“Do not blame the generals and the men for fighting the wars.

~~

Kings, politicians and rich businessmen start wars, soldiers merely fight in them and die in them.”

General William Childs Westmoreland

~~

Girls are always very curious creatures.

~~

Girls ask:

~~

“Were you in the Army as a boy, Johnnie?”

~~

The Army?

The Army is a place where, some guy who you don’t know and have never heard of, gives you a gun to go out and shoot some other guy who you don’t know and have never heard of:

~~

And:

~~

That other guy you are sent out to shoot, likewise was himself, given a gun by some guy he doesn’t know and has never heard of, to go out and shoot:

~~

YOU.

~~

That’s:

~~

The Army.

~~

A little Mexican girl, whom I love, likely too much, asked me in the night, in my fever, in my sleepless delirium:

“Did you go to the war, daddy darling?

To the Vietnam?”

Did I go to the war?

Me, no–my father was rich–for rich boys–no war.

Rich fathers start wars for poor boys to fight and die in.

Rich men’s sons stay home and go to college and:

~~

Drink and chase girls all day and night.

~~

That was my war, angel:

~~

Drinking and whoring.

The Vietnam was a regular war.

What is common to all regular wars in man’s history?

They end.

Vietnam ended.

My war never ends.

When I said all this to the sweet Mexicana, she said to me that my words were:

“Shameful and offensive to the poor boys who died in the War.”

I said to her:

The truth is offensive to those who died in the war?

The truth is never an offense.

A lie is always an offense.

Do not worry about causing an offense.

Worry instead about causing a lie to live unchallenged.

Perhaps the reason wars do not stop is because nobody speaks the truth about them.

Perhaps wars would stop tomorrow if rich men and their sons were the very first ones sent off to die.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~