Not Fooled Again

From the Washington Post:

Democrats fumed last week at Vice President Cheney's suggestion that criticism of the administration's war policies was itself becoming a hindrance to the war effort. But a new poll indicates most Americans are sympathetic to Cheney's point.

Seventy percent of people surveyed said that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale -- with 44 percent saying morale is hurt "a lot," according to a poll taken by RT Strategies. Even self-identified Democrats agree: 55 percent believe criticism hurts morale, while 21 percent say it helps morale.

Any casual observer who knows anything about the military and who is honest could figure out that the congressional Democrats’ recent push to 'get out of Iraq ASAP' is hurting troop morale. Even during peacetime, most American GIs want to feel as though they are making a difference and that the homefront is behind them. During wartime--when those same GIs are under more frequent threat of life and limb--that feeling is amplified a thousand times.

When you have seen some of your buddies have died around you and you're aware that you might be next, what must it feel like to read the Internet and paper publications and find out that the congressmen and women who sent you there are ready to bail out leaving all the good works you've done to be trashed by the likes of the terrorist Zarqawi and his spiritual daddy, bin Laden? What must it feel like to see your countrymen spread rumors that you have used illegal chemical weapons--rumors born of mind-boggling ignorance (of weapons, of intelligence, you name it) in order to dirty your good name?

What must it feel like to know that if you and your comrades aren’t allowed to finish the task set before you that the type of men who would put hand grenades inside of toys would have free reign in Iraq?

What must it feel like to know that some of your countrymen want Iraq to be the next Vietnam, want you do become as demoralized as many of our honorable Vietnam veterans became and want peace-loving Iraqis to become the next people to die in droves while the living suffer under the next brutal dictatorship?

That there are people who care more about regaining political power than they care about America's honor, the honor of those who have died defending freedom, the honor of those who still live to defend it and the lives and liberty of a foreign people shouldn’t be a surprise, but it is.

However, it's wonderful to know that a large portion of the American public see such people for what they are.

(Thanks to John Cole)

(Cross-posted at Gut Rumbles)