from the administration and to hold the mayor accountable for her decisions, rather than have her portion of budget accountability shifted to the council, which has its own share to shoulder.

Disclaimer
The views expressed in this newsletter are those of Councilwomen Campbell and Cohen solely and do not necessarily represent those of other council members.

Salisbury Police Departmane Press Releases

On May 7, 2008 at approximately 7:07 pm, Officers of the Salisbury Police Department arrested the below listed suspect for a robbery that occurred in Salisbury on April 30, 2008. On that date it was reported that a female suspect had robbed two (2) subjects of U.S. Currency while in a motor vehicle. During the robbery, the suspect produced a pocket knife and a handgun to threaten the victims. Salisbury Detectives were able to positively identify the suspect and obtain an arrest warrant.

ARRESTED: Wanda Michelle McGrady, 37 years of age Salisbury, Maryland



CHARGES: Robbery (2 counts)
Armed Robbery (2 counts)
First and second degree assault (2 counts)
Possession of a dangerous and deadly weapon
Reckless endangerment
Theft (over $ 500)

DISPOSITION: Suspect released to Central Booking CC # 200800015170

On May 7, 2008 at approximately 7:15 pm, Officers of the Salisbury Police Department Community Action Team (CAT) executed a search and seizure warrant on a room at the Thrift Travel Inn occupied by the two (2) below listed suspects. During the execution of the warrant, the officers located quantities of suspected marijuana, suspected cocaine, suspected crack/cocaine and a quantity of CDS related paraphernalia.

ARRESTED #1: Melissa Andrea Holbrook, 20 years of age Salisbury, Maryland

CHARGES: Possession of crack/cocaine
Possession of crack/cocaine w/int to distribute
Possession of cocaine
Possession of marijuana
Possession of cds/paraphernalia (2 counts)

ARRESTED #2: Nathaniel (nmn) Moss, Jr., 58 years of age Eden, Maryland

CHARGES: Possession of crack/cocaine w/int to distribute
Possession of crack/cocaine
Possession of cocaine
Possession of marijuana
Possession of cds/paraphernalia (2 counts)

DISPOSITION: Both suspects released to Central Booking CC # 200800016100

Question of the Day, Sat 5/10

Mother's Day is Sunday. As a mother of 2, I'm realizing more everyday that I'm becoming my mother.

What is something your mother did that you swore you would never do as a parent, but now cringe &/or smile that you find yourself doing the very same thing?

The Day I Lost my Innocence

I know this is long but very poignant from a man that was there...

Distant Echoes of Vietnam

The Day I Lost My Innocence

By William P. O'Connor with written permission from William P. O'Connor

01/05/08 "Counterpunch" -- -- When I was nineteen I was stationed in a remote Laotian village on the Mekong River. I was an Irish kid from the Bronx, over twelve thousand miles from home. It had been a twenty-two hour plane ride to get, “in country” and another four excruciating hours strapped to a cloth harness in the perimeter of a cargo plane to get to Nakhon Phenom, a town Bob Hope called, “the armpit of the world.” My first day in town seems surreal now. I remember walking up a dirt road and gaping at a yak being prodded by a toothless woman in a sarong.

Sadly, I remember even more clearly the nausea in my own well-fed stomach, as I turned a corner and was confronted with throngs of swollen bellies huddled on the side of the road. Attached to the swollen bellies were revoltingly emaciated bodies with twig like arms extended for food. The voices belonging to the bellies wanted money: money to buy food, money to make the pain of hunger go away.

I had some money, not enough for their needs, not all of them. “Do I give all I have?” I thought, “How else could I claim to be human? But what about tomorrow? There won’t be any fewer of them tomorrow.” I was only nineteen and I had no idea when I signed my enlistment paper a year earlier that this dusty dirt trail in a remote village I had never heard of was where I was destined to have a head-on collision with my humanity. A boy should not have to make a decision like this. I loved my country in a way maybe only an immigrant can. I felt I owed it everything and when my country led me to believe I was needed to stop communist aggression, I was happy to settle my debt.

The heat is heavy in the jungle and like a spoiled overweight child it insists on being carried everywhere. You can’t put it down for a second. The heat wears you out and beats you up and when it goes away after nine tedious arid months, the jungle hands the baton to another thug to finish you off. The thug that grabs the hand off is called monsoon, and he brings with him a never-ending torrent of rain every day and night for three months. Monsoon turns the soil into a gigantic sponge which sops up every drop of water from the jungle canopy and turns the cracked soil into a sea of mud.

Mud was everywhere, not just midst the mangroves, but in the hootches where we slept, in the showers where we washed, on our toothbrushes and shaving gear; mud was in parts of our body almost as remote as the jungle itself. The mud mixed with the dampness and gave it a texture much more permanent and penetrating, like cement.

