By Ernest Hancock

When Johnny Comes Marching Home

Eventually the Americans that were convinced that they were defending America when they enlisted in the armed services are going to be coming home. Tens of thousands of troops straight from Iraq would have a great impact on American politics at a crucial time. So I suspect that most will have to endure one more 120 degree summer in the Iraqi desert before they are sent home.

What might that impact be? Well, having left to defend us from those that hate us ‘because we’re free’ and then returning to a country deep in the grip of the PATRIOT Act and the constant fear generation of color coded threat levels might lead them to think that the war was lost before the commencement of Shock & Awe.

Homeland Defense, to anyone paying attention is a very bad joke. Even as a supporter of open borders (read my article, ”Immigration is bad because…”) I would expect at least a passable pretense at defending the borders. But with over 12,000 miles of coastline and land borders the cost would be staggering… and no oil, or new pipelines, or new military bases, or development/construction contracts or the creation of a global hatred for all things American to justify an ever increasing government to motivate the attempt.

I think military service is a rewarding and noble endeavor for young people. I am certain that each of my 4 teenagers would benefit from the experience. But I DO NOT TRUST those that would send them to kill and die for reasons important to them and not important to those asked to kill and die. It’ll likely be after the November elections before we have a mature understanding of what has really been going on in the Middle East. It may take a few years and a self produced film done on $4000 worth of computer equipment by a 24 year old computer savvy ex-soldier with a burning desire to tell his story. But sooner or later we’ll understand what was happening where the bullets were meeting the flesh. And then there will come the documentaries on the background of all of the characters involved from around the world and how bloody their hands were before the American taxpayers were entangled in their webs of deceit and death.

Do we really have to wait for these events to know what is happening?

Asking, “Why” someone would strap on explosives and go on a suicide mission, will bring out criticisms of ‘defending terrorists’ instead of a desire to know why. I have to ask, “why is this”? Are we so programmed by the talking heads on television that we believe that an illiterate 14 year old even knows what freedom is, much less hates us for having it. And who is really convincing these young men to kill while dying in the effort,… and why?

We need to calmly step back for just a moment and make a determination as to whom and what benefits from all of this hate, death and destruction. I knew our going to Iraq wouldn’t make us safer or happier or more prosperous… and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if most of the politicians knew it too. But someone and/or something benefits from all of the hate and death and destruction. Billions and billions of dollars can be very motivating. Couple that with electronic voting and you have a very dangerous combination allied against the American taxpayer. One thing I do know for certain. Come this November, the government will win and the American people will lose. They’ll lose more liberty, more money, more lives, more security and more of their faith in a government that was created to secure their life, liberty and property.

The more capable and valiant the soldiers are the greater the waste when their efforts are answered by our government with greater restrictions on the freedoms that so many have killed and died to protect.

So I look forward to the front line soldiers coming home, we’re going to need all the truth and help we can get in the battle for freedom right here at home.

Ernest Hancock can be heard weeknights on KFNX 1100am's "Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock" from 6 to 8 p.m. Ernest can be reached at 602-717-5900, http://ernesthancock.com and ernesthancock@cox.net.