"A Soldier Reports"
By: J. David Galland
3 October 2001

Since the cowardly attack on the United States, weeks ago, most of us
have become rather bored listening to so much babble about the
American Military's capabilities, or its lack of capabilities, in the view of
some.
I, as you, have watched while reporters and talking heads have coined
the phrase, "a-new-kind-of-war", … and an "intelligence war"… and "is
the American military ready for this new level of warfare"? What new
level of warfare do they think they are talking about? Is this a play on
semantics, or do they really think that the Intelligence Function is some
kind of new concept, in planning for military action? These questions,
posed by CNN Reporter, Jonathan Mann, are comic testimony as to how
much the world of journalism does not know about the military.

From this old soldier's corner of the foxhole, when I hear reporters ask
idiotic questions, it sometimes astounds me. They ask dumb things such
as one of NBC's news reporters did, "but is this new army up to this,
since it is completely made up of young people brought up in the
computer whiz-kid generation"? It really makes me wonder what the
heck these people think we are doing, when not engaged in war. We do
not sit around the barracks in some sort of "Sergeant Bilko".... “Sad
Sack”.. type opera of melancholic repose, waiting to get yelled at, getting
drunk, or smoking and joking. Our business is war, and I want everybody
in America to know that we do not wait for new, and personal
justifications, in order to train for it and if necessary, apply that training.

I have patiently watched the endless repertoire of retired Generals,
Colonels, and all the sternly resolute self-professed terrorism experts, of
whom few of us had heard of a month ago. Everybody seems to be so
knowledgeable. None of them realizes how "off-base" they are in their
snap judgments and sidewalk assessments. One might wonder, how can
these people know so much about today's military and its capabilities,
when many of them have been retired for a decade or more, from the
glory of their military careers? Many on the rapidly emerging interview
circuit seem to know as much about the military and war as I do about
redecorating the Vatican.

I would like to take a few lines to the record straight, once and forever,
right from the horse's mouth and where the rubber meets the road. Out
of the heart of a career soldier, broad on experience and combat duty.
The United States military is entirely capable and frankly, not all that
much challenged, by what appears to be the task before us. It is not a
routine undertaking, however it is not far from it. I can assure you, one
and all, that the solidarity and team spirit that has been energized within
America's sinew, is a much stronger factor and motivator amongst
soldiers. It is an intense bond which those who may not have had
experienced it, would be challenged to understand.

Out here, in the real world, apart from the prying eyes of the news
anchors, the interviewers, and the social analysts, there is an incredibly
capable military force that will, and can, make all America proud.
Standby and watch, my fellow Americans, and you will be most pleased,
and somewhat astounded, at how capable your military is. You may soon
observe how wrong it is to challenge the United States and endanger its
beloved Freedom.

Across the board, I don't know one soldier, who does not equate the
attacks on New York, and Washington D. C., as one that may have been
launched on his own family or homestead. Please understand, we in the
military are not under the mind control powers of our Commanders or
leaders, we saw the terrible conflagration as did you. We here in
uniform, do not like what we witnessed either.

With cool professionalism, and incredible strength, we are here,
America's military, and we are not some misguided force of
neophyte-untrained kids, who have narrowed our spheres into the
production of a laptop program or an email sub-folder, as NBC
news-persons would have you believe.

So it is with pride and assurance that I report back to the great citizens
of our country. Yes, your military is ready, stalwart, capable, and
resolute in its conviction to protect you from all enemies, foreign and
domestic! With the grace of the almighty, we will do just that. We accept
the challenge in order to ensure that freedom is not tainted; by the
recent bruising it took.

We will leave our homes when we must, we will leave the warmth and
love of family, we will venture into both the uncertain and the
dangerous, we are soldiers and we are volunteers, to the last of us. As
the call has come, and will come again, "whom shall we send, who will
go for us", you will call me, the soldier! We will go for you, we will keep
you safe and we will ensure Freedom. We assume the inherent risks
because Freedom is the higher calling which clearly justifies the
adversities we may face. Freedom will not perish nor shall it falter.



Who is J. David Galland ?
~ Soldier, Author, Colmunist, Patriot ~

J. David Galland is the Founder and President of "Bound & Overwatch -
The Military Observer", a 100% Non-Profit organization which serves as
the advocate for soldiers and their families, as well as for veterans.
Bound & Overwatch -The Military Observer concentrates on military
corruption, and unsound defense policies tainted from inception, which
do not affect the national interests of the United States and its National
Security.

Mr. Galland is a veteran of The United States Army, with over thirty-two
years military service. Since 1969, Mr. Galland has served The United
States in Military Intelligence. He is is a distinquished 1969 graduate of
the U. S. Army Intelligence Center & School, Fort Holabird, Maryland. He
is a combat veteran of Vietnam, Grenada, and Panama and of hazardous
duty positions in Ulster, Northern Ireland, Zagreb, Sarajevo, in the
Former Yugoslavia, as well as various missions in Croatia and Bosnia. Mr.
Galland has spent most of his military career outside the normal
command channels in classified assignments as an Area Intelligence
Technician, Case Officer, and Desk Action Officer. He is an internationally
respected Defense Analyst, Author & Columnist..


Mr. Galland is a contributing columnist to "The Reagan Information
Exchange", Colonel David H. Hackworth's "Defending America", column
and website, as well as "PRAVDA" (English Version) The Voice of The
West in Russia. Mr. Galland is a contributing columnist and analyst to
The British Broadcasting Company, (BBC), also he is published
worldwide, via “The Houston Independent Media Center. J. David Galland
is the Deputy Editor of "Defense Watch", the successor organization to
"Soldiers For The Truth".