I haven't watched the CBS news show 60 Minutes in more than a dozen years, ever since the 1995 airing of a celebratory retrospective on the 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon to the communists.

In that segment Morley Safer, Ed Bradley and others crowed about their efforts to undermine the US military in Vietnam. Naturally they avoided any meaningful mention of the resultant slaughter of millions of Southeast Asians after the efforts of communist propagandists in the American media and Congress led to the US abandonment of our ally in 1973, and the communists' victory over South Vietnam in 1975.

But I decided to watch the show Sunday night after I saw a promo for a Leslie Stahl interview with France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy's complete turnabout from the positions taken by his predecessors, and the prospects for a new and stronger alliance with our historic friends is of interest to me, as was the reason why he abruptly terminated his interview with Stahl.

But long before the show aired the Stahl-Sarkozy interview, viewers were subjected to one of the worst pieces of anti-American propaganda I have seen since the Vietnam days, or at least since Harry Reid, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, John Murtha and dozens of their cohorts last spoke on the floor of Congress.

In that segment, Scott Pelley went to Afghanistan to 'investigate' a report that nine civilians in a remote Taliban-controlled village had been killed in an air strike by US forces earlier this year. After watching it any reasonably intelligent viewer would have to conclude that Pelley is continuing the network's longstanding anti-American attacks.

The story was based on a US air strike against a house that was owned by a local Taliban leader and used as a safe house for terrorists in the area. A rocket was shot from the village toward a nearby military installation, and a mortar attack followed by an air strike was ordered in response. Pelley noted that the rocket didn't hit anyone, which apparently means our side is supposed to wait until the terrorists develop better aim and kill coalition troops before we respond.

The military said two men armed with AK-47 assault weapons were observed entering the house before the bomb was dropped.

Pelley rode to the village under the watchful eye of private security forces - oh, I'm sorry, let me rephrase that. They apparently were pro-government forces so he labelled them "paid mercenaries," which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the segment.

At the village he was shown what was purported to be nine graves, not in the village cemetery, but out in a corn field. No bodies, no pictures, no nothing except a highly suspect graveyard, and the ruins of one house.

Does Muslim law address the concept of desecrating a cemetery - say by using it to falsely portray an incident for propaganda purposes? Is this why these 'graves' were out in a cornfield, instead of the village burial ground where modern day Afghans can properly honor their ancestors?

Then we get a cute Afghan boy, often on the verge of smiling, sitting at his fierce-looking uncle's side relating how he lost his entire family. This was supplemented with interviews with several military-age men from the village - remember, it is a Taliban controlled village and we are talking about an attack on the Taliban leader's house. These men complained that the US policy of dropping bombs on Taliban sanctuaries makes us worse than the Russians who slaughtered more than a million civilians when they occupied the country in the 80s.

There were a number of issues that Pelley missed in his report. He showed the house but didn't question what happened to the two terrorists who were seen entering it before the bomb was dropped. Was there a tunnel that gave them a hidden means of egress?

Were their bodies included in the remains found after the dust settled? What about the Taliban leader? If he wasn't in the house, and this was his village, where is he now? If Pelley could go all that way to interview bystanders who quite likely were members of the Taliban themselves, why didn't he try to get an interview with the head terrorist?

Why didn't he make some kind of effort to verify the claims of the village men, and at least try to find out whether they were sympathetic to, or members of, the Taliban? Well, maybe he is just incompetent, or maybe that doesn't fit in with a very transparent agenda.

After watching this segment we have to question whether Pelley is one of those "citizen of the world" journalists who just happen to reside in America, and wouldn't warn our troops of an impending ambush.

The upshot of this story is that Americans are supposed to stop dropping bombs on enemy houses, which might cause civilian casualties because the Taliban are using them as shields. Instead, at the insistence of Afghan president Hamid Karzai, we are supposed to return to sending ground troops in, exposing our soldiers to court martial if they make split-second decisions in the heat of combat.

The guys who drop the bombs or fire artillery pieces aren't subjected to the same restrictions that hamstring our infantry because they aren't right on the scene. So it appears from here that Pelley and 60 Minutes are actually trying to again put our forces in harms way, either from terrorists or military lawyers.

Maybe I'll commission a poll asking people to watch the segment and vote on whether Pelley is an incompetent journalist or a transparent propagandist.

On the Stahl-Sarkozy interview, we got another look at the 60 Minutes anti-American agenda. After showing file footage on Sarkozy's rise to the French presidency - his Dad was a Hungarian immigrant, and nearly 100 of Sarkozy's Jewish forebears were murdered by the Nazi's in WWII - Stahl got down to the real reason for the interview.

First, they ambushed him by running the microphones and cameras when he was just settling in and getting prepped by makeup people. Sarkozy obviously did not want to do the interview and called his press secretary an imbecile (in French) for scheduling it before the interview started.

Stahl used that statement to bolster claim that Sarkozy has a temper. Then, she dumped on him about his recent divorce, noting that he and his now ex-wife had separated two years ago, but were reunited during his run for the presidency. France's first lady had missed some important functions, which is fair game I guess, especially for the French press.

But then Stahl headed right for the bottom of the journalism gutter, asking Sarkozy about his ex-wife's infidelity. As she stabbed him right straight in the heart, the monitor showed the two-year-old cover of a supermarket tabloid, featuring a paparazzi photo of the former Mrs. Sarkozy with her former lover.

Talk about the worst side of the media. Stahl showed in that one segment why she has no right to hold herself up as a model for the journalism profession, unless she is modeling yellow journalism.

At this point Sarkozy abruptly ended the interview. I don't blame him. Stahl could have handled his divorce with dignity and aplomb, but chose instead to go low.

So much for the betterment of Franco-American relations. Considering the show in its entirety, I'd have to question whether that was the intent all along.

Leslie Stahl showed all that is base, crass, mean and unsophisticated in her version of American journalism. No wonder so many French people are disdainful of the US, if she is the face of America.

By the way, I agree with Sarkozy about his press secretary being an imbecile for setting up an interview with 60 Minutes. Sarkozy would at least have had a fair and dignified session if he talked with Brit Hume, Chris Wallace, Neil Cavuto or John Gibson over at FOX.

Maybe next time.

Shhh. Did you hear that?

Neither did I. The news is not reporting anything out of Iraq this week because there is plenty of good news and it is hard to find bad news, so why give the American public anything to rejoice about?

There were some anti-war protests around the country, with the usual over-inflated numbers and hate-America rhetoric. That got a lot of coverage, even on the Internet where my service provider, Comcast, trumpeted the anti-war protests on its home page headline service, but not a word of military successes. Looks like its time to switch providers.

