K.T. Cole spoke at the annual Colley Senior Complex Veterans Breakfast, but he decided to take a different route.

“I love my country. A lot of my good friends gave their lives for this country, but I don’t like my country’s current policies,” Cole said. “We are taking 2.6 billion dollars from veterans and giving it to a program that is for illegals.”

Cole explained that the Troy community is used to his “rah-rah” speeches, but he felt like he needed to take a different approach for the breakfast Wednesday morning.

“I love the smiles when I do my rah-rah speeches,” Cole said. “But I don’t see a whole lot to smile about.”

Cole started with World War II and went over the basics of each war, highlighting the motives and the strategies. WWII, Cole said, had a clear objective and that the men did not fight in tours, they fought in duration and some of the men fought for four years.

Cole said after WWII, the country’s motive’s for fighting went downhill. He said that the Korean War was a no-win situation.

“It was just to stop the communists,” Cole said. “What kind of objective is that?”

Cole fought in Vietnam himself, and said there were still no “clear cut lines” in the war. “You can’t fight a war when you go to the enemy and talk about how you are going to fight,” he said.

The Gulf War brought back the country’s patriotism, Cole said, remembering how he cried when he watched the coverage on television.

“It’s okay to be against the war,” Cole said. “Do not be against the warrior. He is doing what his country told him to do.”

Cole said that he always hears the phrase ‘they need to do something about that.’

“We are upside down, folks,” he said. “We are the ‘they’ now, and we need to do something about it. I’m hoping that our country will get some clear lines of what we are going to do before we send our boys into harm’s way.”

The ones attending the breakfast are not today’s heroes, Cole said. He said they are the ones currently serving.

Unfortunately, they aren’t serving in the same military they once did.

“Our military is at the lowest levels in history,” Cole said. “If stuff hits the fan, I wonder if we are even going to be allowed to fight.”