That deck of 52 has dwindeled down a bit. Good time to give heads up to the fact that our armed forces folks are still hard at work. Not every one has come home yet, so keep those stars and stripes flying and the yellow ribbons too!

Every day I do. I work on an Army Base. You know this was the first time in history that a pair of aces beat a full house.

Neat...I loved the way you rymed 'shock and awe' with 'coupe de grace'.

Thanks Pat. I had to look up the spelling though and then I had reservations about it thinking some people would pronounce grace like grace instead of graw.

Well done Guy

Very good, Guy!

Nice job

This parody almost makes the war worth it. Almost. Funny as hell (and the Hussein brothers would know), especially the bridge. But Guy, "coup de grace"? That phrase is FRENCH! Aughhhh! French! No, no, seriously, great job.

Excellent!

Well done, Guy. I have always had the utmost respect for my fellow citizens who freely choose to put themselves in harms way to protect me without ever even knowing my name. I guess I'd have to say I'm neither completely liberal nor completely conservative, but here's one thing I gladly pray from the heart: God bless America.

Thank you Johnny. I served my country honorably in uniform for 21 years and continue to do so as a Defense Department civilian. A kind word is nice to hear. I was spit on in uniform during the Vietnam War.

Some bastard spit on you?? They ought to be ashamed of themselves, and they ought to think a bit more deeply about what they did to you and about what you did for them. I have no military experience, but for some unknown reason I guess I just grew up with a deep and abiding respect for my brothers and sisters in uniform. Might have something to do with my father, Bill, who was an Army lieutenant in WW2. He lucked-out twice: once on a training march, he stumbled on a tree stump in the dark , and a few days later needed hospitalization for a blood clot. During his hospital stay, orders came for officers to be sent to the Western front - and he was officially excused for medical reasons. On another occasion, towards the end of the war in Europe, Dad was lined up along with other officers and they were counted-off every-other-man or so, and the ones "randomly" selected were sent to The Battle of The Bulge....my Dad was one of the officers who were skipped in that eeny-meeny-miny-mo count-off. I guess the Good Lord had other plans for him (he later became a husband, a father of three sons, a teacher, a college professor, and a Roman Catholic Deacon). Thank you very much for your service to our country.
P.S. My Dad is still with us and going strong at 81, God bless him!

JD - You have to realize that the Vietnam War was hugely unpopular. These were some very misguided hippies in an American airport who were protesting the war. They could not distinguish those of us who decided to not run from the draft and instead elect to serve our country, right or wrong , from those people on Capitol Hill who were waging it. It was probably all the drugs they took that clouded their judgement. I even felt that the Vietnam War was wrong but I still served my country just the same. This is why I love to see our troops being received well for the jobs they do and I hate people who batter them. Climbing on the govenment and government officials is one thing. Battering the troops is something totally different. I have the utmost respect for your dad. His was the generation that absolutely saved and preserved our way of life. My dad was also in the Army during WWII.

JD - You said your dad was almost sent to the western front. Is your dad German?

Ooops, my mistake - no, my Dad's 100% American (Anglo-Saxon Welsh ancestry) - thank you for correcting me, now I realize my mistake: the Germans called the front facing the Brits and the Americans the "Western front" and the one facing the Russians the "Eastern front". You just revealed my own admitted lack of knowledge of military history. I should have clarified and said that my Dad was almost sent to "what the Germans called the Western front". Thanks for correcting me - this is a very important historical point that should not be mistaken.

Btw regarding my previous comment, I did not mean to imply that a person needs to be anglo-saxon or welsh or anything else in order to qualify as 100% American ..... all I meant to imply is that my Dad was an American citizen during WW2 and still is today, as are multitudes of other people of EVERY ethnicity from every corner of God's good Earth.

This is what made and is making America the great world power that she is today. The rich mix of cultures, heritages and races that all live here and rightfully call themselves American. We have them all plus one. Let's not forget the Native American who also did a great service to this country in our war with Japan during WWII. The US Navy used them as code talkers and made it impossible for the Japanese military to decipher our communications.