An Editorial by Colonel Richard B. Singer

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), under the leadership of Janet Napolitano, recently released a report listing potential threats to domestic security. Among the list of ‘right wing extremists’ that includes pro-life advocates and defenders of free speech and the right to self defense, are military veterans returning from overseas duty. The report states that “returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists” and “military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups….”

Is there any evidence of the 42 million veterans in America having so much trouble reintegrating into society that they are forming terrorist groups? On the other hand, industry and businesses love hiring veterans because of their mission focus, problem solving skills and leadership experience. I find Ms. Napolitano’s report especially telling in that she freely uses the ‘terrorist’ descriptor in referring to U.S. veterans but has vanquished the word from the government lexicon when describing the real terrorists: radical Islamic fundamentalists.

As a still-serving 27 year Army veteran I am extremely offended and insulted by the conclusions published in the DHS report. It has taken America 30 years to make amends for the insults heaped upon returning Vietnam veterans. Now, with a single incompetent blow this Administration has created anew an atmosphere of distrust and enmity between our nation’s defenders and its ruling class of naive and paranoid politicians. I’m often asked why I continue to serve when I could have retired years ago, when we’re fighting a war against an unconventional enemy hell bent on killing every American it possibly can. The answer is a simple one: my fellow soldier.

I have never known nor worked with a more loyal and selfless group of people than my fellow soldiers. From our first day of training we are instilled with the virtues of faith in a higher power, and loyalty to our homeland, our families and each other. Protecting the America we all love and defending it from foreign threats is what we do. We do this freely and without hesitation. In the Army we have a set of values that every soldier is expected to adopt as his own: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. Every action we undertake, both professionally and in our personal lives, must withstand the scrutiny of this list of values.

And this is where I believe Ms. Napolitano and the DHS completely miss the mark in their mistaken notion that returning veterans pose a threat to our domestic tranquility. Nothing could be farther from the truth! These veterans, one and all, were volunteers willing to give their lives in defense of their fellow Americans. This is what Ms. Napolitano doesn’t understand, that veterans live by a set of values that make using our combat skills against American citizens and our government an abhorrent thought.

The reason that the DHS conclusions are so misguided is that their leadership is lacking a set of values that guide their lives and conduct. It’s easy to understand this most recent blunder by the DHS when we realize that they and our Federal Government have expunged the basic virtues and values that have made this nation the bastion of freedom and guardian of individual rights for the rest of the world. Our Founding Fathers formed a government upon the bedrock of that Judeo-Christian set of values called the Ten Commandments. This set of values, given to us by our Creator, has withstood the test of time. In the last 40 years, however, they have been all but vanquished from our government, our courts and our schools.

Observe the chaos that seems to rule at every level of government today. The insidious partisanship, backbiting, lying and corruption that seems to be the norm in every political decision is enough to make us weep and wonder what became of leaders with integrity.

Look at the poor quality of education today in spite of the billions of dollars we keep dumping into our school systems. It’s not a shortage of money, poor teachers or a lack of computers and facilities that causes our education system to struggle every day. It’s the absence of an overarching value system that has created the greatest challenges to our children and to our society. (Remember school prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance?)

The Boy Scouts of America are often mocked as being square, un-cool, or increasingly irrelevant in ‘modern society’ because it requires its membership to recognize the station of God (non-denominational) in all of our lives. The ignored reality is that you don’t see a whole lot of Boy Scouts lined up in Juvenile Court or arrested on street corners for selling drugs. Why is this? The answer is simple; they have a system of values that every Scout is taught and expected to abide by from the day he joins the organization. Those values are summarized in their Scout Law: A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent. Is it any wonder that any boy who’s spent time in the Scouting program generally grows up to be a respectable, productive member of society? I think not.

All tribes, all organizations, all nations, societies and cultures who are ultimately successful have, as their central core of beliefs, a set of virtuous values by which all of their decisions and life choices are made. It seems to me that our government has steadily drifted away from the core value system that has made this country the greatest nation in the history of the planet. If our Congress keeps passing laws that punish success and strip us of our incentives to work hard, if our Supreme Court continues to uphold laws that diminish the value of human life and individual freedoms, if our Administration continues to create policies that foment fear and suspicion among our citizenry while ignoring the real threats that exist outside our borders, then we are a nation doomed to failure. Ours will be a civilization destroyed from within.

The Basuto tribe of South Africa has an ancient proverb: “If a man does away with his traditional way of living and throws away his good customs, he had better first make certain that he has something of value to replace them.” It is apparent to me that Ms. Napolitano and the DHS have published their report with its buffoonish conclusions from a vantage point devoid of knowledge of the origins of our nation and absent any real understanding of the spirit that motivates the American Soldier. The leadership at the DHS is lacking a set of values that otherwise would have led them to the conclusion that we are the safest nation in the world because of the selflessness, integrity and loyalty of its military veterans.

An Editorial by Colonel Richard B. Singer

Similar Posts:

• What’s that Noise?
• Top-Notch Customer Service
• Top Gun?