Grunts Who Carry Rifles

Full Disclosure: I am not a combat veteran, though I served in the United States Army. I have not been shot at nor heard shots fired in anger. I did not serve overseas. But, I have a tremendous respect and profound gratitude for those that did. I am delighted to be the son and grandson and great grandson of "Lifers." Who, between them fought in 5 wars; the Spanish American war, WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. My great granddad was a Sergeant, my granddad a light Bird who was a P.O.W. in the Philippines. And my beloved and missed father who was a "full Bird" on retirement after 32 years of Active duty and three wars.

I am proud of any number of friends who are former Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines. I work with a number of them today. I have counseled a number of vets with posttraumatic stress disorder, lingering psychic wounds from Vietnam. I am proud of all of them as well; they served in hell.

I am proud of the service of Jack Murtha too. Nevertheless, that will not stop me from saying that he is very wrong, and if not senile, is certainly acting that way now. I take with umbrage those who call Murtha a coward, clearly, as his medals suggest he is not. However, that gains him nothing. A man can be a hero 40 years ago and off base today. The hero who was lucky enough to come home in the mid 60's recently said, regarding our military that they are "broken, worn out" and "living hand to mouth," He also said "I predict he'll make it look like we're staying the course," Murtha said, referring to Bush. "Staying the course is not a policy." Of course, Congressman Murtha may not realize that staying the course is as much a policy as getting out now.

I have serious doubts about the Honorable Jack Murtha at this point. The news has played up his "change" from a steadfast supporter of all things military to someone who has turned into an anti-war hero. I debunked this some two weeks ago here. Murtha's call for a pull out resulted in a bitterly fought resolution in the House of Representatives.

The Main Stream Press (the delightedly wicked "liberal press" which liberals fully deny and go to great lengths to "prove" that they are not because after all they are owned by corporations) has been having a field day. Several days ago Senator John "Do you know who I am" Kerry stated that American troops are terrorists:

And there is no reason, Bob [Schieffer on Face The Nation], that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women...

Kerry is of course, in the words of James Taranto a "haughty, French-looking Massachusetts gentleman who by the way served in Vietnam." Kerry is however, even in trouble with the Democratic party's so called base because, in the words of that famous liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas Opined

There's a little kerfuffle inside the Democratic Senate caucus over John Kerry's insistance [sic] in being part of the official party response to Bush's hilarious "plan" in Iraq. Reid originally had designated Sen. Jack Reed to provide the official response. Reed did the "prebuttal" yesterday and had a press conference set up for today.

However, John Kerry stomped over Reed by deciding he was going to hold a press conference this morning as well in a naked bid to steal the limelight. Eventually, Reid was forced to combine the two press conferences to try and maintain a unified Senate Democrat response, but Kerry's antics have generated some ill will.

Much ado about nothing? Perhaps. But several DC Democrats I've spoken to today were not happy with Kerry's antics. And given 1) Kerry's continued inability to clearly articulate a coherent position on the war . . ., and 2) the fact that Kerry voted for it (while Reed did not), it's not hard to see why.

Some of the comments are delightful, especially one near the very end where the commenter acknowledges that the Dem Party Base is "eating their own:"

What we don't need is a refighting of the primaries, or the campaign, with the perception that it was an easy win with 55% of America liking Bush, the war, and 70% believed in the Iraq-911 linkage. It was difficult playing the margins with the media accounting for such ignorance about the war.

The next election will still be difficult with corporate media liking the GOP, and the GOP organization counting the votes. There was nothing Kerry could have done differently in Ohio, so please get over it. The proof is not there or anywhere, definitively, without access to their machines, or a whistleblower.

We need less infighting and eating of our own. Kos posts something like this, and the spin machine comes out. I would say Kos is swiftboating Kerry with made up rumor and misinformation, just as he did during the campaign. He was paid by Dean, and that accounts for some of the resentment. [emphasis added]

But, I digress. The press is also lapping up Howard "Yarrrgggghhhhh" Dean's call for unilateral surrender in an interview with WOAI Radio in San Antonio, Texas:

I've seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, 'just another year, just stay the course, we'll have a victory.' Well, we didn't have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening."

Well, they are all wrong. However, that is not the point of this post. The point of this post is the damage they are doing to the Grunts Who Carry Rifles. As a psychotherapist, one of the things I do when I am working with a parent with an unruly and yes, sometimes even obnoxious child is to drill into their heads that they cannot be their child's friend, they have to be the parent; that there are some very simple behavioral truisms. The first of these is that behavior that is reinforced tends to continue, and behavior that is punished (and sometimes ignored) tends to decrease. In this case, the Democrats who are piling on the "get out now" bandwagon are reinforcing the behavior of the islamo-fascists. Dean alluded to Vietnam, not because it was true, but because that represents the epitome of the anti-war left. Mark Silverberg said it quite well:

In a recent article in the Washington Times, Arnaud de Borchgrave noted that during the Vietnam War, General Giap relied on the American peace movement to weaken American resolve. That had the effect of turning an American military victory into a political defeat. Former North Vietnamese General Staff officer Bui Tin once said that the peace movement was "essential to our strategy." In America, the open support of Hanoi by Jane Fonda, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark (now head of International ANSWER, which coordinates the largest protests) and others "gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses," Bui Tin said. "Through dissent and protest," the US "lost the ability to mobilize a will to win."

Notice that the "get out now" Democrats (and many others, truth be told) are reinforcing the belief that the islamo-fascists have that if they keep up the carnage, continue to psychologically (and physically?) dope up their ignorant followers into suicidal bombings, that the US will pull out and they will win, and then they will turn to other targets. Unfortunately for this to occur the US Military, their allies and the Iraqi's who have joined the police and military to establish a true democracy in the middle east will be harmed in the process. The very guys, described as Grunts (who carry rifles, wh drive trucks, who patch wounds and provide aid even to their sworn enemy in setting up schools, clean water supplies etc.) who will be killed, maimed and given a good dose of psychic-horror that will later morph into PTSD for a future generation of therapists to work with.

The other side of this equation is that behavior that is punished tends not to repeat itself. In the old USSR, acts of terrorism against the Soviet Union were dealt with swiftly and harshly. Terrorists who attacked and killed Russian officials in Lebanon a couple of decades ago were hunted down and "terminated with prejudice" in the spy-thriller vernacular.

Look, this is not rocket science so even the Democrats and wavering RINO's ought to be able to understand, the fastest way out of Iraq is to present a united front, to go after the terrorists with everything we've got, to track down and kill each and everyone we can identify. When the islamo-fascists understand this, they will wither on the vine and maybe, just maybe their movement will die an ignoble death.

But, I'm just as sure that won't happen, as I'm sure that John "Do you know who I am?" Kerry is not going to sign his SF 180. They have a blind side to reality. That is why Kerry still thinks he is the front-runner in the race for the Democratic nomination in 2008, why Howard Dean thinks he can utter defeatism from every podium he can get his hands on. That is why a former hero like Jack Murtha, who having gained the limelight with his bogus “turn around� now demands even more light on him with his "broken" comments. They don't get it, they just don't get it and the guys who bear the brunt of their stupidity, their intransigence, their anti-military ranting, the Grunts Who Carry Rifles will be the ones who pay the price.

So, the next time you hear one of these folk say that they "Support The Troops," call them what they are; LIARS!

Posted by GM Roper at December 6, 2005 07:55 PM | TrackBack