Politics & Power Quote by Bo Gritz

The line reads like a quiet confession, but it’s also a tactical reframing: the enemy isn’t the jungle, the prison camp, or even the opposing army. It’s “politics,” cast as a meddling third party that can wedge itself between “us” and “our POWs.” That possessive pronoun does heavy lifting. “Our” turns prisoners of war into a moral obligation and a family claim, not a bureaucratic category. It’s a soldier’s way of asserting custody over a duty the state is supposed to honor.

Bo Gritz’s background matters here. Emerging from the post-Vietnam ecosystem where MIA/POW anxiety became a persistent national ache, he speaks from a culture that often felt abandoned by institutions and soothed by the promise of direct action. The sentence is built on a tension every veteran recognizes: battlefield loyalty versus the distant logic of elected officials, diplomats, and public relations. “Still” signals he’s already in motion, already committed to a mission or relationship, but he anticipates interference from above. It’s less fear than distrust.

Subtextually, the quote doesn’t just worry about policy disagreements; it implies betrayal. Politics becomes a contaminant that can dilute urgency, complicate rescue, or trade human lives for strategic optics. The phrasing is careful enough to sound reasonable, yet it invites a sharper conclusion: when governments hesitate, the soldier imagines himself as the last honest broker. That’s why it works rhetorically: it positions moral clarity against institutional calculation, and dares the reader to choose a side.