From Glenn Reynolds (Forbes‘ #7-ranked Web Celebrity):
OLD CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: “Rumsfeld and Bush should have listened to the generals.”
NEW CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: Shut up, generals.
Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), until recently chairman of the Armed Services Committee, chiding Army Lt. Gen. David H . Petraeus to stay out of the “politics of war”.
All the General was doing is answering honestly when asked by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) if Senate resolutions condemning White House Iraq policy “would give the enemy some comfort.”
General Patraeus answered, “That’s correct, sir.”
You can argue whether or not these resolutions harm the moral of the troops (they do). But there’s no way that you can argue that this doesn’t “comfort the enemy”. Any talk from our Senators and Congressmen about pulling out of Iraq, decreasing the number of troops, or handcuffing our troops ability to engage the enemy definitely brings them comfort.
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I’m sure it gives great comfort to al Qaeda that Bush invaded the wrong enemy.
Yes, Robbie, talking in opposition to the war and passing resolutions against it might not be that good for troop morale, but not in any way that can’t be cured by taking them out of that god-forsaken hell hole. It would be a hell of a lot easier to cure their morale problems in that way than it would be to cure all the problems a lot of them are going to have the longer they are over there.
One good look at their wives, children, parents, etc., and suddenly I think their low morale over not accomplishing the “mission” will fade like a snow on a warm spring day.
Yeah, we’d better be careful not to criticize and question, or else the terrorists will get comfort…from us using our freedom of free speech.
Hey, why not just burn the Constitution?
Nazar-that would probably be okay with a lot of conservatives, so long as you don’t wrap it up in a flag before you burn it.
Irony: The Senators wish Gen.Patraeus God Speed, vote him his star, and now prepare to vote against the reinforcements he says he needs to succeed. As for the cowardly and poliically self serving public statements about no morfe troops and retreat now or in a few months made in public by Hagel, Warner, Kennedy, Murtha & Co., if I were the enemy I’d be celebrating all day and all night. This sort of talk and behavior, of course, used to be known as giving aid and comfort to the enemy. No wonder Mark Twain called politicians “America’s only native born criminal class”. Some things and people never change.
W.R. Pickering
Our war in Iraq is a war for hearts and minds. Unfortunately, the war will not be won or lost in Iraq. It will be lost here in America as the halfhearted quit the battle before it is complete.
Thank god today’s politicians were not around during Vaeely Forge.