“No Man Left Behind” is an American adage of chivalry and solidarity that we do not always practice. Young men and women in military service risk their health and careers for the majority of us who never lift a finger in battle—unless it’s to control simulated snipers wielding digitized NA-45s in a computer game like Call of Duty.
Go stand before a mirror. Take a look at your hands; your feet; and your head. If you’re like me, you’re fortunate to have all ten digits and a brain that has never been riddled with trauma. Your body is free from shrapnel. We are very fortunate, while some of our brothers and sisters are not—and they need our help.
When my grandfathers—a Marine and a sailor—came home from World War II they had battle scars. As a little girl, I would sit at their feet and ask them to tell me about the War. But, like most veterans, they kept their pain to themselves. They had experienced tragedies too painful to share with anyone except another veteran.
Yet, my grandfathers were at least treated as heroes. Less than ten—seven to be exact—of all the Americans who fought in the WWII, Korean and Vietnam Wars were ever tried and convicted of a “crime during combat” according to United American Patriots. Alas, for veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, there has been a 2,943% increase in U.S. veterans who have been convicted of war crimes.
Are our troops suddenly 3,000 percent more unethical than those who served in WWII? Of course not. Rather, our media and government have grown more politically correct. As a result, most Americans are unaware of the fact that veterans are being used as pawns in strategy plays to appease foreign governments.
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In WWII-era America, the public understood that the rules of engagement during a war are different from the rules at a high tea. There’s no time for good manners when you have to make a split second-decision on whether or not to fire at the enemy. You may insist that a teapot be passed clockwise around the table because the direction does not have life or death consequences. But, you would be cruel to ask an American soldier in Afghanistan to do something as silly as fire clockwise, rather than to take out the most threatening enemy first.
Our current rules of engagement are as impractical as expecting soldiers to fight terrorists—who practice no rules of decorum—to behave in a minefield in the same way that they would behave while serving tea and crumpets in the parlor.
Men who have witnessed their best buddies slaughtered by vicious brutes will sometimes react in the heat of war, as was the case with the late and heroic Marine Sgt. Rob Richards.
Likewise, men like Lt. Clint Lorance will make split-second decisions in the face of Taliban motorcyclists suspected of carrying grenades. Lt. Lorance is serving a 19-year sentence at Ft. Leavenworth in large part for the “crime” of ordering his American snipers instead of his trigger-happy Afghan snipers to fire at the motorcyclists. Technically, his order violated of a new rule of engagement at the time called “Afghan in the Lead.” But Clint saved innocent lives by ordering his snipers with more experience to fire. So, why is he sitting in prison for doing the right thing? Could it be a way for our government to appease the Afghan government?
You and I have a call of duty to rise to action and support our brothers like Lt. Lorance who are unable to speak for themselves; to unfold our legs from our comfortable meditative pose on our living room floor and log off Call of Duty.
Please come to Freedom Plaza on March 14 in Washington, D.C. and rally with your fellow citizens and the United American Patriots to support soldiers and Marines unjustly charged with war crimes. You’ll have a chance to hear more stories of soldiers left behind—and your show of support will help reform our politically correct culture so that, eventually, no veteran is ever left behind.
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