Letter From Sarge

There's been some kind of technical trouble for Sarge Charlie publishing comments to my site, so I finally found his letter on my hard drive, and am going to publish it now. The letter, from this Vietnam vet, expresses Sarge's heartfelt feelings about the election as he travels, and about how the world sees GWB. I'm glad I found the letter, and I'll just publish it without comment.

An excerpt from the Empress Bee’s Website:

Remember Charlie's ties? Well here he is all decked out in a brand spanking new one. Sharp, huh? I thought he was the cutest one there in the whole wide country. Yup. That's what I thought. Leave me a little note and tell me what you think...... bee

Let me proudly and humbly submit for your approval the wonderful sites of the handsome Sarge Charlie and his lovely wife—the icons, I believe, of America—for your perusal. Sarge has said that I am his “brother,” and I am humbled by this. This couple is the reason why we in America can hold our heads up high. Look for yourself, at Empress Bee, and Sarge Charlie,



examples of what we all would like to be.

Don’t get too proud of this notoriety, you two. Pride goeth before the fall. I’m sorry if I embarrass you, but I am just a humble servant of God, and I call it as I see it. Thank you for your kind comments, and God bless you.

Charlie's Post

I want you to know as I start this correspondence it is November 27, 2006 and I am about 4 hours from landing in Guadeloupe on our return voyage from Savona, Italy. I will work on this open letter to your blog during the next day or so and post it with you upon arrival in the USA in early December.

On election night I slept restlessly, Fox News was on the TV while I slept. I kept having this nightmare that we were going to have a San Francisco Liberal just two heartbeats from the Presidency of the United States. I fought off the thoughts in my sleep only to awake to the reality that it has happened. Please God, let the secret service be good at their job for the next two years. This nation has survived many things in its short history; maybe it could survive Nancy but I am not so sure.

You haven’t heard much from the old sarge since the election, I would like to say it is because I was in shock about the results on election day but that would be untrue, and not appropriate for publishing on your website. As you will remember I was in strong disagreement with you on what the outcome would be on election day; in all honesty I must admit that was untruthful, just my eternal optimism that America would see the truth as I see it and do the right thing. It did not work out that way.

The results are what they are and I will forever be a patriot, and start working for 2008.

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I must admit some pride in the fact my party accepted the will of the American people and conceded an obvious defeat, unlike the other folks that are still crying about an election that was stolen in 2000.

I must also admit that I am somewhat disappointed that my Commander-in-Chief was so willing to cast an old friend overboard. I will not debate if Rummy should have or have not gone. I will only say that I had more faith in George W. and his character than was displayed in the haste of that removal of a fine man who worked tirelessly in a thankless job, sometimes with less than desired results; but hindsight has always been 20/20. I will say that this is one American that believes a grateful nation owes him thanks for his contribution to the security of our nation.

I will say that I believe George W. should not be having the problems he is having in Iraq today. George the father should have taken care of business in 1991 when he had overwhelming force in place to finish the job. Again, that is hindsight, but the world could have been a different place had we removed the tyrant then. He had the political capital but was not willing to spend it.

My real fear now is that the McGovern wing of the Democratic party will flex its ugly muscle and again show the world the USA has lost its will to fight for what it believes. As a soldier from the Vietnam era, I shudder to think that we will be willing now to abandon the Iraqi people like we did the Vietnamese people so many years ago. Please God, do not let this nation produce another generation of American Soldiers so shamed by their inability to complete their mission. That is my greatest fear and I will tell you I write this with tears because I have felt that shame for over thirty years. It is personal with me and it will be personal with the fine young men we as a nation have committed to battle.

Enough of that, it is too depressing. I do not know if you have ever traveled in Europe, but I am sure you are aware that the world hates Americans and George W. Bush. I would like to give you my insight on that matter. CNN International and The BBC World generate the hate. I arrived in Rome about the time a Military Judge sentenced a Marine to 99 years after he pled guilty to rape and murder. CNN International was the only English language news in my hotel in Rome. For three days they revived and repeated the original six-month-old story, never once saying that the Judge, a member of the American Military, was punishing a Marine for doing wrong; only that a Marine did wrong and pled guilty to avoid the death penalty. I failed to see them revive a story about a Marine who was tortured and had his head cut off about the same time as this incident. They are blame-America-first and George Bush-is-an-SOB. There was only gore and negative news form the network that chose to broadcast an enemy propaganda tape of a sniper shooting an American GI. How do you spell Treason?

Our next hotel had only BBC World for English language news. Just more of the same, only more about George Bush and Tony Blair. If hate is all you hear, hate is what you will know. Where is Maggie Thatcher when we need her? She would know where to stick the BBC.

Well, Mr Rock, Thanks for letting me rant, it is now about 5 am, three hours from port, maybe I can overcome my jet lag and catch a few zzzzzzzzzz. I still hope to wake up and find that it really was a nightmare, but somehow I doubt that.

The Old Sarge

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