Our Enemies and the difference between Oh no and Oh shit.

I think that most of us, when we saw the first plane hit the Tower on September 11th, said OH NO. I'm not sure how many of us said OH SHIT when we saw the second plane hit but I am sure that most of the combat veterans did.

I've often wondered how many Veterans did like I did on September 11th. I volunteered to get back in the fight but was told that I needed a Masters degree to conduct black ops and that I was too old. I won't mention the agency that told me that but I will say that I responded with a comment that said: "I didn't need a Masters when I was flying for you guys in Cambodia.

I know a guy from California who graduated from High School and immediately signed up for helicopter flight school. He was 19 years old when he first started flying in Cambodia and he was one hell of a combat operations pilot. No Masters Degree required. Way to go, Curt.

When the Boston Bombers set off the bomb that caused so much death and destruction during the Boston Marathon, I'm sure there were more of us who said Oh shit than Oh no. As an example of that, I would like to say that the Vietnam veterans here, who heard the thump sound of an enemy mortar going off and then, moments later, heard the impact as it hit their base, understand exactly what I mean.

I think it's a conditioned response that comes with experience. The thump sound surely meant that the shit was going to hit the fan somewhere but the impact on your position meant that the somewhere was where you were standing.   

Even though many Americans had never experienced combat when the September 11th attack took place, I would be willing to bet my bottom dollar that many of them fell into the group that said: Oh shit when the Cult members set off the bomb in Boston. That is another example of the way experience works in learned responses. Most of us knew that terrorists, the ones that belong to The Cult, were behind it all.

At this point, I would like to insert a thought here to help you connect with my thought process about this kind of thing. Americans who were not combat veterans got to see the first plane hit the tower. It was everywhere. There were radio announcements, television coverage and articles all over the net. They may have been a thousand miles away from New York but they managed to experience the visual side of it by watching television and those that did, only have to close their eyes to review that sight. Let's call that a "Visual".

I remember the day the TV people showed Osama Bin Laden reading his declaration of war on the American people. That's a Visual thing too but it's a long way from the visual experience that we had as we watched the planes hit both towers. With that statement, let me introduce a thought process for you to consider. Let's call it "The Invisible".

Before I get into the nuts and bolts of "The Invisible" I would like for some of the new members here, especially the members from the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, to review the last few posts I've made about Vietnam and all of the agencies that were involved in that war. I think that's a good idea because there were so many "behind the scene" things going on that one must look beyond the immediate area they are in and the personal experiences they've had, to even see those Invisible Things. They're out there but you do have to look for them.

I'll wait for more comments before continuing but will again ask you to review some of the posts I've recently made about Vietnam, The Paris Peace Accords, The 1954 Geneva Accords, The War Powers Act and The South East Asia Treaty Organization that we've referred to as SEATO. Take a moment to review and then I'll come back and tie in the facts from back then to "What's Happenin' Now". Pardon the pun.