Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently told West Point cadets: "Any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,' as General MacArthur so delicately put it."

But who hears a tree fall in the middle of a forest? Not our major news media, which should. Not our elite class, which sees war as a chess game.

I'm not just a bystander. I have been at the tip of the spear that our chair-born warriors gave us to thrust into the enemy in Korea. It was our first presidential undeclared big, bloody can't-win, can't-lose, can't-quit war. I've heard the order: "No officer is to leave Kelly Hill unless dead or severely wounded!" Hold that hill! You lose it; you take it back.

Gates knows what he is talking about. I don't think anyone else is listening.

Joe McRoberts

Winter Springs