The American Spectator

Dear Congressman Murtha:

What none of our political leaders has said, I suspect for fear of being attacked by the left and the MSM, is that the Democrats want Iraq to turn into another Vietnam. They want America to lose both the war on the ground and the war of ideas here at home.

They want support for the war to plummet. They truly care nothing for the Iraqi people who are tasting freedom for the first time ever. And for all of their talk of “supporting the troops,” they have no problem undercutting and devaluing the mission and the accomplishments of those same troops. That is the most insidious and cowardly position of all.

There are two reasons they desire a total U.S. failure. First the obvious: they hate George Bush. They hate his clear cut, dare I say simplistic view of right and wrong, good and evil, freedom and servitude. They hate that another non-elitist intellectual (the other being Ronald Reagan), has driven them from power and connected with the American people.

The second reason flows from the first and is even more insidious. They want a total failure in Iraq because they see it as the path back to power. They still haven’t gotten over 1994.

The troops on the ground, the troops here at home preparing to deploy, and the troops around the world who stand guard, ready and willing to beat back those who would destroy America and our way of life, are being told by the Democrats and the anti-war leftists that their service is misguided. What other conclusion can they draw from the words of John Kerry, John Edwards, Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid and their ilk? What other conclusion can they draw from the mainstream media’s coverage – coverage that ignores the incredible accomplishments in Iraq and Afghanistan and focuses on the rare instances of misconduct? Worse, the MSM has tried to paint other tactics in the War on Terror (Gitmo, the secret detention facilities, the use of legitimate interrogation techniques) as tantamount to torture.

Is it any wonder that the troops cannot stand liberal politicians and the MSM?

The Democrats desire the same flames of civil and cultural unrest here in America that they fanned back in their ‘60s glory days. They pray for the likes of a Lt. Kerry who will appear before a congressional committee and slander his brothers in arms with lies and rumors. They lust for protests in the streets and riots on the campuses. They can hear Joanie Baez strumming another lame protest song.

They think the CIA leak investigation will be another Watergate (though with Mr. Woodward’s latest bombshell, they will be sadly disappointed).

The Democrats will fail. The American people will soon understand that we are safer and more secure from terrorism with a flourishing, strong and democratic Iraq. When they come home, our troops will not join the anti-war left, start smoking dope and end up like so many sad disaffected Vietnam Veterans who bought into the culture shift of the '60s and '70s because they came home to jeers, sneers and scorn of these same liberal elitists who now populate the Congress and the higher levels of the MSM.

Our troops, their families and friends, and the majority of normal patriotic Americans are proud of what has already been accomplished in Iraq in so short a time. We know that Iraq is the beginning of a new, free, democratic and economically stable Middle East. And we know that years from now, the hindsight being employed to undercut their efforts by the small minded, short-sighted Democrats, will be seen for what it is — another blip on the wrong side of history. We know that these are the same liberal elitists who scorned Ronald Reagan and urged that he disarm, cut and run and leave the world to the Soviets.

With apologies to the Who: We won’t be fooled again.