…against “Kerrying” our soldiers. Power Line and The Democracy Project have details. A snippet from O’Neill’s New York Sun op-ed:

Are the politicians like Mr. Kerry who led the campaign to send our kids to war (when it was popular) now to withdraw support while they are locked in combat and apparently succeeding because the task is difficult or unpopular? Will Mainstream Media “Kerry” our troops by portraying Abu Ghraib or isolated cases of prisoner mistreatment as the rule to demoralize our troops and nation, while ignoring the beheadings and butchery of those peacefully praying in Mosques or shopping in a Bazaar? Will the press’s selective glorification of isolated figures such as Cindy Sheehan, Mr. Kerry, or Mr. Murtha drown out the actual voices of the large majority of our servicemen? I hope not. We pay our troops little and subject them to considerable danger. We can at the very least support them with stability of mission and honesty of reporting.

Likewise, we ought not to “Kerry” our troops with after-the-battle second-guessing. The fog of combat produces in any war mistake and folly. Both World War II and the Korean War began with wholly avoidable military disasters - Pearl Harbor and the retreat to Pusan. Likewise, the Iraq War has had its share of mistakes and miscalculations (along with brilliant successes). But it simply Kerries our troops in the field to elevate network newsmen (who have likely never even spent a night in a tent) or self-promoted Congressional military heroes with two months of 35 years ago combat in a much different world into armchair Napoleons. That is why we rely instead upon the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the best professional military establishment in the world (when they are left alone). And we should remember the words of Thomas Dewey declining to make Pearl Harbor a campaign issue in 1944: “I would rather lose the presidency and win the war than the reverse.”

On December 23, 1776, with Washington’s army freezing in tatters at Morristown, Thomas Paine in “Common Sense” wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” He noted many mistakes by the American army, but noted that “tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered” and that heaven charges a high price for freedom because it is so precious. It was a time when “the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot shrink … ” but those who stood firm would someday receive the love and appreciation of the nation.

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