NO ONE LEFT BEHIND
“This Veterans day, I’d like to discuss one of the many military mottos shared across all branches of service, and one that the Veterans and currently serving hold dear to out hearts… “NO ONE LEFT BEHIND”.
Among those who are currently serving, and those who have served, this is more than “just” a motto. It is a contract, a compact, a sacred trust, not just between us and our commanders, but between one another. This is not just a good ideal, or a goal to be striven for, but a promise between brothers and sisters, an oath of honor that we hold second only to our oaths of enlistment, and even that is a near thing. It is also a promise we make to the families, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, that though their loved ones may sacrifice their limbs and lives in pursuit of their duties, alive or dead, we will go to any lengths, make any sacrifice, risk any danger, to return them to their families.
I’m writing today to remind you all that we have failed to live up to this promise. As we enjoy the long weekend, and visit with family and friends, Bowe Bergdahl has been a prisoner of the Taliban in Afghanistan since June of 2009. You could be forgiven if, with everything else in the news these days, you were unaware of this fact, or had never even heard of Bowe (pronounced “BOW”), because his name is rarely if ever in the news, our Congressmen and women and Senators never bring him up in strictly controlled “town halls”, and though the Commander In Chief will use the Troops as a back-drop for speeches and even umbrella holders for out door news conferences, will call them “my military”, and even personally take credit for the killing of UBL and saying he’s “really good at killing people” via drone strikes, ask yourself when was the last time you recall him even mentioning Bowe, or any plans to rescue him?
Now it would be very easy to blame the President, who makes such boastful claims and takes credit for the risks and staggeringly heroic acts of those he commands and sends into “harm’s way” though he’s never endured even a solitary day in “boot-camp”, or our Representatives in the House and the Senate for their inaction, such a statement wouldn’t be any more true than the POTUS’s claim that if you like your current insurance plan, you can keep it, “period”, because it is we, the citizens whom they claim to represent who have been asleep at the wheel and have been silent when we should have been demanding action!
It is we who have been so busy with our own lives that we are blithely carrying on as though our nation weren’t engaged in a bloody war with a determined enemy that has already proven it will resort to all manner of horrors and “war crimes” to “win”. It is we who leave the phones in Congress silent on this matter, and do not fill their mail boxes and email in-boxes to overflowing with letters demanding to know what they are doing about Bowe’s captivity, and yes, I’m guilty too! Has the media ignored Bowe’s plight? Yes, but where are the letters to the editor and demonstrations outside of the TV stations? Where are the “Million Veteran Marches” calling on the President to either “Bring Bowe back, or send us to get him”? Where are the patriotic musicians writing and singing “Bowe’s Ballad”?
Yeah, it would be very easy to take our “leaders” in D.C. to task over this failure to act, but the truth is, it’s our fault for not demanding their action, and so I’d like to apologize most humbly to the Bergdahl family, because, though I do not know any of them, and never met Bowe myself, I personally let them down, and for this, I am ashamed.
Now we all know that time is a one way street, and we can not change the past, but we can remember it, and change how we will deal with similar things going forward. This being the case, I ask you all to join me from this point forward in calling on our Congressmen and women, our Senators, and especially the Commander In Chief, to BRING BACK BOWE. Hence forth, I intend to contact them and the media about the plight of Bowe Bergdahl, and demand answers from them on what they are doing about it regularly, and demand the media start doing their jobs and reporting on this POW. It only takes a moment to send an email, write a fb post, or make a call, and surely, that is the very least we can do.
So this Veterans Day, I’m calling on all Americans, regardless of ideology, affiliation, or self-identification, to join together in lifting our voices and making the call to action be heard from coast to coast, and demanding that NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND.
Verum Ad Potentia