GET OUT NOW! Yeah, right. Hey guys, you may want to check with the Commandant of the Marine Corps before you get all excited next time. He already said it's time to get out because the Marines are getting bored in Anbar province.

That area, the hottest spot in Iraq only a year ago, where terrorists infiltrated from Syria with impunity and even got help from the locals, has been pacified for months now. Also, since Israel dumped some bombs on a Syrian nuke facility earlier this month, that often overlooked front in the War On Terror also got the message that the line has been crossed and all that is waiting for them is fiery death.

Meanwhile, back in Iraq, the Sunni tribal chiefs figured out that Al Qaeda was no good as an ally, the Shiite tribal chiefs have come to the same conclusion, they switched sides, helped put a stopper on terrorist infiltration, and it looks like the Marines will be heading off to another hot spot ere long. That's what Marines do for those of you who never served your country.

We are America's shock troops, proud of that distinction, not some motley collection of woebegone waifs thrust onto the front lines of international business manipulation as the media likes to portray us.

As usual, the Marine Corps has done a stellar job in Iraq, especially so once the gloves were taken off and they were allowed to apply superior firepower, fighting spirit, and combined action tactics designed to bring the civilian populace to our side, all at once.

But why give that any ink? Why give up Bush Lied People Died when it had such a devastating effect on American foreign policy and domestic politics? What, it didn't? Never mind.

How many articles did you see that there were no American military deaths in Iraq last week? That doesn't mean the war is over or that there won't be more, but it sure is a major sign of progress.

Told you I did. Trust the troops I said.

So the president gave the order to take the gloves off, upped the number of combat troops in Iraq, put Gen. David Petraeus in charge overall, and within four months of the jumping off date we have major accomplishments to reveal. And the mainstream media abetted by the left-wing blogosphere is silent, or off on another fantasy junket.

By the way, four months after the D-Day invasion of Europe starting with the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, our troops were still making only piecemeal progress, had barely broken out of the hedgerow - Bocage - country in northwestern France and had suffered more than 100,000 casualties. Just though you should know in case you are in one of those left-wing induced fantasy-land delusions.

One of those fantasies was described by left-winger Juan Williams on Fox News Sunday today when he decried what he said was an attempt by the administration to sneak an $80 million expenditure past Congress in a defense appropriations bill. The $80 million is to be used to retrofit B-2 Stealth bombers to carry 15-ton bunker buster bombs, ostensibly to be used in case of war with Iran over its nuclear ambitions.

Iran's leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known in these pages as Green Bean Almondine, has threatened to wipe Israel off the map, which apparently is OK by left-wing Nazis across the globe, who seem to be pushing the concept that Hitler and his minions didn't get the job done. It is mystifying to say the least, that so many Jewish Americans are Democrats when their own party is calling for the annihilation of the Jewish state, which is the inevitable result of the positions they are pushing.

Once Israel is gone, Europe is next in Green Bean's sights, and within a decade, the United States. Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer says there is no way Bush will leave office with that scenario hanging over his successor's head, and I agree. So we need to prepare, even if we ultimately find a way to get the job done without military action.

How hypocritical can the left be? In 2004 they were blaming Bush for insufficient armor on the Humvees, and claiming that he was slow to correct that deficiency. They conveniently forgot that the flaw in the Humvees was revealed in Somalia in 1993 when US Army Rangers were battling Somali warlords and AK-47 rounds ripped through the Humvees with impunity.

That was early in the Bill Clinton administration, but did he do anything in the next seven years to fix the problem? No he didn't! And the left said nothing. NOTHING! Not a word from the communists, the socialists, Hillary, or even Al Gore. Dead silence over a major flaw in a vital piece of military equipment, until it resurfaced in Iraq in the Bush administration.

So Bush acts in advance to get our people and equipment ahead of the curve and he is portrayed as being sneaky. Tell you what. Speaking as one of those people who, unlike most of the mouths on the left, has actually been on the front lines, I'll take sneaky over political soundbites any day, especially when it concerns troop safety.

Williams was righteously indignant Sunday when he demanded to know why the Bush Administration didn't trumpet its B-2 retrofit plans to the media. Once again, Williams has shown why he is better sitting in a TV studio rather than serving in the military or intelligence services where he would undoubtedly get his own people killed.

I believe it is yet another example of outright treason that we have any information on the B-2 retrofit at all. Whatever we may be doing to prepare our troops and equipment for the eventuality of war with Iran is not something that should be discussed in public. Period.

In World War II, which the left loves to run up the flagpole as the ultimate "Good" war, did the news media discuss Pentagon plans and designs for camouflaging US Navy ships to make it harder for the Germans to torpedo them in the Atlantic? No it didn't!

Why? Because if they did, the Germans would have read the stories too, alerted their U-Boat commanders of the new deceptions, and they would have sunk far more ships and killed many thousands more sailors! The media and Congress knew this so they shut their big, fat mouths.

By mid-1943 when the US was engaged in invading Sicily - another country that never invaded the US by the way - the U-Boat effectiveness had been drastically reduced because we had broken the German radio codes and developed advanced sonar capabilities that enabled our guys to sink dozens of German submarines. You didn't see that in the papers either.

But Juan Williams wants the world to know we are developing weapons and delivery systems that will disable Iran's capabilities to build atom bombs that in the near future could be aimed straight at us. Thanks a lot Juan! Way to go! Has anyone considered investigating him for connections to Iranian terrorists?

Just a thought.

Ann Coulter tossed her long blond locks, uttered

something inane;

And the lap dogs lapped, while the head bobbers bobbed,

and the fawners fawned;

Fred Thompson!? Mike Huckabee?!

"Fred Sawyer and Huckabee Finn?"

They can't be PRESIDENT!

They aren't US! They are THEM, and thereupon

defined the presidential race,

That only the elite qualify, and only Ann Coulter qualifies

To define the elite.

Huckabee? Thompson?

They aren't from HERE, defining HERE as Boston,

or Manhattan

or inside the DC Beltway.

"They are from THERE"

meaning the rest of America,

That place beyond the Hudson, between Jersey City

and Alameda.

"Fred Sawyer and Huckabee Finn" The Coulter intoned,

invoking ancient memories of a long-dead humorist

who never got closer to Coulter than Hartford

but that didn't matter.

"They are HICKS! They have no RIGHT!"

The race will be

Rudy versus Hillary

The Coulter declared.

"We know them,

We understand them. They are US."

And the lap dogs lapped

and the head bobbers bobbed

and the fawners fawned.

"Of course," they purred,

"We are the elite!"

