No Country for me
Greetings from your favorite deplorable. From time to time, I will write an article for the Bulletin when the need arises. I am sure you have been watching what has been going on in Afghanistan and I want to talk about that. But before I do I want to tell you how the U.S. continuous warfare affects you and your family here in the county of Bandera. If you look at enlistment data from the Department of Defense you will find that 47 percent of military enlistment comes from rural America. That’s right, us rural folks make up less than 20 percent of the country’s total population, yet we do almost 50 percent of the fighting and dying for this country. Does that mean we are more patriotic? Does that mean we care more about this country? As I said before I don’t have a crystal ball to gaze into for an answer. I have to rely on facts and what do those facts tell me?
It has been a long time since I attended a Bandera High School graduation. But the last time I did I was amazed at the large number of young men and women that were enlisting in the military. As a former military type, it made me proud that the young men and women of this county where willing to pick up the mantle of freedom and carry it forward and willing to make the ultimate sacrifice if need be. All I can say about you parents out there is that you are doing one hell of a fine job raising your children. Now to my point about Afghanistan, a war that we have been fighting for over 20 years, A war that the Russians tried to fight and win and could not, a war that has been raging in that part of the world since man first climbed down from a tree. I believe we should have left Afghanistan years ago. Why? For freedom to grow and flourish it must be feed by blood, but it must be the blood of the indigenous population American blood will not ignite the burning desire for freedom. Our current government has no concept of this or how to win a war. To them it is a political shell game paid for with the lives of your children. They are more than willing to sacrifice the lives of your sons and daughters for their political gains. After all you are just dumb hillbillies that they let do their dirty work. The current extraction or retrograde plan in Afghanistan is a joke. Having written extraction plans when I was in the military, I can tell you that the current process has violated every ground warfare concept that has ever been written or taught at the Army War College. Why then go down this path. Arrogance, a complete lack of concern for this country or the citizens that fight and die to preserve it. Your current government has failed you; they failed the eleven young Marines and soldiers that just died in Afghanistan, they failed all that have come before that made the ultimate sacrifice, failure is your current governments mantra. That’s all they know how to do. For those that will be left behind, and we will leave Americans and allies behind, I do not have the words to express my disdain for our government (both sides of the isle). As a former military type that fought in two wars and three peace actions, we never left a man behind. That legacy ends now and I am sorry that I have lived to see it.
Finally, as we move forward from this nightmare of incompetence and stupidity, I must believe that you the American citizen will step forward and prevail as you have done so for over 200 hundred years. This is a country of patriots, the greatest place in the history of mankind. I challenge you to pick up the mantle of freedom now. I will see you on the high ground.
Conrad Striegl is the Bandera County GOP Secretary and Bandera County Precinct Chair 102. He resides in Pipe Creek.