There were statements made in my latest commentary entitled “The War Is On. Let’s Win It!” that were lacking in explanation and further detail. Therefore, I would like to try to fill in a couple of blank spots.

I essentially opined that by virtue of the fact that we had necessarily engaged in airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria, we are now at war. I hold to that opinion. America is at war. In their efforts to be politically correct, Obama and his cronies may try to call it by any number of other names, to include calling it a counterterrorism operation, but no matter what they try to pass it off as, it is war. As the old adage goes, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is a duck even though you may call it a sparrow. Counterterrorism operations are and have been ongoing for many years. They are covert operations. There is nothing covert about launching Tomahawk missiles and dropping bombs from fighter and bomber aircraft on “hard” targets located in another nation. That is an act of war. Whether or not it is a “legal” war is debatable. Obama has to call it something else in order to try to justify his actions inasmuch as he did not have Congressional approval to go to war. Nonetheless, the commitment to engage in this war has been made and we must now fight it to the end. This is not a video game we are playing. People’s lives are at stake. We must not make the same mistakes we made in Vietnam.

One important thing I failed to address in my initial commentary is the fact that to have any hope of successfully fighting this war and destroying ISIS, We the People must be vigilant. We not only have to be observant for terrorist activity within our borders, we must also be vigilant and aware of everything our government does in its execution of the war. In discussing my opinion of President Obama and Secretary Kerry, it should have been clear that I have no trust in either of these actors. Not only do I not trust them, I don’t trust any of the so-called coalition countries that have supposedly joined us in the fight.

Just as it was in Vietnam, it is difficult to know who is friend and who is foe. In Vietnam, the Viet Cong were not readily distinguishable from most any other citizen on the street. The so-called coalition nations in the present situation may have collectively agreed to join us in the fight and may have further demonstrated that support by taking part in the initial attacks, but what are they going to do tomorrow. We must never lose sight of the fact that this is not a nation vs. nation war. Contrary to what Obama keeps trying to tell us, it is a war against Islamic jihad. God only knows the Islamic tribal makeup of the individuals serving in the armed forces of these coalition nations. When are they going to turn on us? The odds are that most of them are Sunni, the same as are most of the ISIS terrorists. So where is the true allegiance of the individual members of these armed forces? Is it to the nation or is it to their individual Islamic belief? How many Major Nidal Malik Hasans are there within those armed forces? My bet is that there are many of them.

Once again, even though I firmly believe this is a war that must be fought, I fear that under our current leadership in all three branches of government, we may never reach our ultimate goal of destroying ISIS and any of its fingerling groups. It is for this reason, with consideration given to what I have stated herein, that I attempted to stress the importance of how “We the People” vote in November 2014. We must ensure that we elect people who are dedicated to winning the war we now find ourselves engaged in, because we are going to be in this war for a long time. If we aren’t willing to do that, then we might as well fold up our tents today. When we are at war as a nation, we must have a real Commander in Chief. For that reason, in 2016, we must elect a president who has military experience. Might I suggest Allen West, for example? In my opinion, he is certainly worthy of strong consideration.