"We know the answers!"

"We know it all, and the

teleprompter tells me so."

They smiled,

shook off the smugness when

the monitor exposed them,

resumed the conversation.

Ann Coulter ran her fingers through her long, long

Blond hair declared the race for the presidency over,

and the lap dogs lapped, while the head bobbers bobbed,

and the fawners fawned.

And Mark Twain rolled over in his grave

muttering that Ann Coulter would do us all a big favor

if she spent less time talking and more time

white washing fences in

Hannibal, Missouri.

Did I mention that a knife-wielding "Peace" protester had to be disarmed by the police? Uh-huh. It happened. Yes it Did! Proves the point we've been making for years now, that these people aren't for peace, they favor POWER but Power for them only. And they'll stab you if you don't agree with them.

An outpouring of support Wednesday for US troops in general, and US Marines in Berkeley, California in particular, marks what we can only hope is the end of the false, but oh-so-often repeated refrain "Vietnam Syndrome."

Members of the pro-terrorist, pro-communist, anarchist, anti-American organization Code Pink have been demonstrating outside the Marine recruiting office in downtown Berkeley for some time. But in recent weeks they have escalated their efforts to include vandalizing the office and interfering with the recruiters. One of their favorite tactics is calling recruiters traitors, as if saying it over and over makes it true.

But Wednesday at high noon, the Ladies of the Righteous Right, including Melanie Morgan, Catherine Moy, and Deborah Johns from the pro-troop organization Move America Forward, along with hundreds of supporters, took to the streets right in front of the Marine recruiting office and shut Code Pink down.

As this photo of Melanie Morgan (on the right in Marine green, holding a T-Shirt) shows, the pinkos were outnumbered, and out-classed. A frustrated knife-wielding Code Pinko even went the assault route, trying to slash an American flag held by a troop supporter, but was thwarted by police.

Using the Big Lie methodology that has been the mainstay of American communists for the past 40 years, Code Pinkos refer to the ongoing War on Terror as "Another Vietnam."

The so-called "Vietnam Syndrome" is used by communists in Congress and the media as a rallying cry to keep the United States from defending itself on the world stage, and as an excuse to run and hide, retreat, surrender, and choose to lose.

But the definition of Vietnam Syndrome has been inaccurate from the outset. It refers to the false claim that the American military lost in Vietnam, which everyone except brain dead, knuckle-dragging, intellectually bankrupt morons knows is not the case. Thus, according to this flawed reasoning, we should never defend ourselves or deploy our military anywhere, anytime.

Just to recap, the United States and its allies won every single major battle in Vietnam, and the South Vietnamese army, using its ground forces backed by our air power, decidedly routed the communist invasion of 1972. Twice, once in 1969 and again in 1972, the communists had been beaten so badly they were discussing the best way to surrender.

But for reasons that have yet to be explained by those responsible, including Ted Kennedy, John Murtha, John Kerry, Jane Fonda, Walter Cronkite, and some current and former broadcasters on the 60 Minutes television show, the US Congress killed all funding, military and humanitarian, for the South Vietnamese, leaving them at the mercy of the communists.

In 1975, three years after their victory over the communists, and long after all US troops had left the country, the South Vietnamese were again invaded by the north, and the US Congress turned its back on our ally refusing to intervene. Tens of thousands of South Vietnamese were killed in the fighting and in concentration camps that the World Terrorist Media and John Kerry refer to as "re-education camps," that the communists established after their victory on April 30, 1975.

Millions were slaughtered in Cambodia and Laos when the bloodthirsty, rampaging communists took those countries too.

Hoping to escape the slaughter, a million South Vietnamese took to the South China Sea where they faced rape and murder by pirates, and death from drowning and sharks. The American Left and its associated traitors were nowhere to be found.

Whenever I see or hear these clowns bringing up Vietnam I want to scream, "Hey Peacenik! Where were you on May 1, 1975?"

"Were you standing in front of the presidential palace in Saigon, protesting the use of armed force to overthrow a legitimate government? Did you protest the concentration camps?

"Did you catch a plane to Phnom Penh to convince the Khmer Rouge communists to end the slaughter of millions of Cambodians?

"Did you hitchhike to Laos? Did you do anything except turn your back, stick your head in the sand and make believe it wasn't happening because it wasn't happening to you?"

These so-called Peaceniks are accomplices to mass murder. They are in our media, our Congress and other branches of government, and they are the core of the 'peace' movement. They are traitors, they are liars, they are hypocrites, and they are as responsible for the mass murder of millions of Southeast Asians as if they had done the deed themselves.

Wednesday in Berkeley, California, as Melanie Morgan likes to point out 'ground zero' for Code Pink and related organizations, the 'peace' movement came to an end. The primary reason these losers can't make a better showing in their international capital is because they don't have a valid cause, and the American public is now educated, informed and aware of what these reprehensible slugs did in the 60s and 70s.

The true Vietnam Syndrome was the abandonment of an ally by traitors and collaborators in Congress. And the saddest part was the absence of any organized counter protests when the communists and their supporters took over the streets of America, without so much as a peep from the WWII generation.

This is no longer the case. The streets are not the sole domain of the communists, pro-terrorists and anarchists. Move American Forward and hundreds of supporters showed that decisively on Wednesday.

And a knife wielding anarchist who tried to slash the American Flag to show his belief in a brave new world order that doesn't include democracy, put the final nail in the coffin of the "Peace" movement. It is and always was fake. It is and always was a front for world-wide communism that today is using Islamo-fascists as Useful Idiots to do the dirty work, much as it used college kids and hippies in the 60s.

Knives, open aggression against our military, escalating terrorist attacks on our citizens overseas, and the direct attack on our mainland on 9-11 have proven the lie that is the 'peace' movement.

It is done. It is over. It is exposed and it is ugly. Wednesday, in Berkeley, California, ground zero for all that is anti-America and anti-democracy, Melanie Morgan and the Ladies of the Righteous Right showed the reality of America, democracy, and the validity of our military.

They did for this generation and this country, what the WWII generation couldn't or wouldn't do for the military in the Vietnam generation. They stood up and they stood tall, exposing and routing America's real enemies.

Say goodbye to the 'peace' movement. Say goodbye to the Vietnam Syndrome. And say Good Riddance.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates went to Russia last week to meet with Russian Strongman, chief muckety-muck, and target of Iranian hit men Vladimir Ras-Putin. They were promptly snubbed.

Vlad has been a bit off his borshch (Russian spelling) lately over President Bush insisting on locating some components of a missile defense system in eastern Europe. Ras-Putin is pulling a major diplomatic snit over it and kept Rice and Gates waiting in a conference room for 40 minutes before he finally showed up for their meeting.

