Kevin:

During one of the first Christmas holidays that Paula and I spent together --- she was all excited about me meeting her cousin Gary --- who was enlisted and waiting to go off to fight in the first GULF WAR. She had told me about how close they were growing up --- and although she has three sisters --- she described Gary to me as her "brother."

When I met this young man he was just about ready to go to Kuwait --- in fact --- he was going to be going back to the base the day after the holiday.

The first thing that I noticed was that he was extremely gung-ho about fighting the good fight and all that hoo-haa. However --- when I attempted to ask if he was concerned or afraid --- he started sprouting off all of these recruitment center aphorisms.

I watched Paula's reaction to his ranting and raving --- she was aghast. This guy --- plain and simple --- appeared to be brainwashed.

Then I asked him what he was told was the reason the USA was becoming involved over there --- I even mentioned BU$H and his oil buddies. He became visably enraged --- and started arguing with me that "none of this has anything to do with BU$H's oil buddies." Then he started talking about how Saddam was a bad man and we needed to get him.

I then asked him if he realized that Saddam was brought to power during the time that George Bu$h was CIA Director. He started yelling "that's not true, that's not true."

Well --- it was a rather tense visit --- to say the least.

My own surprise occurred when Paula was saying goodbye to her "brother." She hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He said to her that he would write or call from the Middle East when he got the time.

She told him not to bother --- and she told him the reason:

"Gary, what in the Hell has happened to you?" she asked. "You are obviously brainwashed."

Of course he was offended by this and denied it was true.

It had been a tense three hours and Paula to this day has never spoken to her "brother" again.

I asked her why a couple of years ago. her answer startled me:

"That THING that you met was NOT Gary." she said. "I don't know what happened to him, what they did with his mind. But, whatever they did, it was rather depressing to see my 'brother' turned into a non-thinking robot."

So yes --- they do quite a mindfuck on these poor people. Just this morning in the doctor's waiting room --- I was reading an article about how the medical treatment for active duty enlisted is subpar --- failing Geneva Convention standards.

This is how we take care of our fighting men and women.

KDB = Buffalo, NY USA