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The president's speech the other day on Afghanistan has laid the groundwork for the regional conflict to become Obama's War. Adding 30,000 more boots on the ground, led by a few thousand jarheads who will be in the thick of Taliban Territory before Christmas, President Obama has passed the torch to this adminstration from that of President Bush.

Everyone agrees the Bush administration became distracted with Iraq and blew initial inroads against the Taliban and al-Qaida. So, Obama is on the right tank track, as far as The Hound is concerned. But what's the idea of announcing a date certain --- 2011 --- when we're leaving? Couldn't he have announced an Afghanization plan, like President Nixon did when he took over the conduct of the Vietnam War? Was that too much too ask?

Apparently, because the geezers remember it took Nixon five years to unravel the U.S. out of Vietnam and only after he started trying to bomb North Vietnam into the Stone Age. Or, are the Obamans taking a page from the Nixon playbook and planning to announce a secret peace plan when 2011 comes around, just before the '12 election cycle gets under way?

Only time and Americans' grit to stay in the high elevations of the Hindu Kush in search of Osama bin Laden will tell.

The Hound has been watching retread Clintonistas being appointed to cabinet posts in the Obama administration with a jaundiced eye. After all, if you wanted a third Clinton administration, we should have elected Hillary, right? But, finally, the president-elect tabs a winner in retired Gen. Eric Shinseki to be the new secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. It's a good pick.

And, at the same time it is vindication for the former Army chief of staff. It was Shinseki, the 38-year Army career man, a decorated and wounded veteran of the Vietnam War, who warned that several hundred thousand troops would be needed to secure and keep the peace once Iraq was defeated. That warning caused him to be swift-kicked by such warriors Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Secretary of Defense, Illinois' own Don Rumsfeld.

Neither of those three went to West Point, nor did they ever have boots on the ground in any infantry capacity. Shinseki also cautioned to "beware a 12-division strategy for a 10-division army." For such forthrightness, Shinseki was not reappointed by the Bush administration to a second tour as Army chief of staff and forced into retirement. As we all saw, those happy warriors in the Bush administration had to eat crow and put more troops into Iraq in what now is known as The Surge.

Now, Shinseki has to go into the VA and straighten out another mess leftover from the Bush administration --- providing benefits and medical care to veterans, and especially the nation's newest veterans coming home from the Iraq War. At a time when budget constraints are even greater.

The Hound would expect the new secretary to be easily confirmed by the Senate and probably will be in Lake County to tour the soon-to-be-ready Lovell medical center in North Chicago, the first sharing of VA and Navy facilities. He will be heartily welcomed.

Veterans in The Hound's breed are ready to give the Waukegan guy who claimed he was a prisoner of war of the North Vietnamese a blanket party. These would be The Hound's great-uncle, uncle, second cousin, father and brother. If you were in the military, you know what happens when you get an invite to a blanket party.

For the unitiated, it is for those who don't want to carry their load. Or at least that is what The Hound has been told by the warriors in the clan. Most, they say, would have been Section 8s. Ron Naden would have been one, but he was never in the military.

Naden, a retired janitor at Oak Grove School in Green Oaks, since 1991 has been telling kids at the school and even teachers he was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War for more than a year after allegedly parachuting into Laos. That was one of the whoppers Naden apparently told anyone who would listen. One teacher even got a POW/MIA flag, framed it and slapped it on a wall at the school in his honor. That is so wrong, Ron.

Naden's downfall came when The News-Sun slapped him in the newspaper after he told his tale of the whale. The Internet is a tool being used by those who sacrificed to expose those who didn't. Why one would want to be known as a POW is beyond The Hound's pecan-sized brain. Has anyone checked to see if Ron's driving around on a free POW license plate? Or if he's applied for veterans' benefits?

When The Hound asked the relatives for a comment, their only reply was: "On the right, sick call!" If you know what that means, drive on warriors.

Today is Veterans Day and if you're not doing anything really important, thank a veteran. Most really don't need it. After all, they know what they've done. But a little appreciation never is underappreciated, as The Hound's mother used to point out.

