Mike Gallagher
Jun 23, 2006

I don’t know what it’s like to feel like a loser. I guess I’d have to ask Congressman John Murtha or Senator John Kerry to find out what that must feel like.

I’m not trying to be arrogant or boastful. Like most people, I’ve had plenty of grim moments, lots of missed opportunities, and times when it just didn’t seem like anything was ever going to go my way again.

But I have never felt like a loser.

When “Jack” Murtha and John Kerry and the other anti-war voices in America rear their ugly heads and trash our noble effort to defeat the terrorists, they represent the very definition of what it means to lose.

To put it simply, they initially supported the war in Iraq by voting for the use of force there. And then, when the going got tough and the reports of bloodthirsty animals who enjoy torturing, detonating and beheading their way to Allah became more pronounced, they decided that it was time to change their minds. They began declaring the war to be “a serious mistake”, and “un-winnable.” They pounced on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal like vultures feasting on a carcass. One of them, the one who is the “highly decorated Marine veteran”, Rep. Murtha, even referred to some of our U.S. Marines as “cold-blood killers” in Haditha, evidently not taking that pesky little reminder about being innocent until proven guilty very seriously.

Osama must be so proud.

The rage and resentment over these anti-war voices in America has been slowly but steadily increasing. The torture killings of two brave U.S. Army soldiers might just bring that anger to a boiling point.

When I place the horrific story of the barbaric slaughter of Army privates Kris Menchaca and Tom Tucker next to the image of bloviating Democrats who want us to withdraw our troops from Iraq, I reach that boiling point quite easily. In fact, whether I’m reacting to the war opposition on radio, TV, or even writing this column, I have to choose my words carefully and precisely. What I’d like to say out loud isn’t fit for broadcast or print. I only wish these malcontents practiced such restraint before beginning one of their loser-friendly game plans for the war on terror.

Actually, the anti-war crowd doesn’t have much of a “game plan” at all. There aren’t any substantive ideas for defeating our enemy. They possess no tangible blueprint for keeping Americans here and abroad safe from evil terrorists. They have just decided it’s time to cut and run, to expect the mighty U.S. military to put its tail between its legs, whimper about how brutal the “insurgents” are, and come home.

From a purely practical standpoint, it boggles the mind how men who pride themselves on how many medals they’ve been awarded in previous wars or who can boast of their margins of victories in various political campaigns can be so comfortable with embracing the theme of America as a losing nation. One has to believe that these are people with a competitive streak. Making a living at a job that is earned by garnering the most votes has to suggest that these are folks who appreciate a good fight, right?

And yet the fight between good and evil is just not something that they can stomach. A battle that REALLY matters, our effort to prevent more 9/11’s by defeating Islamic extremists, isn’t a fight worth fighting to these misguided, pitiful souls.

I received a phone call this week from the father of a close friend to one of the murdered American soldiers. His voice cracked as he described how his son is devastated by the barbaric killing of his buddy. He told me how his son just weeps openly at the thought of his friend being tortured and mutilated by cowards who knew that American and Iraqi forces were bearing down on them as they searched for these abducted men. And he asked me a question that I don’t think I could ever answer: “How could Jack Murtha do this?”

How could he, indeed. How does any elected American official send a message to every filthy terrorist in the world that if you cut off enough heads, we’ll retreat? That if you sicken us enough with your brutal and frightful acts of killing, we’ll leave you alone?

And ultimately, how does any politician fail to believe that as the greatest nation in the world, we are capable of defeating anybody?

These are disgusting, cowardly people. They are opportunists who are more concerned about winning elections than they are doing what’s right. They are willing to believe that the United States isn’t smart or powerful enough to figure out how to defeat terrorists. They pretend that this should be a non-complicated, brief little skirmish.

But most importantly, they freely admit that in the weeks after 9/11, they were proudly supportive of our President who promised to take the war on terror to other parts of the world, but now believe it’s time to pull up stakes and come running home to Mama.

They’re losers.

Let’s just thank God that the winners easily outnumber them.