One thing I like about this forum is that you can get slammed by both sides at the same time for things you don't say as often as you do for things you do say. I know. I have been jumped for being a "mindless supporter of Bush and the Republicans" in the same day that I have been accused of "disparaging President Bush."

In the old days when I worked in radio, television and print journalism, I considered myself to be doing a fair and accurate job when I got criticized equally by both sides in partisan issues. It meant I had to be doing something right. So it goes with this forum, I guess.

I made no secret whatsoever about my reservations about George W. Bush prior to the election of 2000, but neither did I hide my virulent distaste for the brand of insanity being peddled by Al Gore and the Dumbocans. Bush and Gore were not the only candidates in that race and I had other choices, but, as I said then, preventing Al Gore from destroying a nation we had worked so hard to regain with his silly science, preannounced plans for the abdication of American sovreignty to world bodies and programs for political experimentation with our military and social structure was far too important a goal, to my way of thinking, to vote for anyone other than Bush in that election.

Not a single thing that has happened since then has changed my mind one iota. We dodged an almost certain fatal bulet when Gore was prevented from getting control of this nation as far, as I am concerned.

I am among the 71% of Americans who supported the prpriety of using military force to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. That petty tyro represented a real and present danger to world stability through the financial and logisitical support of Islamic madmen like Abu Nidal and Usama bin Laden and their terror groups. He was a dictator, pure and simple, and he was responsible for the deaths of more Muslims and Arabs worldwide than any other leader in history. He killed millions.

In recent years it has become common to have philosophers and moralists ask, "If you were alive in 1932 and knew what Hitler and the Nazis were going to do to Jews and others and you had the opportunity, would you assassinate him?" I know what my answer would be. He would assume room temperature in a flash, no matter what the cost to me personally.

I think we did the right thing when we bypassed the toothless debating society that has become the United Nations Security Council. Petty demogougery based on transparent and venal self interests by the French, Russians and the Germans made that body superfluous and irrelevant. They made themselves meaningless in the effort to topple Hussein. As for Hans Blix and the "weapons inspectors," I understand they participated in the annual U. N. Easter Egg hunt and were unable to find a single egg.

In short, I think we did the right thing when we went into Iraq and freed their people after more than four decades of escalating madness. Sooner or later, we would have to face the possibility of yet another Al Qaeda assault on our citizens using weapons of mass destruction they obtained from Hussein.

That we did what we did for Iraq's oil is a laughable argument. Were our intent to seize the production and supply of oil, we would have done so in Kuwait in 1991. We didn't then. We aren't motivated by such reasons now either. The naysayers need to find a new cause celebre to spout off about for that dog doesn't hunt in this field. Relaities prove them to be liars or idiots or both.

HOWEVER, there are some things that have bothered me greatly about our conduct of the war on terror in Afghanistan and now in Iraq. They still do.

Why is our military so intent on not doing its job properly? Usama bin Laden has managed to escape our clutches repeatedly because we depend on untrustworthy allies in the Northern Alliance who now run that nation. During the initial phases of that combat, we saw Northern Alliance troops capture Taliban and Al Qaedah fighters only to let them go and give them their weapons back. Now they have to fight those same maniacs all over again, only they now are conducting a war of hidden guerrilla tactics against our troops and the newly formed government there. There is no excuse for that!

The Turks were shameless during the weeks prior to our attack on Hussein's forces, costing us dearly in logistical planning and access. As a result, we once again contracted with indigenous forces - the Kurds in northern Iraq - to provide a much needed "northern front." The problem is that they drug their asses - as is common to such peoples - and did not seal off a portion of the northern encirclement of Baghdad and Iraq. In the first hours of the campaign, we captured two major air bases in western Iraq - H2 and H3 - yet we did not seal off that avenue of escape into Jordan for the Ba'athists and Hussein's henchmen. We ignored the border with Syria, allowing many to escape into that nation. It remains open and porous.

It has been many years since I gave command orders to a military combat unit in the field or planned a combat operation, but I will tell you that even the lowliest "shake and bake" Second Lieutenant would never have set up a low level combat operation with such total disregard for denying the enemy avenues of escape that resemble super highways. While I reject as mindless idiocy the media-inspired breast beating and claimed "Viet Nam-like quaqmire" accusations regarding General Tommy Frank's combat plans for this campaign, I must admit, however, to no small degree of consternation over the repetitive failure on the part of military planners to close off escape routes and leave huge gaps in perimeters. We had access to airfields and plenty of C-135 and C-17s to airlift in more than enough military hardware and manpower to do the job right. Yet, we didn't. We still haven't.

