THE DIFFERENCE

An American soldier died in Afghanistan on Friday, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, making August the deadliest month for the Pentagon. July now has the second-highest, with 44 deaths.
2009 is turning out to be the most tragic for Americans in the Afghan War, with 176 dead, far more than the 155 casualties in all of 2008. The United States has suffered a total of 806 military deaths since the 2001 invasion. The only other coalition members with triple-digit casualties since the war began are the United Kingdom, which has 207 deaths, and Canada, which has 127.
There are currently 57,000 American troops in Afghanistan, 28,850 of which are in International Security Assistance Force. President Barack Obama earlier this year ordered 21,000 more troops to be deployed to Afghanistan, and said the mission would now include training and increasing the size of the Afghan Army to 134,000, and the local police force to 82,000 by 2011.
(From the Internet, Source Associated Press)
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A detective driving an unmarked car on his way from home to work observes speeding and decides to pull the vehicle over to issue a warning...  The vehicle readily stops for his red light but is parked in an unusual manner that alarms the detective...  He does not immediately approach and the vehicle speeds away driving recklessly trying to elude the detective.  He pursues and other cars try to head off the fleeing vehicle.  One passenger jumps out and flees when the vehicle has to slow because of traffic but the vehicle continues on finally turning into a residential area.  Two more passengers bail out and try to hide...  The driver continues on trying to lose the pursuing detective.  Ultimately all of them are caught.  They have guns plus a stolen shotgun...  They have drawers of jewelry that they have stolen...  They were burglarizing a house and were frightened away by the approach of a cleaning crew.  As they fled they caught the attention of the detective.  They all had criminal records, some were on parole...  None of them had the legal right to posses a firearm because of felonious convictions.  At the initial stop they were ready to ambush the detective if he approached.
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Five teens in a car...  The driver disregards the stopped traffic at a railroad, grade crossing...  Slowing, but not stopping, the driver whips around the stopped vehicles and the gate and the car is demolished by the approaching train killing all five people... The driver did not want to be bothered with stopping, even for the safety of all of the passengers...  They all died a crushing death...
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Blacksburg, Virginia...  August 28th... Virginia Polytechnic Institute...  Two Sophmores were found murdered in a National Forest area this morning several miles from the school.  They had known each other since childhood.  They were in a place very popular with the students of Va. Tech.  No weapons were found at the scene.  Currently there are no suspects.  The young, female victim is the daughter of a Virginia State Police Trooper.  Even if tragedy does not strike the Peace Keeper personally, it can invade our families and loved ones. 
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This information tells me that the life of the Peace keeper always faces the possibility of danger anywhere... Even when driving to work, in a seemingly safe encampment area or invade the lives of the loved ones we are trying to protect.

The problem causing the unsafe conditions is people...  The foundation of the danger is that some people have a distinct lack of good ethics when things are not going the way they desire conditions to be.  The truth is that there are many people out there who will kill and injure Peace Keepers and themselves for many reasons and for no reason at all other than the fact that they are there and they do not like to be inconvenienced.
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eth⋅ic
–noun

Origin:
1350–1400; ME ethic, etic < L ēthicus < Gk ēthikós, equiv. to êth(os) ethos + -ikos -ic 
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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THE ENEMIES OF YOUR LIVES AND YOUR SOULS NEVER HAVE THE GOOD ETHICS THAT YOU ARE GOVERNED BY...  NEVER!!!

We went to Afghanistan to stop a war...  Eight years has not brought success... Yet we are now sending more troops because we cannot stop the war with the number of troops we have there and not kill civilians in the process. 

We have a system of ethics that tell us not to shoot into a crowd of civilians in order to get the one who just threw the grenade or shot at our personnel while the terrorist used the people for a shield...  The terrorists do not have a system of good ethics...  Any ethics they have are situational only.  That means whatever actions will help to achieve their goal of killing our troops or our civilian workers is OK in their course of action such as...
Using a crowd of civilians, especially women and children, as a shield to allow them to carry out their actions;
Stealing airliners and killing all of the passengers in order to be able to destroy the Twin Towers in New York City just to proves they can do it, killing themselves and about three thousand innocents, firefighters, emergency care workers, a chaplain and police officers in the process;
Car bombs or bomb laden people in a market place full of people to kill and main just to enforce their reign of terror;
Beheading of an American citizen on televised media to show how callus they are and how powerfully they hate those they call infidels.
Our forces have pulled back in Iraq and the terror continues...  We have not won that war.
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Our forces try to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan to save the people but the battles take civilian lives so there are new rules of engagement established and we need to send even more troops...

