[HARDCORE]

The Korean War, a blood bath that set the stage for a different kind of conflagration, saw some 157,554 U.S. Casualties, of which 54,246 American?s died!

Unfortunately, far too many of us have all but forgotten this action that was sandwiched between World War II and Vietnam. The men and women who perished, however, are no less dead, nor were their sacrifices and courage any less magnificent!

As a matter of fact, the same is true of almost every war, as our people who fought, although still respected, have been allocated a back seat in the theatre of history. The causes, the individual heroics, and the names of most, have faded like the winds of time, and all that remains are the future plans of other world-class maniacs to also usurp that which is not theirs to take!

I know not what motivates a human being to rise unknown from birth, and quickly develop an attitude of superiority, but the end result of this agenda is usually the continuing depopulation of Mother Earth.

How many great minds and innovators, poets like Sergeant Joyce Kilmer of World War I, or other burgeoning mentalities, have we lost to the insanity, greed, and power hungry lusts of warfare! Yet many of the fools who envision and create these wars, have gone on to fame and fortune, and this on the back and life?s blood of those whom they so willingly sacrificed to the dogs of war - ?Justice, Where Art Thou??

And what happens when an entire generation of patriotic Americans are pushed aside or cast to the back of our minds and memories? Will we some day remember the Korean War too, as nothing more than a minor police action, or Vietnam and the Gulf Wars as just two other abandoned wars or politically and financially expedient conflicts?

What of the individual stories? Will they too, all be lumped together (as usual) under but a few easily recognized names and biographies? Will the names of men like MacArthur, Truman and Eisenhower, tower above the presence of guys like Private John Smith, Corporals Melvin Morgan and Shorty Estabrook, or even the nurses and doctors who, like those portrayed on MASH, gave their youth, their sanity, and even their lives, to fight in a war that politicians all but gave away?

?And what of the brave souls who wasted away and died in enemy prisoner of war camps - have they too been forgotten, until that is - yet another crop of American youth suffers a like fate??

Yes, there have been many wars in our history, and the countless names of those who fought and died in them, those who are now known but to God Himself, have been lost in the mad shuffle! And yet, when duty called, the brave come forward, and very few, save for the politicos and industrialists profited! And the politicians, of course, regardless of their national identities, seized upon the opportunity to secure their place in the often-faulty pages of history!

?WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN - AND WHEN WILL WE BEGIN TO REALLY APPRECIATE THOSE WHO GAVE US THEIR ALL??

VERITAS