[Uncle Russ]

Well, crayjigr: I cannot claim to be a great anything. I have to confess that I was dead set against the war in Vietnam--even to the extent, at the time, of telling friends of mine they ought to resist the draft and that they were wrong to fight--this after having two non-health related deferments and having my birthday drawn number 361 in the first lottery--so I skated! Don't get me wrong: I was sincere in my belief that the war was wrong. And later, I despised Ronald Reagan. It was only after watching how the cold war played out and realizing that all the anxiety my generation grew up with (I drove around with a survival kit in the trunk of my forty-eight Chevy in High School during the Cuban Missle Crisis) that I came to appreciate what Reagan and his predecessors had done in defeating the Soviet Union without detonating a single nuke. And I came to understand that Vietnam was a small battle in that greater war. And finally, it is hard for the young to separate even a bad war (had Vietnam been that) from a badly planned and executed war (which it was--by the politicians.) Nor can the young easily separate a hypothetically bad war from the valor our troops show doing their duty in any case.

And I argue that, whether it was a correct judgment on President Bush's part to invade Iraq or not, that too is just a single battle in a greater war. And God knows, even if it was bad judgment on his part (which I do not think it was) just look at how many mistakes we have made in other wars.

So I am not a great American by any stretch of the imagination--although I do thank you for the compliment--but merely one who has learned from his past errors committed in youth. It is a lot easier to sit in an easy chair composing an email on what my children and grandchildren need to do!

I can't remember who it was--may have been Eric Severeid of CBS News--who said, when the Soviet Union collapsed, to paraphrase slightly:

After our euphoria is over, I assure you, we will look back on the cold war with deep nostalgia.

I don't think that is the case. I do think it is possible we will have a new cold war with either Russia or China, and I have no doubt that proliferation will lead to one or more nukes being used--that is much more likely now.

But we no longer live under the threat of total annihilation. That is a big step and one which was brought about by none other than the strength of the United States of America--and the people who really were and are deserving of the title: "Great American"--our troops. With their sacrifices, I am hopeful we will be able to free ourselves of the anxiety our younger generations face today.

Russ