Have you noticed that seldom does a leader in the terrorist organizations get killed doing anything?  Have you noticed that it is the civilians, the low level members of the terrorist organizations, the bomb laden individuals who willingly die to kill an infidel...
Have you noticed that none of them wears a recognizable military uniform and they dress like all the other native people...
But very seldom is it a leader who dies!!!...  They are in hiding!!!
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In all of these years I have witnessed and faced just such attitudes and activity.  Very early in life I found that there were numerous people who would... Lie to you...  Hurt you...  Abuse you...  And get pleasure from the process.  I learned they were very different from me and that there was very little they would not do in order to achieve their goals.  I learned how to spot them...  How to read them...  How to avoid them if I could...  How to handle them if I could not avoid them.  I brought that same cautious attitude into Peace Keeping and had a very successful career because of it.

The point of all of this is that we never know... Who we are facing...  Who we are stopping...  Who we could be fighting...  What their intentions are.  We must initially be prepared to act to the fullest process the situation could demand whether we are on the field in Afghanistan, Iraq or in the Homeland. 

Disputes, traffic stops, suspicious persons...  Crowds, patrols, convoys, checkpoints...  No one but an experienced Peace Keeper understands that you must be keyed up and ready to act as you go into the situation...  You must never let your guard down...  You must never assume anything by appearance, race, age or otherwise...  You must never relax as long as you are handling people and the problems involving people, even if the people appear to be peaceful!!!

The current group of new Peace Keepers is two generations behind me.  All Peace Keepers are expected to be the same type of Peace Keepers we have always had since the Revolutionary War, the war for our independence.  All are expected to be like the heroes and heroines we all know about and to be as faithful and loyal as the ones whose names we do not know but because of the life we have today, we know that they were there in the battle lines.  Soldiers, Sheriffs, Marshals, Troopers, Doctors, Nurses, Medics, Prosecutors, Judges, Chaplains...  And many more...  There and faithful to do their duty.  Many of them served well and could come back home.  Many of them served well and we buried them in foreign soil...  At sea...  Or in some strange place far from home.

The times we live in today are just as precarious as any time in our past.  These times demand just as much faithfulness and loyalty as any other time has demanded.
Peace Keepers, I write to tell you that you are loved, respected and appreciated...  And I write to contribute to your survival so that you might be able to return to home and loved ones at the end of your duty.  When I close with my injunction to, "BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!"  ALWAYS be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary....  I am meaning the same thing demonstrated by the careful detective when the car he pulled stopped and parked in an unusual manner...  They intended to ambush him but he sensed the situation and did not get ambushed.  Somewhere, sometime, if it has not already happened to you, it will happen to you that something just is not right...  Personal alarms will go off inside you...  Your senses will keen up...  If you pay attention, you may survive and be successful.  If you miss it, you may not go home ever again...

Thank you, Peace Keepers, for who you are, for what you do, for what you have done.
Every one of you have either left a legacy for us or are building a legacy for all the ones who will come after you.  I would like to never see your name in an obituary in my life time.  I would like to never have to give last honors to another Peace Keeper in this world...  But I am smart enough to know that before a week passes I will receive news of the deaths of several Peace Keepers at home and from foreign fields.  I will pray a lot.  I will hurt and shed some more tears...  And I will keep on doing all that I can do, that I know to do for as long as I have breath and the ability to move.

"BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!"  ALWAYS be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary.  Take the very best care of you as you care for and about others. See to the strength and well being of your spirit as well as all the rest of you.  Your spirit must be strong for you to be successful.

Seek out and add to your lives the guidance of my Commander-In-Chief, my Eternal Captain and the keeping power of the Holy Spirit to preserve you, train you and protect you as you go about your duty.  Invoke their presence and power through prayer as you begin your day before going to duty.  I pray they do as much and more for you than they have done for me.  My Commander-In-Chief readily accepts prayers from any and all of His Peace Keepers.  My Eternal Captain, the Lord Jesus Christ will gladly enter into your life and be with you if you invite Him in.  The Holy Spirit can and will accompany you every place you go and be your guide into the places you cannot see alone.

Call or write if I may be of any service... Or if you just want to encourage me... Feedback encourages all who write... It helps to know we are reaching someone who reads the message.

My daughter is in the hospital.  She had a 4 inch diameter portion of necrotic tissue removed from where the abscess burst last week.  She is on a wound vac and now must take two IV meds to combat the bacterial infection and the yeast infection which has come back very strongly.  She was supposed to be discharged yesterday but there were no portable wound vacs available and she cannot come home until there is one available.  She is resting and feeling better but we are in for another long haul with this new large wound in addition to the old wound that was doing so well.  Thank you for your prayers and concern.

As it has always been... So it still is!!!

"VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST...
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST...
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN."  Sun tzu

Training and practice are everything!
Without them, the best results are not obtained!

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT...
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)...
BE SUCCESSFUL... BE SAFE...
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics...  it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process. 
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]

I represent, write for... and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live... with Him and for you I serve...
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not...
For God, Country and the Peace Keeper...
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
Surviving Peace Keeper,
Virginia State Police Alumni,
RETIRED Police Officer Virginia Beach Police Dept.,
Senior Chaplain and Administrative Chaplain VBPD,
DCJS Certified Police Instructor,
Community Service Officer (Traffic Safety) VBPD
Blackwater Alumni
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
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