Editorial by Don Bendell

We Are Our Enemy

When I earned my Green Beret in 1967, less than three out of every one hundred who tried was awarded that coveted headgear and the responsibilities that went along with it. When my two youngest sons earned their Green Berets in 2003 and 2004, that 3 out of 100 qualification standard had not been changed. The men of the US Army Special Forces are the most highly-trained soldiers in the world. Each must max the physical training test, have a much higher than average IQ, excellent  credit, have a high language aptitude and speak one other language, besides English, must be airborne-qualified (a paratrooper), and end up trained in a wide variety of skill sets. They are teachers with guns, missionaries, good will ambassadors, and the toughest fighters around. Each 12-man Operational Detachment-Alpha (ODA or A Team) is comprised of two officers and ten non-commissioned officers (sergeants) with each possessing a special skills-set, such as commo, engineer/demo, weapons, and more. Each is cross-trained in at least two skills of other team members.

Growing up, many of us were heavily-influenced by war heroes in film and television, shows like Combat, 12 O-Clock High, Rat Patrol, Black Sheep Squadron, The Lieutenant, and many more. We were also influenced by war heroes in our own families who served in World War II, Korea, or other hostilities. Many, like me, first learned to shoot guns and bows and arrows and handle knives in the Boy Scouts. We attended churches, synagogues, and mosques. We got a lump in our throat when the Star Spangled Banner played, recited the Pledge of Allegiance in school every morning.

Some grew up watching police shows, too numerous to list, wanting to be like those law enforcement officers who laid their life on the line each day to protect their fellow citizens.

Now, one of our major news media, NBC News, does an expose criticizing veterans and active duty military, especially Specops such as Green Berets and Navy SEALs who belong to social media groups that are right-leaning. Demands are made by democratic politicians to censor what groups military members belong to in their free time and ferret out conservatives from the ranks of the military. Several news media and leftist politicians declared one private Special Operations group on a social media site was a right-wing racist hate group because several members disparaged Black Lives Matter. I am sorry, but Black Lives Matter is a liberal left wing group which has taken in millions from celebrities and wealthy leftists and has given little or no money to the black community. Most has filled the coffers of BLM cadre in power and made donations to some left wing candidates.

In many cities across the country, similar demands are being made to defund, or even eliminate, the police.

What happened to lionizing those in our society who are willing to risk their lives for what they believe in, not just risking a night in jail for protesting, but losing their life, their limbs, their eyesight, their health? How did our heroes suddenly become zeroes in the eyes of so many?

The answer is simple. It is partly because of the largest group of prostitutes ever in our nation, the mainstream news media. They care about new subscribers, ratings, advertisers, and one-ups-man-ship, and do not care one whit about journalism, integrity, or balance. Worse yet, most have become the willing whores of politicos and the super-wealthy who want to control who is in charge in America, who has the power, and they are now bent on creating a socialist state where the self-proclaimed elites can prevail. They are chipping away at individual rights, religious liberties, and personal freedoms, and their leader is not President Joe Biden. He is simply one of their puppets.

Who are the biggest whores in this screwing us out of our freedom? Republicans who sit silently by watching this happen, democrats who are simply democrats because daddy told them to be democrats, “the party of the working man” (which ceased to be several decades ago),: and the worst group of all are independents who do not have the cahones to stand up and count for something.

Just a few months have passed and already many of you, who believed getting Trump out of your way would make your life better, are already seeing the stupidity of your blind hatred. You are already learning you have been duped by those in the leftist news media and leftist politics using lies like “systemic racism” and “white privilege” as the two catch-phrases to whip the masses into silent obedience.

How dare any of your disrespect me or my sons, or my Brothers on my right and my left? How dare any of you disrespect the police officers and sheriff deputies and highway patrol officers who risk their lives each day keeping my wife, children, grandchildren, and beloved friends safe from gangs, drug dealers, thugs, scammers, and other criminals?

We can reclaim our liberties, our nation, our sanity, with God’s help, if we first get off our dead butts and get involved, and stop watching life pass us by. Whether we are democrat, republican, or independent, we can save our nation if we join forces and vote in a Republican Senate and House in 2022 and restore our nation’s precious checks and balances system which has worked so well for decades.

In three months, we are starting down the road to become the hacky sack of the world again, and I am sick of being disrespected and ignored. In Special Operations, we say that I “have seen the elephant.” I have paid the price in blood, sweat, and tears to be treated with respect and dignity. I will be. You should be, too. We do not need to be our own worst enemy.

Allowing the Extreme Left, instead of ourselves, to lead our nation is like the Chinese say, “As wise as climbing a tree to catch a fish.”.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Don Bendell, is a 4-time best-selling author with over 3,000,000 copies of his 30 books in print and a Pulitzer prize nomination in 2011, a 100% disabled Green Beret Captain and Vietnam combat veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame, Don has a Masters Degree in Business Leadership from Grand Canyon University, and has 6 grown children and 11 grand-children. He and his social psychologist wife and co-author, Dr. Janet Bendell, own the Strongheart Ranch south of Florence, Colorado named for one of his best-selling westerns. They co-authored a motivational book on the myths of toxic masculinity and it is also a memoir, REAL MEN ARE COWBOYS & Women Love Them, which came out in February, 2020, and was a best-seller in its first week of release, and is available in print or e-book at all the popular places such as Amazon, Nook, Barnes and Noble, even Wal-Mart.