RE: al-Zarqawi, from Vernsen...

If John Murtha had had his way; if the NY Times and all of the leftwing bloggers had succeeded in undermining the war effort by weakening public support for the Iraqi Operation by just a few more percentage points; if Air America and the increasingly nutty Hollywood politicos had been successful in launching just a few more red herring stories about how this war was being run by paramilitary vigilantes on oil company payrolls; al-Zarqawi would not be dead today or tomorrow. He would be in Iraq or somewhere else in the world, orchestrating death and destruction. This is a man who killed children on school buses, beheaded civilians as a public spectacle and made every effort to incite civil war.

Our troops would be home, yes. Happy? Of course they would be happy to be home with their families, but what about the last 3 years they gave up to pursue a goal, a goal that for some period of each soldier's life was important enough to miss a five year old daughter's birthday, a family Christmas or perhaps a milestone wedding anniversary. A Marine commander, who happens to be a relative of mine said "our goal is to be the last Americans in Iraq" and that means doing the job the right way, making the Iraqi government and people our long-term ally. There is a heartfelt commitment to making this work and they have made progress each day since the "insurgency" began.

This is a professional, volunteer fighting force and no matter how many times the media decide to run Abu Ghraib or Haditha stories, our men and women in uniform do care a great deal about getting the right Iraqis into power and ensuring long-term security for the civilian population. Not one single American who stands for peace and justice can stomach the things that a handful of our troops may have done that are in violation of the Marine Honor Code or our own military justice system. But we do understand that war is hell. And that expeditionary forces performing police duties and subjected to roadside bombs and unyielding assymetrical warfare are far more likely to cross that dreadful line where the enemy becomes everyone who isn't a part of your own fighting unit.

There is so much we still don't know about that particular incident in Haditha, but it is already being used as an indictment of Bush's decision to go into Iraq.

Anyone who watched CNN on the day al-Zarqawi's death was reported, who also happens to see left leaning media bias for what it is, saw that a pall was hanging over the newsroom that day. A good day for George W. Bush is a bad day for anyone on the left. Good news from Iraq will be supressed again by the weekend and all of our Marines will be on trial, not just the few unproud who may have lost control of themselves on the ground.

Some Democrats would have left before we got Zarqawi, others before we got Saddam, but enough of them voted to approve the use of force, that they can't really say we wouldn't have been there in the first place. There is an unwritten immunity agreement between a majority of the press and the left that allows Democrats to change positions without being questioned. Still, no matter how many times John Kerry, Ted Kennedy or others switch their views, the underlying culture is always a culture of defeat and Monday-morning quarterbacking.

Thankfully, this culture of defeat hasn't taken control of the U.S. Military. Let's defeat those whose vision is retreat and appeasement again in November and make sure that we continue to eliminate monsters like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi from the face of the earth.