Some war critics cross the line

Hurting moraleSome war critics cross the line
From: The New Hampshire Union Leader
FOR AN OPPOSITION party, criticizing the prosecution of a war is a tricky thing. Comments must be carefully crafted, arguments made with precision. If they are not, they can do more harm than good. The mass of elected Democrats, unfortunately, have yet to learn that.
In their zeal to hang the Iraq war around President Bush’s neck like an albatross, the Democrats have taken the war effort’s low approval ratings as a license for relentless criticism, little of it constructive. These armchair generals have nearly reached the point of calling the war unwinnable, and some critics have done even that.
Few would begrudge the Democrats their criticism were it given clearly for patriotic rather than partisan purposes. But much of it is not. And Americans can sense that. A recent RT Strategies poll found that only 30 percent of Americans think the Democrats are bad-mouthing the war effort because they hope to improve its execution. Most think the Democrats are just trying to score points against a Republican President and Congress. The poll also found that most Americans think Democratic criticism of the war is hurting troop morale. It is hurting morale at home, too.
To be very clear, we do not think that criticizing the war or its execution makes one unpatriotic. There are plenty of patriotic citizens who think the war is unjust or cannot be won, Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha being a notable example.
But too much criticism has focused on the American death toll and presented that as the only score to be kept, deliberately ignoring the enormous accomplishments our men and women in uniform have achieved under brutal conditions in a country very suspicious of American motives.
This, we think, crosses the line. To pretend that our fighting forces are losing this war, and attempt to convince the American people of this, just to gain partisan political advantage is to put one’s self-interest over the nation’s interest. And that is the very definition of unpatriotic.