I earned and wore a Green Beret and have sons doing the same now against a different enemy. There still remains a similar Beltway mindset where strategy is planned by military leaders, then discarded by an administration seemingly bent on the destruction of what we hold dear.

I’m a 70 percent disabled Vietnam veteran and like many suffer migraines, wear hearing aids, groan when rising, and start each day in pain. However, there is no pain as heart-breaking, as the gut-wrenching ache I feel when I see the President of my country and his staff acting like wimps and appeasers to Muslim terrorists. I wonder if they, as kids, handed their lunch money to the bully on the playground for fear of being beaten up.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 9-11 attacks, and five co-conspirators are now going to be tried in New York City. There, Mohammed will use our press as a platform to re-victimize the many survivors and family members of those who died on that now memory-fogged day. He will grandstand, espousing the drama of global jihad, selflessness of martyrdom, and the wondrous leadership of al-Qaida. Sadly, his strategy will succeed due to a sensationalized press corps as dim-witted willing accomplices, instead of questioning and thinking journalists like those ink-stained greats of yesteryear. Defense attorneys will penetrate the veil of secrecy of intelligence agencies. Meanwhile, self-congratulatory politicians will pat themselves on the back for their diversity-enhancement, while helpless Americans will slip deeper into our “National Emotional Depression.”

Many of the American press, no longer proud to be jaw-jutting, tough-minded questioners of ALL of those in the political arena, march in lockstep with the Administration to insure that no news reporter or government official dare suggest that U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan is “a Muslim terrorist.” This, despite the fact that he screamed “Aluya Ahkbar!” opening fire on unarmed soldiers and civilians at Fort Hood killing 13 and wounding 30, after giving away his possessions, and years of proclamations about the glory of Islamic martyrdom.

Those killed and wounded should be awarded Purple Hearts, not treated as assault victims. Those who acted bravely in a hail of withering fire should be awarded valor medals as much as any fighter in Mosul or Kandahar.

Do you know why veterans from WWII are referred to as “The Greatest Generation?” It was the last war where our generals, not politicians, made the strategic decisions and led us to clear-cut victory and an unconditional total surrender of the enemy. We should talk until blue in the face to avoid war, but when we must fight, we must outshoot and out-think the enemy, treat enemy wounded as a medic did to Hasan at Fort Hood, hold prisoners until hostilities end, and vigorously prosecute that war to an unconditional surrender.

Multi-culturism and political-correctness are tearing the fabric and killing the spirit of America. Veterans of all our kinder, gentler wars have paid the price for our bureaucratic feel-good lunacy. We are at war with fanatical, blood-soaked, neck-sawing, jihadist guerilla fighters who kill and torture innocents. They are not part of any national military and thus deserve no benefits of the Geneva Accords or U.S. jurisprudence. The al-Qaida passes out no candy bars to little children. Our fighting men and women do that. We always have, yet Hollywood shows our own heroes as blood-thirsty war-mongers while lionizing an expatriated pedophile film director. Trying terrorists in civil court is cruel and unusual punishment. Not for those accused as per the Constitution, but instead for the victims of those cowardly terror attacks.

If you are angry, fight back. Vote the molasses-talking, resume-padding, back-slapping, deal-making scoundrels out of office and vote patriots in. Attend tea parties, e-mail letters to your editor, write or call your congressmen, and speak out in all venues, “This my country! I’m taking it back!” The true test of greatness lies not in victory but in defeat. We need not succumb to litigating liars, American apologists, and smooth-talking miscreants in national office. We must instead fear our own apathy and inaction in a time of national crisis. That hour is upon us.

For me, my rocking chair shall sit idle while I am off, pen in hand, to fight again in the cause of freedom.

Join me.

—

Don Bendell lives outside Florence, Colorado and is an author of 26 books, including his newest novel, “Detachment Delta.” Bendell has appeared on Fox News Live, and many national radio shows. Email Bendell at ?don@donbendell.com.