When I was a middle school kid back in the Sixties a classmate told me a joke. There’s four grades a high school boy can get- A,B,C and Vietnam.

I’m sorry that John Kerry apologized for what he said. It was nothing against the troops, but it’s the truth about a system that demands everything of some citizens and gives everything to others. If you got shortchanged in your public education, if there are few job opportunities in your town, if your child is sick and you can’t pay the medical bills, then a recruiter is waiting to talk to you. It’s not John Kerry who sent American soldiers into a foreign country without even the most basic plan. It’s not John Kerry who didn’t bother to secure weapon’s dumps and explosives because the oil wells were a priority. It’s not John Kerry who wants to make permanent tax benefits for the rich while working people see their jobs disappear.

We have lost forever more than 2800 Americans who will be missed profoundly by their children, parents , families and friends. We have lost all they would have contributed, and that is a great loss. Fifteen thousand veterans will have to deal with war injuries for the rest of their lives. Some of our very best citizens are risking their lives every day in Iraq. But this is not WWII. You won’t find a cross-section of America there. This is the volunteer army.

The Bush twins are out partying, Colin Powell’s son is pursuing his career in Washington, the sons and daughters of our members of Congress are going on to bright futures. They aren’t signing up to defend our country in this last life-and-death stand against terrorism. We aren’t rationing fuel and growing victory gardens — the President told us to go shopping. The stock market is soaring just as if they expect a bigger and more profitable war. When the troops come home they are left to cope with the financial loss their families racked up while they were called away for years on a soldier’s pay. They go back to communities where services have been cut. They can pick up the paper and read about how many billions are unaccounted for because private contractors are doing the jobs that the military used to do.

Some time back President Bush inadvertently told the truth and said something that made sense. He said that you can’t really win the war on terrorism. He immediately had to back off because today it’s all a game of sound bites and ‘gotcha’. But he was right. Terrorism is a tactic, not a nation. It’s a tactic that will be used by groups big or small for as long as they have a grievance. There will always be crime, the best we can do is make it rare and bring swift justice to the perpetrators.

Now John Kerry said something that points to the truth. The costs of this war are being borne unequally. In these times, which are almost as nasty and divisive as the last days of the Vietnam War, it’s dangerous to come out and speak honestly. I don’t know if anyone will have the courage.