by James Glaser
December 24, 2002

This Christmas season America is in a war with terrorism and we are about to be in a war with Iraq. The war with Iraq is really an extension of the Gulf War, as we have been bombing that country for the last eleven years.

Our war with terrorism has moved thousands of troops to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgystan, and Uzbekistan. We also have moved troops into the Philippines, Columbia, Bolivia, some places in Africa and tens of thousands of troops around Iraq.

This is on top of the over hundred thousand troops we have stationed in over a hundred other countries around the globe. It takes a lot of troops to man an Empire.

I can remember back to my Christmas Eve in a battle zone, but not fondly. I was at Signal Hill above LZ Stud, west of the Rock Pile, east of Ka Sahn just south of the DMZ in Vietnam. We ate C-Rations and sat in a bunker. If there was a truce we didn't know it because artillery rounds were heard in the distance and there was small arms fire down by the LZ.

We talked about what our families would be doing that night and wondered if we would ever get to do that with them again. Some of us never did.

It isn't just the hundred and some thousand troops that will be sad tonight with loved ones so far away. You have to think about all the parents, wives, husbands, children and siblings of those troops that are wondering just what that loved one is doing on this Christmas Eve.

We have a President in the White House surrounded by a group of advisors that have no idea of the worry and problems all of those families will have this Christmas, because almost to a man this Administration has no experience in any aspect of warfare. These men and women in Washington that have sent out our young sons and daughters off to distant lands, don't have to worry about their children because they will keep them home where they are safe.

Those in charge of our war this year will be having a warm and meaningful family get together this Christmas Eve, while tens of thousands of our troops will be on guard, maybe sleeping in a tent or under the stars. Those in Afghanistan will be thinking about the soldier that was killed the day before yesterday and wondering if their "number" is coming up.

Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men is a refrain heard all over America this time of year, if only we would believe in those words and had leaders looking for a way to find peace instead of looking for a "material breech" so we can attack another country and kill women and children.

Oh our leaders will say that is not the plan, it never is, but in every war that is what we do.