Homestead mailing list

["Jerry W. Shepperd" <shepperd AT austincc.edu>]

At 05:08 PM 9/6/2006, you wrote:

> >All the best and Semper Fi, Kirk!
>
>  From me, too. I disagreed, and still disagree, with the Iraq
> Invasion but I wish only the best for our people who serve everywhere.

Well said.  Disagreeing with policy is both a right and a privilege, 
maybe even an obligation for living in a free society, but that same 
right and privilege makes it necessary for us to support the men and 
women who bear the standards of our society.  Military personnel must 
know we support them, even when we disagree with policy, lest they be 
reluctant to serve when we think the cause is just and right.

However, when the bullets and shrapnel were tearing up the trees and 
vines (not many of those in Iraq and Afghanistan), I was more 
concerned about whether or not I would survive, than I was about 
whether or not people at home were supporting military involvement in 
Viet Nam.  I'm guessing that is also true of the military men and 
women in Iraq.  A difference, possibly is that for me and the other 
men in Viet Nam was that worrying about policy was for when you were 
behind the lines.  In Iraq, there is no line to get behind.  The 
front is everywhere.

Jerry Shepperd





"Silence is not always golden; sometimes it's yellow."