"...The lady doth protest too much, me thinks..."The American Soldier is indeed being betrayed, by the unholy axis of Defeatists... Pelosi, Kerry, and yes--brave, brave Sir Murtha.
Yes, she does protest and has been protesting with most or all of the high moral and ethical values our Founding Fathers include in our Declaration of Independence and The Constitution. Ever since her ascendancy to chair the California Democratic Party and embrace her brand of political "progressiveness," House Leader Nancy Pelosi has consistently sought legislation belying her faith and belief in these documents.
In fact, if truth be known, she, now one of the most powerful women in America is probably planning to rewrite these revered historical documents, with her confrere and collaborator, Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha, in order to punctuate their a posteriori reasoning.
Despite all the evidence, it is Vice President Dick Cheney's contention that thwarting President Bush's troop "surge" in Iraq, as the Pelosi/Murtha bloc proposes, would in effect "validate" al-Qaida's strategy to break the will of the American people. This "slow bleed' Pelosi/Murtha unsubtle stratagem would link the $93.4 billion spending bill for Afghanistan and Iraq to an imposition of almost impossible conditions on the training, equipping of our military.
Simply put, Pelosi and Murtha maintain that our troops would not, under their resolution, have the training, would NOT have the equipment, would NOT have the proper rest and ergo! would NOT be able to function as a fighting machine.
How does one interpret such chicanery, such a deceitful action? Patriotism? Treason? Traitorous? Or merely concern for the safety of our troops, allowing them to hurry home, their tail between their legs?
Resolutions of every size, content and conceit have been flooding Congress, especially by "patriotic' Democrats who always seem to interpret a win as a grant of some sort of nobility and an endowment of unparalleled wisdom and perspicacity. Congressman Levin solemnly disparages Bush's "surge" as a "plunge." Sens. Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer seek to rewrite or decertify the war by nullifying the 2002 congressional authorization for the use of military force to remove Saddam Hussein and, thus, curb President Bush's option to fight and win the war against terror. And, in their words - as our enemies listen and our troops hear - "the pressure will mount, not unlike Vietnam, and Bush, now with a grievously flawed strategy and misplaced obsession, will per force, call the troops home." Huzzah!
Al-Qaida, the radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Iran, who supplies Iraq insurgents with killing weaponry, welcome all the congressional dissent. They laughingly enjoy the many defeatist signs signaling them via a Chinese-like menu of anti-Bush resolutions to pick from: Column A or Column B ... or even C or D. In effect, welcoming an American inglorious failure.
Quit. Appeasement. Surrender. The precise words interpreting these "non-binding" resolutions, especially those of strategists Pelosi and Murtha, are effectively eroding the morale of our military. In another war, and another generation, America stood as one and fought as one. Victory was the only resolution ... not the spineless and cowardly endeavors of a Congress that dares not defund the war effort, while aiming for a political and ideological win.
Memories of Cassino, Yorktown, Valley Forge, Battle of the Bulge, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Ho Chi Minh City and the heroes who gave their lives and those who still carry their wounds - physical and mental - still live with us. Indelibly. Yet, members of Congress ... even those who claim to have earned distinguished military honors, conveniently forget, that ALL gave selflessly to achieve freedom ... freedom from brutality ... from slavery ... from secular immorality and freedom to live and love.
For the first time in a very critical phase of WWII, American troops were forced to retreat from Alsace Lorraine in the dead of night due to a fuel shortage and German armies mounting a final putsch to turn the war around. The scuttlebutt was that a black market at home caused the shortage. We cursed the culprits, hoping that hell would befall them with a bitter taste of war on home's doorsteps. (emphases added-ed.)
This should not be our wish. We need no repeat of 9/11 to shake and awaken us to the danger of terror. Yet, we invite terror to our very doorsteps with our pusillanimous partisan vacillations, whiny protests and the loss of faith in our will to win ... and our will to expunge the implacable jihadi enemy: terrorism.
Joseph J. Duome is a former New York newsman and WWII veteran.
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