Response To A Comment Below

A liberal poster named Reilly questioned my values and my support for our military in Iraq below. I was going to respond in the comment section, but a full-blown post just seems more appropriate. You can read the post that brought this on if you'd like. It's from December 19th. In his comments, Reilly states

"Let's say I don't support a war waged by my country. Do I hope that my country wins that war? Of course not."

I responded...

"I can't see a situation where I would ever, EVER, want the U.S. to lose a war. Regardless of whether I supported how or why we went to war, I would always support our troops who are fighting. And to me, to support the troops, you have to want them to be victorious. Plain and simple. These 109 Representatives who voted against this resolution have made it clear that they do not support our soldiers. Period."

His retort...

"Good to know where your values lie. [Reilly mistakenly summarizes my comments] 'I don't care why they're fighting, I just want them to win.' So, you'd rather have troops killed in combat than come home (alive) without winning?"

I couldn't let this moronic comment go. I should be more tactful, I know, but I don't understand this degree of flawed liberal crackpot logic. So here we go...

You want to question my values? It's on.

I value each and every human life. Period.

I believe every single person has the God-given (yep, God) right to determine their own destiny, to live their own life, and to be free from the tyranny and misery brought by people like Saddam Hussein.

I believe in doing what we can to give everyone, everywhere, the best life possible. Part of that is allowing them to determine, for themselves, the course of their own future. The course of their nation's future. The Iraqi people are basking in that ability now, for the first time in most of their lives.

My values tell me that the Iraqi people are worth helping, much like the Germans and Japanese were sixty-five years ago, and the South Koreans a decade later.

My values tell me that it's an abomination to sit back and watch while a despot and his twisted, murderous sons kill thousands of their own people with poison gas (heard of the Kurds?), operate rape and torture rooms, and threaten do de-stabilize their entire region.

My values tell me that it's absurd and insulting to politicize a war because of blind hatred of a President.

My values tell me that it's wrong to hate, as so many on the Left seem to hate President Bush.

My values tell me that we must be intellectually honest in our beliefs. Blind allegiance is never good.

My values tell me that it's hypocritical and negligent to vote to send our troops into battle, then deny the need for the war they are involved in, deny financial and moral support for those troops, and then lie and distort the reality of the situation they find themselves in.

I find it morally reprehensible for congressmen and a former president to spend years making claims about Saddam Hussein, but suddenly change their tune when a president from the other party actually does something about those claims.

My values (both human and professionally as a journalist) tell me that it's morally wrong for the media to present blatantly biased coverage of such important goings-on. Journalism has a high calling, and equally high moral standards to which it is bound to adhere. Yet so many mainstream news outlets allow person bias and hatred slant their coverage. Remember, journalism is the only profession specifically mentioned and protected in the Bill of Rights. (For you Lefties, it's in the First Amendment)

As for our troops...

Certainly, I would rather our troops not have to fight. Only an idiot would feel otherwise. But if they must fight, I absolutely do want them to be victorious.

Let me educate you on what I mean by "victorious". To be victorious in battle meant to defeat the enemy, to kill more of them that they kill of us. Yeah, I'm sure that sounds horrible to a bleeding-heart liberal, but in the real world that's what war is about. In war people die, and better it be the enemy than our own soldiers. That's what it means to support our troops, and that's what it means to want victory.

Sure, I'd rather have our soldiers come home alive than killed in battle. Anyone would. But I also want the world to recognize how honorable and brave and heroic our military men and women are. I also want the world to look at the U.S. and see us as a strong, powerful nation. A nation that stands behind our soldiers, sailors and airmen. A nation that stands behind, and defends, our friends.