(He said he had to take an emergency call. Uh-huh. Emergencies are dealt with in seconds, minutes at most. After a half-hour it no longer is an emergency. It probably was an intelligence operative in Tehran telling him "Stay home, don't go to Iran.")

Putin, who apparently doesn't like Russia being relegated to the sidelines in international relations, has re-started Cold War era bomber patrols, is threatening to scrap old arms limitations agreements - a farce since Russia never adhered to them anyway - and probably is contemplating freezing Europe out of natural gas supplies this winter if he doesn't get his way.

Bush has repeatedly assured Putin that the radar systems associated with defending Europe against nuclear missiles launched from Iran are not a threat to Russia, but Putin isn't listening. He thinks Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, aka Green Bean Almondine, is a really nice guy, not a psycho nut case who wants to blow up the whole world so he can be in charge in his version of paradise.

Putin may want to rethink his priorities in wake of the revelations that he is being targeted for assassination if he goes to Iran.

In fact, a high-level delegation headed by my un-favorite globalization proponent, Henry Kissinger, is reported to have gone to Russia this past summer to meet with Putin and try to smooth things over. The only report I can find on it so far has Kissinger saying afterward that they had "frank" discussions, which means in diplomatic-speak that Putin told them to go to hell.

I have written in the past that Russia is pulling the strings in places like Iran and Syria, using the Islamo-fascist terrorists to do the dirty work for reemerging communism. Putin has sold anti-aircraft defense systems to Iran, to protect them from our Air Force, while Green Bean's boys are invading Iraq to blow up US troops and Iraqis.

Then Putin gives us the "What, Me Worry?" response when asked about Iranian nuclear ambitions and progress.

Bush knows we need the missile defense system in eastern Europe because he knows we are less than a decade away from Iran having international nuclear capabilities. He also knows that eastern Europe and our allies there are much closer to seeing an Iranian launched mushroom cloud over their countries than we are, since Iran already has mid-range missiles capable of hitting Europe.

Bush can and will act in our defense, regardless of what the communist conspirators, aka Democrats, in Congress say about it. According to the Sunday morning political talk shows, Congressional Democrats will raise whining and mewling to record levels if Bush takes action against Iran.

Kind of like the Ho Chi Minh trail all over again.

Nonetheless, I believe Bush has Congressional Democrats and collaborating Republicans in a corner, since they have descended into a near-minus approval rating with the US public and are seen in some quarters as outright traitors, not just conspirators and sympathizers. I believe he will act forcefully and decisively if he believes we are in danger.

Now, here is the connection between all the above and fly fishing versus angling.

On the news Friday, when the reports were airing about Ras-Putin keeping Rice and Gates waiting on him, they also ran footage of his now infamous Siberian vacation last summer when he was filmed fishing while not wearing a shirt. The world was focused on his torso but I noticed that Ras-Putin was using a rod and reel, and casting, presumably with lures, although he may have been using bait.

Also on Friday, Fox News began running promos for a weekend feature on Vice President Dick Cheney, noting that he is an avid fly fisherman.

Some Internet reports on Kissinger's visit to Russia last summer say it was arranged by Cheney, not Bush. That is why it is important to know that Cheney is a fly-fisherman while Putin is an angler.

To not understand the division between anglers and fly fishermen is to not understand international relations in this context.

Fly fishermen are the next evolution of the human species. You don't have to take my word for this, just ask a fly fisherman. Dry fly fishermen believe in this so totally that they barely deign to speak even to other fly fishermen if they use wet flies.

Angling in that world is seen as a living museum display, kind of like going to Williamsburg, Virginia, or Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts to see how things worked back in Colonial times.

To further illustrate the concepts, an angler - other than the guys on the pro fishing tours - will sit in a boat or on the shore, put a bobber on the line, bait the hook with a worm or shiner, toss it out once and sit back sipping beer for hours on end. Catching something is nice, but not necessary. But woe be to he who interrupts this solitude. Mess with an angler and he will knock you flat, or at least try.

Fly fishermen are different. They stalk fish the way hunters stalk prey. They work streams, lakes, ponds or rivers, and I have even seen them working the Atlantic Ocean, the way golf pros work a fairway. Fly fishermen want to land fish, they want results, and they are so specific about what they do that they even pursue records in categories such as landing the largest saltwater fish on the lightest possible line.

I have fly fished in the past, and will in the future, and I have angled. I like them both at different times, for different reasons. Although I know many people who like both types of fishing, most fishermen I know adhere to one style or the other, not both.

Thus, I see Ras-Putin, an angler, as a straight-up, come right at you kind of guy. He usually doesn't resort to Candy-assed diplomatic insults like making people wait on him. Someone in his palace guard probably suggested that to him, and frankly, it disappointed me that he resorted to that kind of insult. I figured him more for the "frank discussion" type.

Cheney, on the other hand, won't come directly at you, unless you are a lawyer. Fly fishermen don't like street fighting and barroom brawls. They fight differently.

But don't confuse different with anything less. It is just different. Of all the people on the world stage today I doubt there is anyone who is more likely to abhor losing, and less likely to let an opponent win than Cheney.

Ras-Putin has been making a lot of noise in the past year, and it seems to get worse with each passing month. I have put on my amateur psychologist hat in the past and discerned that he is a bit peevish about his country no longer being a dominant world force, and that we should pay some serious attention to him because Russia can still be a dangerous enemy.

But I believe that advice has been taken and Russia is being included in high level matters. It is time for Ras-Putin to pull in his horns a bit here, especially since his new-found 'friends' in Iran want to kill him. You can never, never, trust a psychopath. Eventually, they will grow suspicious of you, even if you have never done anything to them, because their minds are shot.

Seems as though this has happened in Iran.

Another thing. Bush may have been misled when he said he had looked into Ras-Putin's soul and as a result trusts him. But being misled once doesn't make Bush a full-time accomplice.

Ras-Putin should take care to separate leftist assaults on Bush from the real man. He would do well to remember that Bush was a fighter pilot, and if he has forgotten what that means, go to his nearest fighter pilot base on a Thursday night, and stop in the Officer's club for a few pops with the boys. Keep it all off the record and he will soon be reminded of a fighter pilot's character.

And don't buy into all that claptrap about Bush being in the National Guard rather than the full-time Air Force. The training is the same. Time spent on active duty is different, but you don't get to fly fighter jets without the same ability and attitude.

One other thing - don't let Bush's Christianity cause you to misjudge his resolve. Remember, he put Cheney in charge of working things out with Russia.

