PLATFORM : Color Blind at the Front Lines

As a veteran and from my viewpoint, I think we have a very touchy situation in (the Middle East) and one that will probably be hard for people to understand if people get killed. It would probably be difficult for those who are not privy to all of the intelligence that goes into making these decisions of when we ought to use military power and this just happens to be the case. The President has chosen that option.

Blacks are Americans and a part of this country. We hope that there will be no significance made between black or white (military men and women during the crisis). We hope that they would carry out the job that is required.

Our services for a great number of years have been made up of volunteer forces, not drafted forces. And perhaps a greater number of blacks have volunteered to serve, even if a great proportion were on the front lines in Vietnam. If they have been accepted on equal standards and can carry out the job, I think they would perform just as well.

They are not in (the Persian Gulf) because someone is sending blacks to be the first to be killed. They are there because they volunteered to support this country and to help keep the military power of this country great. I really think this is often something that our populous doesn’t understand and that is related to this, no war has been declared (in the Persian Gulf) but certainly military power is one of the options that our President has to keep this country free to keep its allies protected.

Whoever that soldier is who has volunteered and is qualified to carry out that duty at the front line, he has to be color blind.