20/20 Gonzo 8: The Magnificent Ones

Let's stop this thing down and call up our finest.  The Vets know the score, and what it cost to make our score enough to defeat our enemies.  Those taxing, murderous, dispicable Red Coats, burning down the White House, our own inevitable bloody uncivil quarrel, the European monsters, and never forget the Pearl.  Then there's the jungles of Asia, The Middle East, and the unending tragedy of war, which struck home in late summer of 2001.  War should be more rare, but evil should be more rare too, and it's not.

Before, during, and especially after war, the American ethic of brighter-days-ahead prevails.  We lifted our defeated enemies up from their own deserved ashes, brought them back into the world fold.  Planted seeds of an economic forest, even the oil fields of the Arabian desert were turned to gold by Americans.  While the Kings and Princes of the region seem to be making out fine, little is heard of the Queens and Princesses.  I worry for them.

Perhaps we have not followed through for our own, perhaps our Vets are not welcomed back with that same brighter-days-ahead American ethic we offer our defeated enemies.  The sacrificial one percent, the most disciplined, the heroic, the most distinguished.  Not all who enter make it through, and they've all given up something either way.  Thanks Vets, y'all are the magnificint ones.  And, be patient with the slithering snakes near the Potomac River, we'll let them eat the rats before we clear 'em out.