If you think Bush's killer instinct is missing I can tell you exactly where to find it - sitting behind that big desk in the Vice President's office, tying dry flies, humming America The Beautiful, reviewing intelligence reports on Ras-Putin's weight and body composition, and figuring exactly what type of line he needs to reel him in.

If you're going to San Francisco, especially next Wednesday, be sure to wear your helmet on your hair. OK, I took some liberties there, but so what?

More to the point, "What" you must be asking yourself, "brings me to caution you thus?"

Let's start at the beginning.

There are very few times when you will hear of US Marines needing assistance from the outside world. Generally, the combined arms of the Marine Air/Ground Team can handle the assigned objectives, and if the objective changes, the Marines merely adjust their tactics and continue.

But on occasion something comes along that can't be solved by a well-aimed explosive device, however attractive that solution might seem.

Such is the case at the Berkeley, California, Marine Recruiting office where the whack job, freak show organization Code Pink, has resorted to vandalizing the Corps' recruiting office, in an effort to multiple-handedly deliver a victory to world wide terrorism by discouraging all comers from enlisting.

They are so incredibly intelligent in these efforts. They have renamed the Marine Officer Selection Office the Officer ASSASSINATION Office, and put signs on the outside of the windows stating Recruiters Lie, Children Die.

Be still my beating heart! Such effortless prose! How will the Marines ever offset such cleverness? How can they fight back against the will of the assembled peoples?

Actually, they don't have to. Marines are taught to fight and kill our enemies, but that doesn't extend to the impaired among our population. On the other hand, they should be able to go about their jobs without interference.

Enter Melanie Morgan, and the associated Ladies of the Righteous Right from Move America Forward, www.MoveAmericaForward.com, who are stepping up, as they have been known to do on numerous occasions, to take on Code Pink face to face.

According to a Move America Forward press release, The Code Pinkos are in the Bay Area with no purpose other than "to harass, intimidate and ultimately chase the U.S. military out of the greater San Francisco Bay Area ... "

In response "a patriotic, pro-troop counter demonstration will take place next Wednesday, October 17, 2007 at 12:00 Noon at the U.S. Marine Recruiting Center in Berkeley, California."

Melanie, who is not known for mincing words, says the reason for the counter-rally is because "We're sick and tired of the constant attacks against our military personnel here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we're going to take action to defend the honor and integrity of this nation's military men and women."

Works for me.

The previously annoying presence of the pinkos went over the top last week when protesters took it upon themselves to deface the building and interfere with Marine Corps recruiters doing their jobs.

According to the MAF report, Code Pink advocates are quoted as saying they are "shocked and horrified" that the Marine Corps has a presence in Berkeley and inferring that the Marines prey on children.

Here I must confess, this is not new anti-Marine propaganda. In fact, it comes from the Chinese communists, at least that is what I was told when I was in boot camp. It seems that when the communists ran into Marines, starting in Korea and continuing in Vietnam, they would take horrendous casualties, even if they could temporarily overrun a position, because the Marine battle plan doesn't include an order to "retreat."

So, to take a Marine position, you first have to have overwhelming numbers. But, since we are trained to unleash devastating firepower on our attackers, and will fight with knives if we are out of bullets, and rocks if we have no knives, and everything down to our fingernails if all other forms of ammo are exhausted, attackers have to plan on losing huge numbers just to get a few feet of ground.

In an effort to explain their enormous losses to their bewildered troops, the communists, who now have stooped to recruiting befuddled elderly women to do their fighting for them, started spreading the tales that Marines eat their enemies, and have to kill their own parents to even be considered for recruitment.

Thus, Marines Lie, Children Die, is pretty mild compared to some of the other garbage we have been accused of over the years. Hell, the Germans in WWI started referring to that generation's Marines as Devil Dogs to explain their ferociousness.

In addition to posting mindless nonsense on the recruiting office windows, Code Pink activists have been caught on video calling military recruiters "traitors" and harassing recruiters going about their jobs.

Move America Forward and other patriotic Americans from the Bay Area say they are heading down to the recruiting office not only to defend the integrity of the recruiters, but also "to say THANK YOU to all our brave soldiers who are fighting to protect our freedoms in Iraq and other theatres in the War on Terror."

Melanie will be accompanied by numerous veterans of previous encounters with the fringe element, including Catherine Moy, who co-authored the book American Mourning with Melanie. Catherine has proposed that some of the counter-protesters wear burqas, the head-to-foot sack-like clothing that Taliban terrorists require of all women who live in areas they control - imposing the death penalty on those women who refuse.

But these burqas will be colored pink, as a reminder of what the pinkos are actually advocating.

I have come across a few people in the last year who say we are being counter productive by standing up to the communists and their terrorist puppets in places like Berkeley and Washington DC.

But I remember the atmosphere of 30 years ago, when the communists had total access to the streets and the rest of America stood around wondering why no one ever stood up to them. As a result, Congress took the attitude that if no one objected to the street protests, then apparently everyone agreed with them, and as a result abandoned Southeast Asia, causing the deaths of millions.

This time Congress won't have it so easy. This time they will have to do their jobs in the hallowed halls of government. This time, if an ally is abandoned after our troops have again won all the battles, Congress will not be able to shift the blame to the military and walk away unconcerned and unruffled.

This time, Melanie Morgan and her associates at Move America Forward will be joined by patriots from across the country, to stand up and stand tall for what is right. This time, there will be no doubt about how the majority of Americans see the military.

And just as a reminder, its 11 percent approval rating shows there is no doubt how we already feel about those in Congress who are all to willing to abandon another ally, cause another calamity, and once again look for someone else to blame.

Evangelical Christians and other conservatives are rumbling louder with each passing month that they are not enamored of any Republican presidential candidates and are considering fielding a third party candidate for the 2008 elections.

I would caution my friends who are pressing this endeavor that to do so is to guarantee that Hillary Clinton will be elected president. If she is I seriously doubt the United States as we know it can survive another assault on Democracy from within such as occurred during her husband's tenure.

Forget recapturing the White House and Congress in six to 10 years. There will be nothing left to recapture.

Evidence of this position abounds, but timing-wise nothing could be more compelling than Clinton's decision this weekend to appoint convicted felon and former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger to her campaign staff as an unpaid adviser. Berger, you may remember, was convicted of stealing sensitive (to the Clintons) documents from the National Archives in Washington, stuffing them down his crotch and later destroying some and hiding others.

As part of his sentence, and this really gets me, he is banned from having access to national security issues, documents, or even buildings where national security is a priority, but only until the end of 2008!

