The citizens of Burlington, Vermont have presented a public opportunity to frame both sides of moral debate.  There is a non-binding ballot measure today, Tuesday, March 6, to allow the good citizens of Burlington to express their displeasure with the F-35 arriving at the 158th Fighter Wing, "The Green Mountain Boys."

They even have a catchy title for their group of self-serving activists: "Save our Skies."

"Charles Simpson is an activist with Save Our Skies – the group that worked to get the item on the ballot. He's also running for Burlington City Council."

To be fair in this discussion, below is what will be decided.  What a mighty "list of horribles" it is, all in the name of families and children.  I have seen this all before, because it is direct from the lineage of liberal activists trying to take the moral high ground since the Vietnam War years:

Our mission is to stop the basing of the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter at the Vermont Air National Guard Station located at the Burlington, Vermont International Airport.  We oppose the basing in order to protect the over 6,000 people living around the airport from the dangers associated with its basing.  Some of these include negative health impacts on children and adults, cognitive impairment in children, reduction in property values, classification of thousands of affordable homes as being unsuitable for residential use, disproportional negative impacts to minorities and people with low incomes, and risk of loss of life from crashes.

There is now another side to this issue, which is to acknowledge the mission of the Green Mountain Boys in defending America and all our allies by going into combat to save true innocents.  The Green Mountain Boys are saving families against the ongoing attacks being made by some of the worst killers in the world, ISIS.

The Green Mountain Boys, men and women from beautiful Vermont, traveled half a world away to stop this generation of ISIS death-loving fanatics:

F-16 pilots with the South Burlington-based 158th Fighter Wing "delivered combat airpower" for Iraqi ground forces within 15 hours of arriving in the Middle East on Dec. 10, the military disclosed in a recent online post about a general's review of U.S. troops.

The battle to retake Mosul – Iraq's second-largest city, with a population of more than a million residents – began in October, two years after Islamic State militants captured the area. Vermonters have been involved in battles for Mosul since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, and two soldiers with Vermont ties have been killed there.

Charles Simpson is a 76-year-old former SUNY Plattsburg professor who obviously lived through the Vietnam War years.  It is unclear from his campaign literature if he ever served in uniform.  Regardless, his ballot measure is perfect for a history lesson of real human tragedy.

A generation was torn asunder during the Vietnam War.  The "Baby Boom" cohort numbered roughly 52 million, with slightly more woman than men.

Of the 52 million Boomers, approximately nine million served in uniform during the war years, and only fewer than three million saw service in the Southeast Asia (SEA) war zone.  Statistically, to this day, those three million are dying at a much faster rate than their non-military peers.

With President Reagan acknowledging that ours was a noble cause, we had renewed faith that our sacrifices were not in vain, however badly the war ended.

During the Vietnam War years, one of the most shameful episodes of moral posturing or slimy "branding" in American history occurred.  The opponents of American's duly elected leaders who sent American youths to fight and some die or suffer horrendous wounds, with white-hot anger, successfully blamed the warrior for the war.  The cry of "murderers" and "baby-killers" was leveled by many against the few.

All fellow Vietnam vets I know tried to ignore the insults and simply get on with their lives.  As the late great reporter Peter Brestrup told me, it was a real compliment to a generation of warriors that they never complained that they were "stabbed in the back," as did many veterans of previous armies in a defeat.

Since the truth is the truth, my fellow Marines flying out of the Royal Thai Air Base, known as the Rose Garden in the last days of the Vietnam War, were, along with Air Force and Navy Pilots, trying to stop the pure evil of the Khmer Rouge.

When the war ended in August 1973, with the Cambodian Killing Fields yet to come, the liberal activists, most of whom had insulted those in uniform, turned a blind eye to the truly dedicated fascist murderers and baby-killers.

That was then, this is now, and no longer should those in uniform have to suffer fools who morally posture and virtue-signal without pointing out the real-world consequences of their selfish stupidity.

So if the good citizens of Burlington want to have a list of F-35 "horribles" to vote down, that is their right.  But let all Americans look through the prism of global information war and kinetic war at the consequences of their stated goals.  Since they want to stop the next generation of air power to keep us all safe, two can play at this game.

We are a nation at war, and the great lineage of Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys continues to keep us safe, directly engaging against ISIS, while some smug people sleep snugly in their bed.

The Atlantic magazine has captured the other side of the debate against the moral posturing of the "Save our Skies" movement.  If the people vote against the F-35, this is but one example of what the petition is supporting.

Yazidi women and children [are to be] divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations [in northern Iraq.] ... Enslaving the families of the kuffar [infidels] and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Koran and the narrations of the Prophet ... and thereby apostatizing from Islam.

We need to engage in the battle of ideas as well, for it is the West that is the enemy, not "Jews" or "Christians," Shiites or Sunni.  It is about dominance via exploiting ideological purity and mobilization of the "faithful" to achieve the purity of rule desired by the ISIS leadership and followers.

So please do not give ISIS a victory by allowing insults against those risking everything to keep us safe.  It is long past time to call out a generation of aging Boomers who showed the world that they were the true "hollow men" of a generation.