You may not buy into the current mantra that troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are there protecting our freedoms, but back in 2003 quite a few of you were four-square behind the effort to invade Iraq. Those were mainly the folks who didn't have sons and daughters in harm's way or heading to a war zone.

After all, Iraq and Afghanistan are half a world away and a minority of Americans have been effected by the conflicts. Mainly those serving and their loved ones.

But that's the lot of those in the military. Usually not appreciated until they save your butt and even after they muster out.

So show a little appreciation today and if one happens to be on a nearby bar stool, buy them a round. And offer a toast to absent friends. The Hound will.

There's a few things the federal government is supposed to do for us citizens. One of them is putting together a military that can protect us from international foes that want to do us harm. The Bush administration record on this issue is sorely lacking. The latest example is the airheads running the Air Force.

Apparently, the Air Force's control of our land-based and airborne nuclear arsenal has been pretty cavalier during the Bush regime. Guess these Republicans failed to watch "Dr. Strangelove."

But when they did get a screening of the Stanley Kubrick classic, they eventually got the gumption to fire Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley. It takes a lot to get rid of a secretary and even more to can a field-grade officer. The Hound thinks this is a story that has been underplayed in the Beltway media which remain fixated on the November election even though its mid-June.

Managing this nation's nuclear weapons is a pretty serious job. If they would have seen "Dr. Strangelove" back in 2005 when these two airheads were appointed, they would have known this.

We now find out the Air Force shipped what they thought was helicopter fuses to Taiwan. Instead, they were electrical fuses for Minuteman ballistic missile warheads which happened to be out of U.S. control for about a year-and-a-half. Then there was the B-52 flight that was loaded with nuclear missiles and its crew was sent on a cross-country journey. What if they crashed?

Which begs the question: What else happened that Air Force brass and we don't know?

The Hound has known a few jet jockeys over the years. They are warriors, undoubtedly, and there's nothing like an F-4 Phantom at tree level when you're popping smoke. But they're fliers, not actuaries. Besides, they really don't like pulling guard duty. They like the wild blue yonder.

There appears to be a continuing confusion over Memorial Day. The Hound will clear it up for all you bolos.

Memorial Day, which started out as Decoration Day until the politicians got ahold of a remembrance of those who died in this nation's wars, was always May 30. But, to give federal and state workers a day off, Congress decided in that "me decade" of the '70s to make Memorial Day the last Monday in May.

Memorial Day, aka Decoration Day (because they would decorate graves) dates back to honoring those who died in the Civil War.

Veterans Day is Nov. 11, although Congress tried to change the date to a Monday until veterans' organizations griped about that, considering Veterans Day marks the 11th hour of the 11th month of 1918, the date the Great War ended. Veterans Day remembers all veterans who have served in the nation's armed services.

Armed Forces Day, usually June 14, the date the Continental Army began, honors those currently serving in the nation's military.

So let's review: Memorial Day, honor the dead; Veterans Day, honor those who served; Armed Forces Day, those who are serving.

That should clear up confusion of all of you who want to honor veterans who happened to be lucky and survived combat. Regardless, few of you will be flying flags today saluting any warriors, living or dead.

That's because, as Thomas Paine pointed out a few decades ago, most of you are sunshine patriots. And it's not even summer.

It must be the water. That's the only explanation from some of the crazy goings on in California. The latest was the attempt by the Berkeley City Council to boot the Marine Corps Recruiting Station and permit the outright harassment of Marines in the San Francisco Bay city. Guess they were looking for a fight.

If you haven't thanked a veteran yet, you've still got most of today to find one. Yes, it is Veterans Day, and that is Veterans without the apostrophe because it is not a day that "belongs" to veterans. It is a day for honoring all veterans.

There must be an easier way to get out of the Navy than walking by a moving train and sticking your arm out. That's the only reason The Hound can figure Brandon Garrison, a 20-year-old from Red Bluff, Calif., would then have his arm severed by a Metra train.

There's a big wing-ding set for Friday when the nation's first-ever Navy/Veterans Affairs hospital will be named. Keeping with military and VA SOP, the name is a secret, but The Hound believes he has sniffed out who it will be named for: Astronaut James Lovell.