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As a former U.S. Army seargent, I completely understand the need to support the work that this great nation's armed services personnel perform often with great risk and peril to thier lives and the lives of those working around them. You, as an individual or a member of a like-minded group, might be anti-military in any regard, but, the absolute fact is that today you are able to enjoy and participate in the the collective freedoms that exist in this republic (emphasis on 'we are not a democrocy' so let's not be ignorant about this anymore) because of the profound sacrifices our armed services have made since the inception of this nation. It is with this understanding that I perform two rituals at every performance. The first ritual is that before the show, I attemp to find at least two veterans and ask them if they would like to be my special guest during the performance and at some point during the show I will introduce them and personally thank them for thier service to our country. The second ritual is that I make the following statement during the show: "I dedicate my performance today now to my father, who at the age of 17 was captured by Chinese military combatants and spent the next 3 1/2 years as a prisoner of war being tortured and starved in a North Korean prisoner of war prison camp before finally being released and returned to the United States of America with both feet broken, broken ribs, broken facial bones resulting from torture, and almost no teeth which fell out due to starvation. My father and all who have served faithfully deserve our gratitude and thanks and I, Da-vo, thank all veterans within the sound of my voice for your service and sacrifice to our country. Freedom requires liberty. Liberty requires sacrifice. Sacrifice requires love. Love requires my soul, my life,my all". Humbly, Da-vo.

I think this is a good work.

If a veteran reads this, thank you. Your comrad, Da-vo.

Fisherman Bob. You made a statement about my blood sugar.

Again for your service, thank you.

Yes, I thank them, too. I also am saddened & shamed when I see their efforts, lives, & limbs wasted on so much, for no gain, whatsoever, like what happened to your father, Da-vo.

I hope he recovered well, & found the meaning I cannot in his sacrifice.

Was E-6 sereved in OP DS/DS OP OIF-1/OP- OIF-2, as well as OP OEF. Been shot,grazed,& the last one did me in outside of Karbala Trashganistan got hit with a 81.MM mortar. Yeah we`ve lost a lot but we have taken waaaaaaayyyy more !! We give`m hell no doubt about 99% we kick their ares`s!! I think anything you do for a vet is groovy! I`m a DAV that`s why I`m alway`s here & just makin music!
HOOAH !!!
Was 11-bang,bang then 18-charlie big bang boom!

I too would like to thank all veterans for their service and sacrifices they have made for this the greatest nation on earth the U.S.A.

Thank you, thank you all. am deeply humbled. God bless each and every one of you personally..........

Wasted...no gain?...I do understand why you think that way but because of men like my father and perhaps someone you know we in America ARE NOT SPEAKING CHINESE.Thank you for your well wish for him and yes he did recover in some ways but in most he did not.

philbymon wrote:Yes, I thank them, too. I also am saddened & shamed when I see their efforts, lives, & limbs wasted on so much, for no gain, whatsoever, like what happened to your father, Da-vo.

I hope he recovered well, & found the meaning I cannot in his sacrifice.

da-vo musicman wrote:Wasted...no gain?...I do understand why you think that way but because of men like my father and perhaps someone you know we in America ARE NOT SPEAKING CHINESE.Thank you for your well wish for him and yes he did recover in some ways but in most he did not

Eh, I disagree. If we had stopped, & I mean TRULY stopped, the North Koreans, we wouldn't be having the threats we're having today from ol' Kimmy-boy. We did not. No gain. China was their ally, true, but if we had defeated the NK's, or even actually worked toward that goal, I doubt that they would have intervened any more than they did.

Hard to say what would have happened either way, in retrospect, but we entered Korea with no real goals to achieve anything but a stand-off, & that's all we accomplished. It's the way we've done everything in "war" since WWII.

Frankly, it often looks to me as if Korea & Viet Nam were merely dress reheasals for "real" war, to test new technologies in war-like scenarios. A hell of a waste of human life & limb, though, in the long run, with no one being the winner & everyone losing ppl. There were some nifty new war machines & technologies, though, on both sides. Zippadee-doo-dah!

Gimme true war with real goals, but please don't give me "pre-emptive strikes" (read "unprovoked attacks") against a "maybe" threat & tell me it's a "just war," when you gain nothing from it - not even the defeat of your enemy. The threats are still out there. The ppl's within the countries we invade are angrier at us than they were before, & justifiably so, since their lot is no better than it was before we struck.

In spite of the Korean war, the Korean threat remains. In spite of our efforts in Viet Nam, the communists rule, & we left in shame, in many ppl's eyes. In spite of our efforts in Iraq, the ppl are, in some ways, worse off than they were before our intervention. Same in Afganistan.

War should be a very last resort against a ppl who have attacked us or our allies. It should be waged against countries with anything necessary that we have in our arsenals to bring an end to the actions that caused the war. It should have reason to begin, with the goal of our enemies' eradication in our sights at all times. Once the goal is achieved, the war should end, & peace processes begin.

We have not engaged in a war since WWII. It has all been "police actions." In a police action, we should be working in unison with other countries to assure world peace against a specific group who perform illegal activities against humanity, such as the current situation with Al Qaida & the Taliban. The goal in a police action should be truly stopping the threat, not playing cat & mouse with them, or allowing them to train in facilities that we have full knowledge of.

We should have joined with other countries to invade certain areas of Pakistan long ago, to remove those training facilities. We have not. There should have been economic sanctions against every country whose citizens participated in 9/11. There were not. We have taught no one to leave us alone, & we have taught no one that to attack us means serious repercussions against their country & its ppl. We have given them no incentive to stop, & they continue to plot & to attack our ppl, knowing that there will be no recourse against their families & countrymen & those with whom they pray. There will be no end to it all until it is ended with true force, not this mamby-pamby cop-on-every-corner sh*t that we have been trying for the last 60+ years. It's pretty obvious that it hasn't worked, so why do we still fo it?

If I were your father, or someone like him who had experienced the things he & others did, I would be a bitter man, indeed. The enemy he fought against still remains, & still threatens, for all his efforts & losses. We did not honor his loss. We did not finish what we started. There are untold others who share his fate, & I weep for them in my heart as I see our gov't continue as if what they do is right. Time & again the threats from our past rise again to threaten us, & time & again we simply try to hold them at bay instead of working to make any real changes.