 I have a table at Sunduk Pub on Mykhalivska Street in Kyiv. When I'm in the city I sit there normally at least once a day. Some days I bring my computer and write. The folks at Sunduk are kind to me, even indulgent. The music on tape is good. My table is in a cubicle, near the bar, next to a speaker. I sit below a red fluorescent neon sign that reads "Old America". Within my cubicle all the pictures are Confederate. There is a picture of General Robert E. Lee, the military leader of the Confederacy on his horse "Traveler" leading the troops. There is another of Lee and one I thought was Stonewall Jackson in a church with a young boy and girl on either side. I say 'I thought Stonewall', that's because I now recognize that it might be General Longstreet. They look similar to me, both with long black beards. There are other pictures - six or so - one appearing to be of the destruction of Atlanta.
Anyway, it's a comfortable place with good people, good food at reasonable prices. Normally I'm alone.
 Sunday, March 25 was different. Basil Tarasko and I were to meet at my table at 1:00 pm. Harold Weissman was to be with him. At about 1:15 pm Basil called. I was about to take my shower, clean up and go to Sunduk. I had missed the time change. Embarrassed, unwashed, I went to meet Basil and Harold. They were at my table.
Regular readers may know of Basil, the Little League promoter for Ukraine. We've periodically written of him in these pages. Actually he's been a lot more than that. He's made 44 or 45 trips to Ukraine since 1991. He promotes baseball and softball and goodwill. And, to me, he seems now stretched thin. But, he assures me; he's getting help now. I think to my self, "some, little help". He had just returned from Kerch and he'd been in Simferopol. He was leaving the next day for the Sumy region. He called me the day after he arrived in Kyiv. He has been in Odesa, Donetsk, Kirovohrad, Rivne, etc. - all of Ukraine is his territory.
Fortunately, he had young Harold Weissman to help him on this trip. Harold's been on maybe 10 or 11 of Basil's trips. Four years ago I met young Harold at an orphanage in Zhytomyr. He was throwing and fielding baseballs in the orphanage with the young children. He was teaching. The kids did a good job. Some even seemed as young as the then 78-year-old Harold.
Which brings me back to my table on Sunday. Turns out Basil was there working on volunteers. A young man named Nathan showed up. Nathan, a Vermont native, is a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Kolomiya in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. Turns out Nathan knows - is actually best friends with Vitaly of bed and breakfast fame, of which we wrote a couple of months back.
Then a woman, a very attractive young lady named Natalia, who Basil had volunteered for something showed up. She sounded to me like she'd been in the United States most of her life. She even had a 'Seinfeld' type American sense of humor.
 Then there was Marina that I invited. She, a 26-year-old Ukrainian lawyer. Also very attractive. She came because she wanted to meet some genuine New York people. Basil and young Harold are both life-long residents of Queens and have spent plenty of time in Manhattan. Basil immediately volunteered her for typing some instructions for a Ukrainian handout.
Anyway, an interesting day at my table.
So why do I write all this?
Well, one…it helps me remember. And two, I want to promote Basil and Little League baseball. The job Basil is doing is important. He does need help. He needs volunteers. He needs money. He is working with kids. Orphanages. Why? I don't know. Maybe he likes kids. I know he loves baseball. Maybe he wants that a Ukrainian someday might play in the major leagues. He is a scout for the
San Diego Padres. Ah, one now sees his ulterior motives.
Well, no. He's just doing this because I think he enjoys it. And he believes in it. And it is important.
And I write this because of part of the conversation that Sunday. Concerning young Harold, now 82 years of age.
I'm not sure how it started. Something about Iraq. And Harold said something like…"not worth one more life". Sounded like a veteran to me. Something my daddy could have said. Somehow I've learned over time that those most vehemently opposed to war are those who have been there.
I tied to probe a little. I learned that Harold was late for Omaha Beach but he was right on time to be a 19-year old sitting in a Sherman tank at the Bulge
(the Battle of).
As reported:
- The coldest, snowiest weather "in memory" in the Ardennes Forest on the German/Belgium border.
- Over a million men, 500,000 Germans, 600,000 Americans (more than fought at Gettysburg) and 55,000 British.
- 3 German armies, 10 corps, the equivalent of 29 divisions.
- 3 American armies, 6 corps, the equivalent of 31 divisions.
- The equivalent of 3 British divisions as well as contingents of Belgian, Canadian and French troops.
- 100,000 German casualties, killed, wounded or captured.
- 81,000 American casualties, including 23,554 captured and 19,000 killed.
- 1,400 British casualties 200 killed
- 800 tanks lost on each side, 1,000 German aircraft.
So, 19,000 Americans killed in just over a month. Harold was there. Old soldiers don't talk much of war. At least those that have really seen it. Harold talked, but not of war so much. He talked of
a pass he got, where he went, the good time he had. He talked of waiting for his ship to go home. He talked of how much better his tank corps had it than the infantry at the Bulge. He talk of how they, his tank corps, had it so good they disdained the cheeses they received as part of their food ration and gave it to the poor, suffering, but grateful infantry. He did not talk of the bad things he saw or endured.
I mentioned Iwo Jima, the Pacific theater. I said I thought we lost maybe as many as 3,400 people in the first week. Later I looked up and found that there were approximately 6,000 American deaths in that roughly one month campaign.
Harold said at age 20 when he left for home he believed no more wars would be fought, no more bullets fired.
He knows now that the optimism of youth has room for error.
On Iraq, the Mid-East, the war on terrorism? The discussion did not conclude.
But, a point I tried to make is that this place we are at is the same as ever.
In this war, fanaticism prevails on one side. We can bring our troops home, as Harold would want. But, they will not let us leave.
Possibly if we leave now, we will save American lives.
But, this religious fervor that treats the entire world outside their world as infidels and in need of subjugation or destruction, death, will ultimately have to be defeated.
These terror masters, these true believers, these people that can teach their followers to walk away from a bomb-rigged vehicle and leave their children in it to die, at some point will have to be defeated.
And they will not quit. Someday, they will manage an outrage even greater than the towers in New York. Say, 50,000 people in a football stadium; 200,000 in downtown Chicago - something like this.
And then many innocent Muslims will die. Damascus, Baghdad, Tehran will find commonness with Dresden, the firebombing of Tokyo, and even worse.
We, a civilized people…have far greater capacity to destroy and kill than those aligned against the Great Satan.
So, we leave. We don't lose in the short-term anymore American lives. In 4 plus years we've lost over 3,000 of our sons and daughters. And fathers and mothers suffer and weep. More at the Bulge and at Iwo Jima, in a much shorter time frame. Perhaps, back in the nineteen-forties Americans weren't so civilized and smart as now.
How civilized will we be when we soon have to subdue fanaticism at the costs of millions of innocent Muslim lives?
As Nathan the Peace Corps Vermonter left the table, 82-year old Harold Weissman got up, shook his hand and thanked him for the great job he was doing for his country.
Harold thanked Nathan.
I thank God for the service of Harold.
Harold Weissman, hero.
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