Why a thief who specializes in stealing national security documents would EVER be allowed back in any place where national security is an issue is totally beyond me, and the FBI should be investigating why his sentence was couched in those terms.

Berger is just the most recent example of the Clintons' total disdain for Democracy and the American form of government. During his two terms, Bill Clinton gutted the military, sent troops into battle with outdated and insufficient weaponry, including Humvees that were vulnerable to small arms fire, ignored and some would even say encouraged, escalating terrorist attacks against us, defanged the FBI, emasculated the CIA, and enabled the leaking of technological and military secrets to the communists, and thus the terrorists.

Most Americans remember Clinton for disgracing the Oval Office and by extension the the Office of the Presidency by engaging in sexual intercourse with a White House intern while he chatted on the phone with international leaders. But turning the White House into a bordello that was attainable by anyone with enough money was just the superficial evidence of the Clintons' disdain for America.

Allowing the Chinese to attain high technology software that they used to leapfrog their missile guidance systems literally generations ahead of where they would be otherwise, was far more dangerous to our country. Along with missile guidance technology was stealth technology that also is now in Communist hands. This has been shown in the last year by Communist Chinese probes against our ships at sea, and even satellites in outer space.

If you think for a minute that another Clinton presidency, in which the central figure is a leader of the "I am a citizen of the world who just happens to reside in the US," pro-communist minions, would not revert right back to the model established by her husband, you aren't paying attention.

The Dems are moving heaven and earth to try to appeal to mainstream American voters, as evidenced by the entire top of the Democratic field shifting its position on the War in Iraq in recent weeks, from Pull Out Now, to Stay The Course.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appearing on Fox News Sunday this weekend, even tried to portray herself as a devout Christian who regularly prays. When asked if she prays for President Bush she said she does, and that she regularly prays he will change his policies.

Which just goes to show you that you can't fool God, and he obviously doesn't like Democrats.

But the word from the evangelists and founders of the American Conservative movement is that they would rather field a third-party candidate, which would split the Republican vote and enable a Clinton victory, than endorse any of the current Republican contenders for the White House.

Conservative leader Richard Viguerie appearing on the Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan show today on KSFO radio in San Francisco, said "I am prepared to have a Democrat in the White House rather than a liberal Republican."

In May 2006, Viguerie made a similar comment regarding conservatives' maintaining a majority in Congress, "There is a growing feeling among conservatives that the only way to cure the problem is for Republicans to lose the Congressional elections this fall," which came true, and for which America has been suffering ever since.

Viguerie returned to that theme in his conversation with Melanie Morgan today, saying it would be worth all that occurs in a Democratic presidency, which I see as the total destruction of the American democracy, to regain the White House and Congress in six to 10 years.

That may have been a viable position, albeit somewhat self-destructive, in the 60s or 70s, but we are in a war today, against us, on our homeland, where the enemy has highly effective operatives right inside our Congress, our media, our State Department, the United Nations, and within our intelligence structure. There is not enough time this time to let the pro-communist liberals prove once again that they are NOT patriots and they ARE anti-American.

I totally agree that Viguerie was right on the money during the Mark Foley scandal when he said, "This isn't an isolated situation. It is only the most recent example of Republican House leaders doing whatever it takes to hold onto power. If it means spending billions of taxpayers' dollars on questionable projects, they'll do it. If it means covering up the most despicable actions of a colleague, they'll do it."

I was outraged by the Foley scandal, equally as I am outraged by other scandals that crop up regularly in Congress. I am similarly outraged by the inaction by other Republicans in Congress who let these situations continue on until they are unearthed by the media.

But that does NOT mean I want our country dismantled to show a lesson to the Republican leadership.

We need to take the White House and take back the Congress. Politics is the art of compromise not dominance.

The problem that all the candidates have today is that the turnout for most elections is the neighborhood of 50 percent of eligible voters, which allows splinter groups like ultra-left, anti-military, pro-terrorist organizations to wield far more power than they really have. Our candidates should be concentrating on getting a huge chunk of that non-involved 50 percent back to the polls, voting Republican.

Standing up for true Republican principles is the key to winning next year's election, not withholding votes, or splintering the party.

I realize that much of what has happened in DC is contrary to my personal beliefs as well as my political positions. I have written about this regularly.

But I also was raised a Christian, and what I remember Christ teaching was "Turn the other cheek" not "Cut off your nose to spite your face."

I believe the answer to our political dilemma lies somewhere between those two positions, not a total reliance on one or the other.

By now it shouldn't be any surprise to anyone that the totally fabricated issue of Rush Limbaugh's remarks about "phony soldiers" has become 'fact' in the American Terrorist Media, meaning CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and all the other lemming print and electronic media.

The comment was made when Limbaugh was conversing about posers and embellishers, in other words, phony soldiers.

However, the leftards claim Limbaugh said that anyone who was serving in the military but opposed the war was a phony soldier. That is a lie.

To keep repeating it when faced with overwhelming evidence that he did not say it, is propaganda, specifically the type developed by Nazi and communist propaganda machines. In the world of propaganda this is called the BIG LIE.

There is much to learn here. First, just how many whores there are in the American Terrorist Media, also called the mainstream media.

Every single announcer and reporter, producer or editor, print or electronic, man or woman, who has repeated this lie, and knows they are lying when they repeat it, as they all do, is prostituting themselves. They are taking pay to perform an illegal and immoral act, which means the mainstream media is the most extensive and powerful house of prostitution ever assembled in the history of man.

There are some good looking female prostitutes on some of the broadcast and cable stations, which by the way, are the only prostitutes I would bother to look at - objectively of course. And there are some pretty ugly male prostitutes, literally across the board, who probably couldn't pay to have sex in their own right even if it was closing time at the scuzziest dive in the worst red light district in the world.

Which is why they take money to let left-wing power brokers have intercourse with them, because it is the only way either of them will ever have sex.

Not only is the media a breeding ground for sexually transmitted diseases, this extends to Washington, D.C., too, which everyone already knows and comes as no surprise to the voters, 90 percent of whom would pay to see Congress purged of these syphilitic wrecks. But there is an issue to deal with here, in that prostitution is illegal everywhere in the country, except in Nevada.

Thus the only legal whore in D.C., is Nevada senator Harry Reid. All the rest are illegal whores and it obvious that the federal cops and D.C. cops are looking the other way instead of enforcing the nation's laws.

It obviously is time that a latter-day Carrie A. Nation gets down there immediately and cleans house. Afterwords, we can all have a drink to the emergence of a New Nation.