Not surprisingly, the enlistment brochures didn’t contain any pictures of the mud nor of the seventy thousand American boys who were shipped home inside body bags. Those seventy thousand poor young boys who were once dirty and wet were now clean and dry, clean and dry and dead. They believed that their sacrifice was necessary so that the Vietnamese could be free and make their own choices; to insure this fundamental right of man, they would, in the words of President Kennedy, “pay any price, bear any burden.” The price they paid was the ultimate one.

The men who paid this exorbitant price were swindled, they were not shown U.S. intelligence reports declaring that if there were free elections in Viet Nam, Ho Chi Min and his communist party would have won overwhelmingly, and so there could be no free elections. Instead, the U. S. would install a Christian puppet friendly to our government, Diem. According to then Secretary of Defense McNamara, President Johnson called Diem, “a son of a bitch, but our son of a bitch” (McNamara 141).

The installation of Diem was only one of several deceitful actions taken by the U.S. government during the war. According to President Johnson, the U.S.S. Maddox was fired upon by North Vietnamese forces. This so-called attack in international waters led to the direct and massive build up of American forces in the region. Many years after the Gulf of Tonkin resolution was passed, however, President Johnson said, “Hell, for all I know, we could have been shooting at a bunch of seals out there” (McNamara 141). The young soldiers in the field were not privy to such remarks.

No the generation of young men who fought the Viet Nam war trusted authority. We thought because people in authority are experienced, they usually know best. We were hopeful and idealistic, and the majority of us believed in our country. We were told that freedom has a price and we lived in a country that represented democracy and freedom around the globe. We also believed, as we know now erroneously, that our government was committed to this paradigm. Age has not blessed me with wisdom, but I do know old men make the wars, and I sincerely believe that they feel truth is just a game, a game for children and a game that must be played by young idealistic boys.

Old men make the wars, but they don’t fight the fight. The congressmen that declare war are too important to fight, too important and too busy. They are too busy lobbying, too busy collecting the lucrative pensions they have allocated themselves, and too busy assigning defense contracts to companies that will employ them after their tenure in congress. Combat is for the young, who have mountains of time and for whom the years mean nothing. A young man may feel immortal, but a body bag doesn’t have room for such a delusion. Reality registers quickly in combat and options must be weighed: he cannot desert, for all that’s out there is the enemy and the jungle. If he decides the stockade is preferable to death, he is abandoning his brothers and forfeiting his honor. The young hold both honor and the approval of their peers priceless, so once they get to the battlefield they commence to kill.

The perpetual conundrum of the old men who declare war is how to get the young boys to commit to the battle field. They have solved this conundrum by selling young boys on a counterfeit cause: freedom. War is somehow always about freedom, whether it is insuring it, or making the world safe for it; the men who spin these yarns preach that the only way to insure freedom is to liberate the villages, liberate the towns, and liberate the cities. We did that in Nam. We would send in mortars to soften up a village and then spray it with machine gun fire before occupying it and killing whoever we suspected might be the enemy. After the patrols, some of us would wash away the memories of such philanthropic antics with tumblers of Johnny Walker. We drank at the community lean-to back at the base, a lean-to which was appropriately christened, “Bombs for Peace.” I vividly recall guzzling a pitcher of Manhattans and looking up at the television set to see President Nixon making an urgent address to the nation. His words were clear, emphatic, concise, and complete bullshit. “We are not now, nor have we ever, bombed the country of Laos”(Sheehan 310). So I finished my drink, rolled a nice fat joint, and went outside to smoke it, because it was 8:45 now. The Air Force usually started the napalming of Laos about nine. I didn’t want to miss the show. After all, how many people get to see bombs that don’t exist?

I am old enough now to comb what little hair I have left with my hand, and age has replaced my innocence with cynicism. It has been six years now in Iraq, long past the six weeks or six months that the war makers predicted. The people whose country we have occupied did not have links to Al Qaeda and they were not responsible for blowing up the World Trade Center. We have long since given up finding the weapons that we were told they had. We have forced two million Iraqis to leave their country and have killed, by most accounts, a million more. We have obliterated their bridges, hospitals and schools. We have succeeded in getting four thousand brave Americans killed and we have managed to get seventy thousand more maimed at a cost of what could ultimately be three trillion dollars.

The Iraq War is a national travesty that brings to my mind a distant echo, an echo that reverberated in my brain much too often in Viet Nam. An echo which belonged to a voice heard more than half a century ago in another country in yet another war for freedom. An anonymous young soldier, just arrived in Normandy during WWII, look around him at the devastation wrought by the withdrawing forces and said, “Boy, we liberated the hell out of them.”

References

McNamara, Robert S. In Retrospect. New York: Random House, 1995.
Sheehan, Neil. A Bright Shining Lie. New York: Random House, 1998.

William P. O’Connor enlisted in the Air Force on August 1, 1966. He served in the Vietnam War from August 1969 to August 1970 in Nakhon Phanom in Northern Thailand. William was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1948. He is a former pub owner and retired NYC fire fighter. He may be contacted at williampoconnor@hotmail.com.