Nikita Khrushchev "blinked" during the missile crisis in 1962 because Washington could take out Moscow. Today, religiously motivated, nonstate actors such as al-Qaida essentially are undeterrable.
~ Col. Stuart Herrington (USA, Ret)
When you read a piece like Col. Herrington's (HT:HH), you realize how little the average armchair warrior critic of this war knows about what has been happening--and what might yet happen--in the Middle East. Herrington was on the Embassy roof in Saigon during those frantic final moments as the U.S. bowed out of Vietnam and left its citizens to their grim fate. His voice is one of painful experience, an effective last word on the haunting shame of "cutting and running" when the going gets tough.
Herrington thinks such conduct is unworthy of us as a nation. I think he is right.
