Nuts!
October 15, 2003

Just last week I received a care package from Gayle, my secretary at the church, who makes the best molasses cookies on planet earth! Two or ten of these deliciously baked gems and a cup of freshly brewed coffee and life is quite good, thank you very much!

Also included in the care package were peanut butter cookies, always a favorite of mine. Plus there were two bags of Hickory Smoked Almonds. All this comes after I happened to mention to the folks back home that I'd lost twenty pounds since arriving in Africa. Now, this is a good thing, because I needed to lose this weight. It was also planned. And my goal is not reached as yet. So all of a sudden I get a box full of wonderfully delectable goodies. And if the truth be told, I simply can't resist nuts.

Living in Ripon, CA, it's advisable that you like nuts since that fair city is known as the "Almond Capital of the World." One of my favorite things to do is to take a bunch of raw almonds and spread them on a cookie sheet and roast them in the oven for about ten to fifteen minutes. Let'em cool just long enough so they don't burn your hands when you pick them up, and start munching. This will send my taste buds into delirious ecstasy. This will be among the many "First Things" that I intend to do when I return home.

While in Kuwait some months ago I received another care package from the church that included a large bag of almonds. Not being altogether familiar with my environs at that time, I soon learned there were mice and rats that took a particular interest in my almonds. I kept the nuts wrapped in a plastic seal-tight bag, stashed in a box set up on a wooden stand built for hanging a flack jacket. There were two things I didn't realize. First, I didn't realize that anything but a human could reach the nuts where I had placed them. I was wrong. And, second, I didn't realize such vermin could survive in those desert regions. Other than sand, and daily sand storms, there's precious little out there. Where do these rodents come from?

So, while chomping on my recently acquired treasure of nuts, I got to thinking about that word, "nuts." A well-known story from WWII is when the 101st Airborne Division was defending the city of Bastogne, Belgium, against the Germans. The situation did not look good for the American troops. So it came as no surprise when a message arrived from the German commander advising the Americans to surrender. Brigadier General McAuliffe, the acting commander of the 101st, simply replied, "Nuts!" The Americans held until General Patton arrived, at which time the tide was turned, and the Germans were on the run.

I share this story because I have read and heard a number of news accounts raising specters of doom and gloom concerning the War on Terrorism. The idea is presented something like this: "You can't really stop terrorism. They'll just keep coming after us. We really are ill-equipped to fight this battle, etc." To this I say, "Nuts!"

There will always be those who would rather surrender than to defend themselves against those who want to kill you and destroy everything you believe in and stand for. It would do us well to remember that no one gave the colonists a chance of defeating the powerful British forces brought against our fledgling nation. What could "minutemen" possibly do against British regulars? Yet these citizen-soldiers trusted in God, kept their powder dry, and passed to us a new nation. Will we turn it back over to thugs, goons and punks who only hate, kill and rule by fear and intimidation? Discretion prevents me from using stronger terms.

Perhaps the words from Shakespeare's Henry V say it best. It has been slightly modified for today's English, and is popular on T-shirts worn by our service members. "Whoever does not have the stomach for this fight, let him depart. Give him his money to speed his departure since we wish not to die in this man's company. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for whoever has shed his blood with me shall be my brother. And those men afraid to go will think themselves lesser men as they hear of how we fought and died together."

I, and those I serve with, choose not to live under a cloud of fear and intimidation. And the men and women of today's military choose to stand and fight our nation's enemies.

So we have one word for terrorists: Nuts!