On a related matter, it also is the worst kind of whore mongering to be running Rush Limbaugh down for something he didn't say when so many of the very people who are shooting their mouths off, did disparage our troops.

My Marine brother Jim Bancroft, who has been a consistent figure at pro-troop rallies and vigils including the Gathering of Eagles in D.C., has sent me a list of websites where you can read the comments by some of the lowest, cheapest, dirtiest, most diseased of all the troop bashers. The list was compiled by one of his friends at Free Republic, you can see it here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1906838/posts?page=2#2.

I am posting the list in its entirety, although I am sure there are more extensive lists out there. But this one will suffice to show just how hypocritical this issue is, and why the morons and single-digit IQ advisers who are pushing this issue don't realize it is just one more nail in the coffin of America's tolerance for the left.

Thanks to Jim, here it is. Feel free to cut and paste and check out these sites for the unending words of wisdom from the American Left.

Senator John Kerry flips the bird at Washington war vets
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1901986/posts

Wesley Clark Implies Troops 'Bust Down' Doors And 'Rough Up' Women
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1899390/posts
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2007/10/03/fnc-shows-democrats-criticizing-troops-who-said-not-rush-limbaugh

What about that hack with glasses who was on Law & Order who called the troops dumb kids who know less about Iraq than he b/c he reads 10 newspapers a day?
http://www.newsbusters.org/node/4503

They take their money and cues from these people
Disgraceful Anti-Military Blog at Daily Kos: Armed Forces Creating Serial Killers
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2007/07/23/disgraceful-anti-military-blog-daily-kos-armed-forces-creating-serial

Rosie Makes up Facts and Smears Volunteer Soldiers
http://newsbusters.org/node/12441

Hundreds of anti-war liberals at Seattle Central Community College surrounded a pair of recruiters and hurled insults and objects at them until security had to escort the two of them off of campus.
http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/cherry/08312007.htm

Anti-war rally in Portland. The moonbats, who claim to "oppose the war but support the troops," burned an American soldier in effigy
http://dogsnot.net/wp/?p=181
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2DtGcw_VMc

http://www.zombietime.com/hall_of_shame/

Oakland airport? San Fran?

Speak about supporting the troops: 19% of Democrats Say World Would Be Better Off With US Defeat In Iraq; Another 20% Aren’t Sure
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1906698/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1771241/posts

Shumer: the violence in Anbar has gone down despite the surge, not because of the surge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1892417/posts

King A-Hole Troop Basher Murtha
Jack Murtha says: United States soldiers are liars!
http://www.redstate.com/stories/congress/murtha_becomes_his_antithesis
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1892417/posts
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/02/14/murtha-and-the-democrats-a-new-low/
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1638175/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1777133/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1862909/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1880846/posts

Democrats Attack Pro-Troop Group!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1889705/posts
WaPo math: Troops=mercenaries
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/006804.htm
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/214091.php
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1777567/posts
http://stoptheaclu.com/archives/2007/02/01/arkin-digging-the-hole-deeperand-deeper/

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2006/11/unwelcome_in_am.html#more
http://www.yankeemom.com/?p=597

William Arkin; "The public has duties, but not to the American military."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1782447/posts
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/006848.htm

troops are dumb
http://newsbusters.org/node/11419

"We've killed over 400,000 of their citizens."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1889618/posts

Air America host and "Saturday Night Live" alum A. Whitney Brown
vlogged about our "idiot" murderous troops who are "crapping in
their pants" in Iraq and the Republican zombie-drones who
"support" them.
celebtards
I think they're a bunch of idiots. I also think they're morally
retarded.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/lynn-davidson/2007/07/24/more-daily-kos-bile-celeb-resents-supporting-coward-morally-retarded

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1869588/posts

Death to America at the University of Toledo.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/007130.htm

Code Pink Calls Our Soldiers 'The Terrorists' in Front of Walter Reed - D.C. Chapter Video Report
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1821195/posts

Edwards Unusual Way to Celebrate Veteran's Day
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1844881/posts

Rosie Anti-war Bedfellow Matthews Can Do Without
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1838799/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1841140/posts

National Guard Iraq Veteran Beaten, Tasered Three Times For Crime of Giving Lip To A Fat Cop
Support the troops
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/226912.php

Before "Betrayus" there was: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "incompetent" during an interview Tuesday with a group of liberal bloggers, a comment that was never reported."
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0607/4490.html

Professor Ward Churchill Caught On Tape Advocating Terrorism vs Fellow Americans!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1872261/posts

Deranged Moonbat Shoots Airman on Fourth of July

College Democrats and SDS say 'f-ck the troops'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm22huot3BI

Joel Stein makes a rather bizarre argument in his L.A. Times column today entitled "Warriors And Wusses": If you oppose the war, you shouldn’t support the troops fighting it.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2006/01/dont_support_the_troops/

http://gaypatriot.net/2006/06/10/do-democrats-really-support-the-troops
Rangel Continues To Insult The Troops
http://bluecrabboulevard.com/2006/11/26/rangel-continues-to-insult-the-troops/

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/009845.php

Amendment II US Constitution
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

When the full might of the American military is unleashed, you can bet the farm on a positive outcome for America. That is not false pride or overt patriotism speaking, that is a simple fact, and the rest of the world knows it as well as we do.

The only reason we are in a war with terrorists and listening to a bunch of crap from resurgent communists in Russia, Cuba, China and South America is because communist collaborators and infiltrators wormed their way into Congress, the White House and the media between the 30s and the 70s. Together they forced a withdrawal from Vietnam when the war was won, and refused to intercede to stop the slaughter of millions of innocents by the communists after the fall of South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Thus the United States government was and is seen as a bunch of weak kneed, simpering courtiers who will cower at the first sign of trouble.

Until George Bush came along that is.

Now this generation is forced to fight an especially dirty war because of the actions of people like John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin, Jane Fonda, Walter Cronkite, and Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha, back in the 70s. Yet, we are winning, and the world once again is backing off on its efforts to force the US into a corner where it has to negotiate away its leadership position.

The successes of our military are obviously the primary reason for this turnabout. But right alongside the active duty military there is another force in America that gives any potential enemy or invader significant pause - the massed force of our veterans.

Unlike any other country, the United States has tens of millions of trained, experienced veterans, millions of whom are armed with personal weapons in accordance with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

Woe be to any force that ignores the American veteran. We can operate weapons ranging from .38 caliber revolvers to nuclear warheads, and a huge percentage of us are combat experienced.

So how do you nullify this incredibly potent force if you are trying to infiltrate and overpower America from within? One theory is that you disarm the vets.

