It's interesting to watch the GOP Network (Fox News) and see what great expert they will bring forth to give us the truth. Recently, they featured Ollie North, who is such a pathological liar even fellow liars such as former President and Mrs. Reagan couldn't stand him.

Fresh from the divorce wars was former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. During Vietnam, when the military was looking for body bag fillers, Newt couldn't be found. He is an expert on the military and fully capable of questioning the integrity, patriotism, and competency of our military leaders, both active and retired.

Do the anti-war protests affect the morale of those serving in combat? During my first tour in Vietnam (1964-65) there were no protests. During the second tour, my main concerns were not the college protests, but some lawmakers who did not support the war.

Today, we see the president and most members of his party in Congress lack the patriotism and decency to support our troops by paying their fair share of taxes.

If you want to support the troops, forget the flags and bumper stickers. Send a message to the president and GOP members and tell them to put away their greed and pay their fair share to support these brave men and women.

"Embedded media" is the greatest contribution to the battlefield since the introduction of gunpowder. It's true. I read about it in the newspaper -- and saw it on TV.

To whom do the embedded media contribute? So far, we've witnessed its obvious psychological and propaganda contribution to the winning force as it marched essentially unopposed to Baghdad in just 11 days.

Would this same embedded media contribute to a losing force? Or could it become a losing force's largest detriment, to the point of highlighting the already losing force's vulnerabilities while restoring confidence of the enemy force, and to the point of turning national and world opinion against the pursuit of a legitimate war?

Recent instances indicate that even minor pauses, changes in tactics and so forth by the maneuvering force have been perceived by the untrained embedded civilian photographers and news readers to be failures have been reported and highlighted as failures, to the comfort of the enemy and to the detriment of the troops.

It appears that the real war in Iraq is about to begin, a period of war during which the tide of battles and skirmishes will change, bordering on winning and on defeat. Some fear that during these gut-wrenching times when winning depends on all that can be brought to bear on the enemy, the all-important psychological and propaganda efforts to confuse and defeat the enemy will be exposed and negated by the embedded media.

I notice that Rep. Alvin Holmes, commenting on the state House of Representative bill to raise the marriage age from 14 to 16, says, "When I was 14, I basically had the same sense that I have now."

Those of us who have watched Holmes over the years agree wholeheartedly.