The other area of concern I have concerns the looting in Iraq. There is no difference between Baghdad and south Los Angeles or Washington. D. C. Looters are criminals! Looting should not have been allowed to happen... ESPECIALLY looting of hospitals and museums. Someone in the military chain of command needs to face serious charges for that failure. We worked hard to prevent "collateral damage" to civilian populations with the targeting of munitions. Why didn't we pay as amuch attention to this requirement?

A field-level commander of a troop of American soldiers defused a potential tinderbox in Karbala when he had soldiers take a knee and lower weapons when Fedayeen Saddam fighters and Republican Army troops took refuge and set up a fire base in a mosque locals considered to be sacred. Citizens of the town feared we were going to stage an armed assault on that holy place and had gathered to try to prevent it. They were on the verge of all out rioting. Those orders to "stand down" came from a Captain or lower rank officer in the field. That action demonstrated better than anything else any political speech making or public relations effort by any military bigwig this nation's - and its people's -respect for the holy places and civilian structure of Iraq. That field commander made proven liars out of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon. He made Martin and Charlie Sheen appear as foolish as they truly are. He gave lie to the dire predictions of Janeanne Garafolo and Mike Farrell by acting as we Americans expect our troops to act in armed conflicts. Because of his choices, local citizens soon came to understand that we Americans were truly there for them.

The desecration of the museum in Baghdad was a criminal act and we let it happen. Our military had been advised of the significance of that complex before the first member of our forces crosswed the Kuwait/Iraq border, yet our military leaders did not do anything to prevent the obscenity or even stop it once it began. Someone in our military ought to answer for that oversight and criminal negligence!

There is much more to staging a war of "liberation" than just shooting at bad guys and taking POWs. Our nation upholds the Geneva Conventions and complained loudly when our servicemen and woman were maltreated on Iraqi television. We were right to do so. At the same time, there are constraints placed upon us by those same conventions. We had, and have, an obligation to live up to those rules of civilized warfare.

As "conquerors," we had an obligation to safeguard the cultural treasures of Iraq as well as its infrastructure. We had an obligation to maintain civil order among the population. Our military commanders failed miserably in both areas and they bring shame to us all through their neglect. One can understand the pent up hatred and anger of common Iraqi citizens following the fall of Hussein's regime of terror. Demonstrations of those feelings were to be expected and accepted. Scenes of statues toppling, pictures being ripped down and monuments to egos being destroyed were understandable and told a story that quieted even the "Arab street's" strident voice. The acts of disrespect shown to Saddam with the soles of Iraqi shoes were telling and needed to happen. But... we should have stopped it there.

One Iraqi man who stole pots and pans and a blanket from the opulence of one of Saddam's hundreds of palaces because he had none at all was a heartbreaking testimony to what was "acceptable" displays of celebration. Pictures of people loading up priceless artifacts from the museum onto handcarts are another matter. Al Jezeerah and Abu Dhabi television cameras showed hooligans carting off much needed medical equipment and suppies from Baghdad hospitals where their fellow citizens were being treated for the wounds that are an unfortunate byproduct of warfare, no matter how technologically advanced it may be. American troops did nothing to stop that! One spokesman even said that we have no requirement to prevent such crimes. HE WAS WRONG! Is it any wonder so many Arabs see us as "infidels?"

I am proud to be American today because of what our President did. He acted as a leader, not a follower of polls or political flotsam on the tide of public opinion. Liek ROnald reagan before him, he saw what he knew to be the right course of actin and he did it, no matter what teh political fallout. TonyBlair demonstrated the same courage of his convictions in Great Britain and I respecta nd admire him for that.

I am proud to be an American because I have seen our young service men and women doing what American soldiers have always done in war zones - handing out candy, water, food and medicine to children and citizens of the war torn areas. I am proud to be an American whose soldier carried a wounded enemby combatant to safety on his shoulders for a photographer to capture on film. I am also proud to be an American, one whose doctors worked on wounded Iraqis first if their wounds were the mroe serious. That's what America is supposed to stand for, as far as I am concerned.

I want to also be proud to be an American because our military commanders live up to the ideals for which this nation is supposed to stand. The administration is now sending FBI agents into Iraq to try to recover the looted treasures of a civilization so old that is believed to be the location of the fabled "Garden of Eden" of Bibllical tales. That's one hurt too far, in my book. We should never have permitted them to be looted in the first place and I want answers as to why they were allowed to be.

That's not the whimpering and simpering of the likes of Tim Robbins, Michael Moore or others. That's the concern of an American who wants to know that our military and civilian leaders are as commited to what is good and right with America as he is... as the majority of our citizens are.

If those concerns bother you, please feel free to tell me where I am wrong. I welcome your rebuttal.