 |
Many principles are promoted as
principles to live by.
Some principles are promoted as principles
so fundamental and important that we should
die defending them. |
|
The importance, relevance, and applicability of any principle is
dependent upon the situation, perceived conditions of that
situation, who is promoting the specific principle,
and what is the primary cause. |
|
When may
America's Highest Principle be subjugated in favor of ends that
serve less decent purposes and less honorable men? |
|
|
What were we doing during the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and recently? Some of us were playing with toys, going to school,
working in our careers, enjoying being with friends, getting
married, raising children, and occupied with our daily lives
living in
relative peace and prosperity. |
|
Each
and every American has known of the
POW & MIA situation
in Southeast Asia. Americans who had sworn to protect
their fellow Americans were in Southeast Asia
from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s, fighting, dying,
and becoming prisoners
of war. Many of
those captured were being held by an enemy that was
treacherous in its handling of American prisoners. We all know
the facts including the tortures, starvation, and inhumane
conditions as told by those who were released from the Hanoi
Hilton and other prison camps in Vietnam,
Cambodia, and Laos. |
|
But what
has become of the possibly several hundreds of
POW & MIA who were
knowingly left behind by politicians, top
level negotiators, and US
presidents? |
|
|
We are each and every one of us
complicit in having knowingly left
the POW & MIA behind
following the close of American participation in the war between
North and South Vietnam. |
|
We -- each American
-- failed to get involved and force politicians,
including our most revered, to ensure that
whatever was required was implemented secretly or overtly to bring
these men home to their and our good old USA. |
|
|
The Highest
Principle is that
relevant principle
which applies most universally at all times when
it is substantive to a specific
situation. This principle may be labeled Christian, humane, decent,
honorable, and wise depending upon who is using
it to persuade whom to implement a specific action. |
|
Politicians from presidents to senators,
individuals from all walks of life, and patriots of varying degrees
of patriotism failed to abide by The
Highest Principle when we
allowed those unfortunate men of the US military to be deserted in
Southeast Asia. |
|
Those men were captured during the
1960s up to the mid-1970s. They were knowingly deserted
by America's leadership and all Americans. They were
knowingly left to rot, to starve, to be tortured, to live in a state
of unimaginable filth and depravity. They were left to live knowing that their
government, that entity that demanded or accepted them as volunteers
to fight consciously decided to abandon them. |
|
America's explicit promise to train
her military and provide for
each fighting man while he fought was implemented with
incomplete effectiveness. America's implicit promise to
do all possible to extricate them if captured was not honored. |
|
|
The Highest Principle has not been
implemented by America's leadership or her people.
It was that principle which
demanded that each individual
honor with all his strength his commitment to those
who
committed to America but were imprisoned and in need of assistance. |
|
Today all
free Americans live free in some
degree thanks to the American
POW & MIAs of Southeast Asia. |
|
The US principle of not paying reward,
tribute, or ransom to have prisoners, hostages, or civilians
returned is a wise over arching principle. However it is not The
Highest Principle. Its use as an excuse to cover
a failed foreign policy is demoralizing to
all decent
Americans. |
|
|
America has failed to
honor her commitment to the POW & MIA. In
their hearts and minds Americans know this
to be true. Americans are demoralized in this knowledge. America's
government failed to use all possible means to
extricate the POW & MIA. This fact
undermines
Americans' trust and
respect for America. It rips apart America's fabric
cutting its metaphorical threads in ways that will prevent her from
being made whole even
decades after the desertion took place. |
|
|
To learn more, read
An Enormous Crime by Bill Hendon & Elizabeth A. Stewart. |