The Democrats are at least declared enemies who confront the Republican majority, proudly stating their goals and trying  to filibuster, rabble-rouse, slander, and essentially disrupt any republican attempts to get things done. They are akin to the North Vietnamese Army I fought against in South Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. I do not mean shooting and trying to kill my comrades or me, but the NVA were an organized, well-equipped, well-trained, motivated army who believed in their communist cause, were patriotic in their own way, and  who effectively used strategy and military tactics against our forces.

RINOs, (Republicans in Name Only) however are more akin to the Viet Cong guerillas I also had to fight against in South Vietnam. They could be more dangerous, because most of the time the VC, or Viet Cong, worked alongside us during the day as interpreters, members of our allied South Vietnamese Army, local farmers, merchants, and rice growers, or laborers. Friends we trusted, foreign nationals we employed. At night, they would, like serpentine predators, slither into their damp dark holes and hidden tunnels under their villages, secure their weapons, and come out to ambush the very men they had worked for and befriended during the day.

Similarly, RINOs in our government aren’t even on the same plane as Democrats, because they betray their own cause, their own party, in order to further personal agendas or dance to the dictates of the lobbyist special interests who put and keep them in power. They are, even more so than Democrats, the tap-dancing fools of puppet-masters like free enterprise-hating multi-billionaire George Soros, who has proudly bragged in interviews that he can and has changed the economy of entire nations. He uses the prostitution of power of our own Democrat and Republican politicians who sell themselves for votes, self-aggrandizement, money, and power.  Some may have even started with principles early in their political careers but evolved into fork-tongued serpents along the way.

In the US Army Special Forces we asked no quarter and gave no quarter, but these RINOs are more like the Viet Cong who would give you a phony smile during the day and call you “friend,” then under the cover of darkness, would shoot at you or try to stab you from the shadows. You never knew they were the enemy until they would spring their ambush, try to blow you up with a sneak attack while you were asleep, or poison your food, and they would booby trap your pathway constantly.

I was a district coordinator in a Top Secret CIA-run program in South Vietnam called the Phoenix Program, in which we would identify, target, and eliminate the “Shadow Government” in every city, province, village, and hamlet that led and controlled the Viet Cong guerillas. It was called the National Liberation Front. You can read about the Phoenix Program now on search engines. We, in the Republican Party, need a more pacifistic Phoenix Program now to rid ourselves by outing, expulsion, and confrontation, those in our party who have become like our own unarmed Viet Cong, serpent-like guerillas in our midst who glad-hand us during the day and fight against us behind our backs at night. So doing to further their own agendas while siding with our enemy, the democrats, who at least have the courage to declare their intent. Real rhinos are powerful beastly animals that will attack you head on, not cowardly, beady-eyed, crooked serpents, with no testicles, and only attack from a shadowy ambush or when cornered.

Let us truly enlighten our enemies and no longer let ourselves be attacked from the shadows by cowardly serpents. Let us root them out of their holes, bring them into the bright light of day, and remove them from our ranks.

Don Bendell, is a best-selling author, a 100% disabled Green Beret Vietnam veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame.  Don owns the Strongheart Ranch in southern Colorado, named for his number one best-selling western.