An American Traitor

Here are some words of wisdom from Bob "Gunny Bob" Newman, one of the Right's second-string psychopaths for hire:

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Robert Garwood. Clayton Lonetree.

Four Americans with one thing in common: they betrayed their country for personal gain....

Today we have a fresh crop of American traitors. To the great humiliation of the legendary Marine Corps, one is a retired Marine Reserve colonel. Another is a former naval officer. The third is a medical doctor and former governor. All three have openly and brazenly aided the enemy by offering them encouragement and incentive to continue their war against America, and all three have knowingly and willingly insulted the American military and attempted to demoralize the very men and women serving in our armed forces, whose mission it is to defend the Constitution of the United States that guarantees the rights of all Americans.

Yet no charges have been brought against these traitors – Rep. John Murtha, Sen. John Kerry and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean – and none will, despite their hero status within al Qaeda....

[Y]esterday, in a radio interview, Howard Dean insisted that the American military was so incompetent and moronic that it stood no chance of victory against al Qaeda in Iraq. Absolutely no chance. Dean is now on Osama’s Ramadan card list....

Kerry, Murtha and Dean have betrayed their country and aided the enemy for personal gain.

Somewhere, two ropes and a prison cell are being wasted.

I don't think I need to comment on these remarks. As Rod Steiger said in The Big Knife, "this man buries himself with his mouth."

Elsewhere, I've documented the Right's typically flexible views about "demoralizing" troops in wartime. The only thing I'd like to add is that there's something supremely offensive - even amongst offenses as enormous as those "Gunny Bob" gets paid to commit - about the notion that American soldiers are a bunch of pathetic, malleable shrinking violets who'll fold like umbrellas if they happen to hear Howard Dean express pessimism about Bush's leadership, or Jack Murtha call for an exit strategy. I honestly don't think that men and women who have the character and determination to make it through basic training, and to face bombs and bullets daily in Iraq, are mere passive receptacles for stateside political rhetoric of any stripe. To suggest that they have to be protected from dissent and debate - while fighting for "freedom," no less - seems to me to be a projection of the right-wing punditry's collective cowardice and weakmindedness onto the only people in the country who are making a real sacrifice in this war.