Which brings me to Rush Limbaugh and my pal Melanie Morgan, conservative radio talk show hostess and co-author of the book American Mourning, who appeared on the Hannity and Colmes show on Fox Monday night to defend Limbaugh from false accusations that he is anti-troop and anti-military. Limbaugh had been discussing wannabes, posers and embellishers on his show last week, terms which are all too familiar to our congresspeople, and he used the term "phony soldiers."

Immediately, the left tried to say he was talking about anyone in the military who disagrees with President Bush, which is so far away from the truth - and I was listening as this conversation was aired - that you have to live in a comic book fantasy land to give it any credence whatsoever.

Naturally these claims come from Congress's biggest gas bags, including Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin, himself a wannabe embellisher, and Harry Reid, who makes a career out of disparaging the military. It is a common tactic for the left to divert attention from their own sneaky, underhanded actions, so this latest is not surprising nor unusual.

As expected, Melanie made a spirited and dead-on accurate defense of this latest attempt to smear a conservative talk-radio host, but even as she defended a man who probably needs no defending, her best line was that the entire conversation was ridiculous.

Here's why. Limbaugh, like every other thinking American was appalled and outspoken in his denunciation of the MoveOn.org ad in the New York Times last month that called Gen. David Petraeus a traitor. The backlash against the ad and its producers has been so overwhelming, and the refusal of so many Democratic cowards in the Congress to denounce it has angered so many Americans that the Choose To Lose faction obviously had to create a diversion.

So they jumped when Limbaugh used the phrase "phony soldiers," referring to a poser who was attempting to garner military honors that he hadn't earned and didn't deserve, one of a long line of such scum who have been exposed through the Stolen Valor Act. The left immediately claimed Limbaugh was talking about all soldiers, especially those who had served or were serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, and their puppets in Congress started demanding that Congress pass a measure denouncing him.

The GOP and a bunch of Democratic senators refused, of course, because Limbaugh did nothing wrong, and calling a commanding general a traitor is a long, long way from calling a dirt bag embellisher a "phony solider."

But the over-the-top effort by a bunch of losers who call themselves Media Matters, a phony 'watchdog' organization that Hillary Clinton says she formed, was so frantic that I started wondering what it was they were hiding. These creeps are like the kid in the third grade who hits the teacher in the back of the head with a spitball and then blames it on the kid who is actually doing his assignment. When you see them flailing around screaming like a stuck pig, you know they are up to no good.

Then it occurred to me that I have received several emails from other veterans over the past week expressing major concern over what they are calling the Veterans Disarmament Act.

The bill, House Resolution 2640, on its face is an effort to tighten gun control regulations, including improving inter-agency reporting of people with mental health issues, in the wake of the mass murders at Virginia Tech last spring. It has already passed the House and was sent to the Senate, and if you are a vet, or support vets, or believe in the right to bear arms, you may want to take a close look at it and determine whether it really is a slight of hand.

Its purpose is to prevent people with mental illnesses from obtaining firearms legally. Note that I said legally, because while I agree that we shouldn't be arming people who can't or won't control themselves, there is no doubt that if someone really wants a firearm, here or anywhere else in the world, they will get one. Add to that the fact that it already is illegal for most people with serious mental disorders to purchase firearms and you have to wonder why there is a need for this bill and just who is pushing it.

That is the issue that has some vets pretty upset. According to the emails sent my way New York Senator Chuckles Schumer is pushing the bill hardest, which automatically sends up red flags in the veteran community. Schumer, according to many vets, is the Most Distrusted Man in America, which is saying something considering how many contenders there are for that title in Congress.

But the emails I have been receiving also say this bill declares Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as one of the forms of mental illness that qualifies for a ban on firearm ownership.

Before you go all screwy on me, I should point out that many forms of PTSD are as mild as jumping upon hearing loud noises after a tour in combat, sleeplessness, irritability, or just not liking crowds. Many of these symptoms, which have only the most tenuous connection to the extreme cases of combat stress that once were called by more accurate terms like "shell shock," and "battle fatigue," are manageable, and diminish greatly with time.

The media would have us believe that all cases of PTSD are severe and involve extreme acts of violence by people who are so stressed out by their combat experiences that they can never live normally again. The truth is that most PTSD, which also is common in professions such as law enforcement, nursing, emegency room doctors, fire fighting, EMTs, ambulance drivers and others who have regular contact with violence, is fairly mild, treatable, and people who suffer from it aren't threats to themselves or others.

I looked up H. R. 2640 on the Internet, and the version I found speaks about people who are institutionalized for mental disorders, without specifying PTSD.

But here is what worries me. First, I don't trust Congress and neither do 90 percent of my fellow Americans according to the latest polls. It wouldn't surprise me in the least that anti-firearms zealots in the House and Senate are again attempting to disarm the people who understand firearms the best through another piece of "feel good" legislation.

But beyond the bill itself is another factor regarding veterans and PTSD. Virtually all of the veterans organizations ranging from the biggies like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Legion, to the special interest groups like the Vietnam Veterans of America and the Iraq Veterans Against the War, are working their tails off to get homecoming veterans labeled as having PTSD.

They say they are doing this to "document" health issues that may not manifest themselves for years or decades, and to get the vets "into the system." But what if vets by the thousands declare they are suffering from PTSD, even in its mildest forms, only to find out much later that they are thus barred from owning firearms?

What if the bill today affects only those with severe mental disabilities, but later is amended to include all vets who are declared as suffering from PTSD? The result would be a severe and totally unfair restriction of the the most basic of constitutional rights imposed on the very people who have actually fought to preserve those rights.

I don't like it. I don't like the worry and concern voiced by my fellow veterans, I don't like the door that is opened, and I don't like the fact that American veterans distrust the US Congress to such a degree that even if their fears here aren't justified, the fact that they have these fears is remarkable itself.

Members of the Senate and President Bush need to take a close look at this bill before it goes one step further and determine whether it is in fact a Veterans Disarmament Bill, or a step in that direction.

If so, it needs to be killed on the spot. It is obvious after the shootings in Virginia Tech that inter-agency reporting needs to be upgraded in the law enforcement arena. But the school shootings that are taking place across America aren't being perpetrated by veterans.

For the most part they are caused by disaffected youth who often needed far more responsible parental involvement in their lives, and far fewer video games. Punishing the veteran community due to the actions of people who aren't veterans, and probably aren't qualified to join the military in the first place, is not right, and is potentially dangerous to our country.

It should end before it starts.

Oh, by the way. I have been examined by Veterans Administration doctors and declared totally free from PTSD in any form, despite my combat experiences. Never had it, never will.

And it is no one's business whether and how many firearms I own.