Random thoughts on Iraq, WMDs, and Cowards. Oh, and Peggy Noonan.

My uncle recently sent me this article written by one of my favorite columnists, Peggy Noonan. Please read it when you get a chance. I was particularly struck by this simple, yet very profound thought:

Later Howard Dean, that human helium balloon ever resistant to the gravity of mature judgment, said of the administration that they lied us into war. He left no doubt that he meant they did it deliberately and cynically. But there seems to me a thing that is blindingly obvious, and yet I've never seen it remarked upon. It is that an administration that would coldly lie us into Iraq is an administration that would lie about what was found there. And yet the soldiers, searchers and investigators who looked high and low throughout Iraq made it clear they had found nothing, an outcome the administration did not dispute and came to admit. But an administration that would lie about reasons would lie about results, wouldn't it? Or try to? Yet they were candid.

Indeed. Good thought, yes? Yet another question I'd love a liberal to answer for me someday.

I also recently received a comment from another favorite writer and blogger, Ms. Amy Proctor, and she kindly gave me permission to re-publish. Please visit her blog and spend some time browsing around. You won't regret it.

Ms. Proctor's husband is in the military, and she consistently has a unique perspective to share with us about the war and how our men in the military feel about it.

Here she replies to a recent post of ours rounding up the reactions to the Iraqi elections yesterday. Of course the dems are down-in-the-mouth that it was a success, but that was to be expected. Specifically she takes issue with the "cut and run" cowards that, had they had their way, would have rendered this huge success in Iraq impossible.

Jean Schmidt only parrotted what the military really thinks. While active duty soldiers and their families respect immensely Murtha for his prior service, as opposed to, say, draft dodger Bill Clinton, we are all puzzled by Murtha’s comments, particularly initially. He spoke in either misinformation or lies, in which case he needs to either get a new fact checker or go to confession. His comments about the tactical mission and the activity of the enemy are simply wrong.

What we in the military know to be cowardly is cutting and running. (I'm an Army wife, not a soldier, to be clear) Murtha specifically said in his initial statements that the US needs to pull its troops, against their will I might add, from Iraq immediately. This is what some call immediate withdrawal. In the military we call it cutting and running. All are accurate. This is a recipe for absolute disaster and we have learned from Clinton and Len Aspen’s military disaster in Mogudishu that our enemies take it as a victory when we do such. And, we learned from an interview with Osama Bin Laden about the incident that terrorists see America as a paper tiger that will flee with it’s tail between it’s legs when American soldiers are killed. This is NOT the mentality of the courageous military, but of Democratic politicians who are out of touch with military reality.

So it is cowardly, militarily speaking, to cut and run. War hero? Perhaps. But John Murtha is NO hero now. Lookit, my husband went on over 200 raids, hundreds of convoys, engaged terrorists in combat etc. and it is totally counterproductive for American politicians to use treasonous rhetoric that makes more terrorists want to fight against us. Murtha and other Dems are aligning themselves ideologically with OUR ENEMIES. When my husband is in Iraq, or I think of all our friends there, or our Iraqi friends and all they’ve had to endure, it is unthinkable that a ‘war hero’ would speak in such an irresponsible and frankly unsubstantiated manner. I wouldn’t mind it because the Dems will continue to lose elections, but I do mind it because anyone who gets into ideological bed with terrorists and their pillow talk is about how wrong and terrorizing OUR troops are makes us sick. So there. Murtha is indeed by any military standard a COWARD for suggesting US immediate withdrawal.

Liberals will never understand that they are giving aid and comfort to the enemy while they stand there screeching about "torture" and "Gitmo" and "immediate withdrawal". They say our armed forces are "broken". I say they're the ones that are "broken". Mentally, morally and ideologically broken, all of them.

Thank you, Amy Proctor and Peggy Noonan. Keep it comin'!