I was reading Colonel North’s latest column about the coming defense cuts that will most likely disembowel our military and I thought to myself, “Goodness gracious Colonel North, we need to get with the program.” As an old sailor and an Air Force brat, I am familiar with the ebb and flow of the political consciousness in our country. This is nothing new; it's the 'peace dividend' all over again.

After every conflict, we have sent our young men home (and later women as well) -with the fleeting gratitude of a dove-ish nation. We have shut down bases and cut procurement and development monies in the name of a peace dividend. -Only to be taken unawares and unprepared by the next conflict.

Only eight years after 9/11, the country has lost its stomach for facing down the bullies and murderers that populate the globe and menace our shores. Much like our amnesiac congress, they forget the anger and fear that permeated the social consciousness after the attacks and disavow their cries for retribution. They whine that it costs too much, that it is just too difficult, while our soldiers try to fight on.

Our brave young men and women in uniform stand ready to defend us, only to be deserted on the fields of battle by a people and a government that has no courage to continue the fight to its conclusion. They are once-again dishonored, as their grandfathers were after WWI & WWII. -Because their people and their leaders are too near-sighted to recognize the dangers that still exist and that have already cost us the lives of so many.

Can we expect more from a spineless group that proudly set aside (without prejudice) the charges against the mastermind of the Cole bombing and then had the gall to face the sailor's widows and grieving parents? As a sailor and patriot, I find this last almost more than I can forgive. What will this do to the morale of the much smaller force that must face these dangers after the gutting of our defense budget? -All the while feeling the disdain and contempt of their political leaders.

Will they answer the bell when their wounded country calls them in their hour of greatest need? -When our emboldened enemies laughingly attack again? I think they will. I hope that they will. But we really do not deserve the honor that they do for us.

We should be ashamed that we let it happen.

I am ashamed of what we have come to be; a weak and lost people, swung by every ill wind and without a moral compass. -Shame on us all. -We steal our children's future, dishonor our honored dead, and leave a mission of hope only fractionally done. Why should any partner ever trust us, or our children ever forgive us?