A comment on a comment: James Webb, Hugh Hewitt

The following is a comment left on the Hugh Hewitt Blog on Townhall.com. The poster, "gunjam," makes a number of very good points. Specifically - excoriating the cerebral, intelligent, critical, conservative right - for NOT doing its patriotic duty by giving the President and other Republicans a free pass for the past six years.

gunjam
writes:
Saturday, January, 27, 2007 9:16 PM

A Different Take
I served in the Air Force for over 10 years. I never saw combat. I don't like Webb that much, but I surely would have voted for him over that empty suit, George Allen. As WND Editor Joseph Farah pointed out, both Allen and Webb spent their campaign seeing which of the two could out-do the other in finding ways to send Farah's daughters into combat. Farah (who now lives in Virginia) indicated before the election that he planned on voting for neither of the two leading candidates.

_

I think the Hugh Hewitt-posted piece from the serving Naval officer who knew Webb at Annapolis is very eloquent, articulate, and compelling. I do not think Webb is a great guy, but I do respect him more than i respect either George Allen -- or failed former Sec Def Dumbsfeld.

What i don't understand is how Hugh Hewitt and most of you posters here can dissect James Webb into tiny pieces (when he is only a freshman senator with ZERO impact on Defense policy for the past three years), while both Hugh and most of you guys gave the abysmally incompetent Bush/Dumbsfeld Team a virtual free pass on Iraq for the past 18 months. (I can accept tolerating their incompetence for the first 18 months, but after that, you became their enablers.)

_

If Hewitt and his listeners had made even 10% as much noise about the Dumbsfeld/Bush idiocies in Iraq (to wit: an obstinate and continued refusal significantly to increase military manpower -- both in Iraq and DoD-wide, hand-cuffing our troops in harm's way with overly-restrictive rules of engagement, overly-zealous prosecutions of military men for evils both real and imagined, an overly-sensitive reaction to press criticism about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and -- generally -- an overall tepidness about seeking out, engaging, and KILLING the enemy -- Exhibit 'A' being the reality that Moqtada al-Sadr's carcass is still above-ground, breathing, and functioning, despite General Sanchez's statement circa 2004 that this longtime America-hater needed to be either killed or captured) as you are doing now about Webb's foibles and errors, the surge might have been begun (and possibly even won) prior to the 2006 elections -- and the Republicans might still enjoy control of at least one house in Congress.

Bush/Dumbsfeld (and their candy cane generals) squandered three years, men's lives, money, and the public's goodwill virtually unchallenged by the Hugh Hewitts, Bill Bennetts, and Rush Limbaughs of the world. A courageous and principled exception to this trend was John McCain. Another voice in the wilderness has been that of radio talk-show host Michael Savage, who called the Bush/Dumbsfeld team's hand on their effeminate tactics sometime ago.

_

I am glad that President Bush has (possibly?) finally extricated his head from wherever he has had it embedded for the past three years and -- realizing that his back is against the wall due to frittered opportunities -- has (after losing control of Congress) finally ordered up a surge that I fully support and earnestly wish to succeed. However, his statement this week that it is apparently ONLY NOW okay for our troops to kill hostile Iranian agents working in Iraq is simply risible -- by reason of its having come three years too late.

_

Why are Hugh Hewitt et al not raising cain over the President's belated greenlighting of killing Iranian agents by our troops? Apparently, because it is easier to kick around a freshman Democratic senator from Virginia who has served in combat and who has served as a Secretary of the Navy under the greatest President of the latter half of the 20th Century.

_

In short, let's major on majors: Like firing and retiring candy-cane generals (such as Casey) who lack the requisite fire in their belly to win wars yet have time to kibbitz at the ultra-liberal, ultra-globalist Council of Foreign Relations (of which the AF CSAF is a member!?).

_

Let's encourage John McCain in his opposition to moving General Casey to the prestigious position of Chmn, JCS. That appointment would send a terrible message to the troops in the field.

_

James Webb is a sideshow: Bush, Dummy (now Gates), and their generals are the main event. And we all gave them a pass. My free pass to them ended in 2005 when my eyes were opened by what my soldier son experienced in the way of politically-correct command and control during his tour in Iraq.

_

For Hewitt and most of you posters, I fear your free pass to Bush/Dumbsfeld/CandyCane Generals is still valid.

_

Now my son is deployed again -- this time to Afghanistan. I am all for the surge, for victory, and for killing the enemy. Better late than never -- and, as Hugh Hewitt has eloquently argued on his show this week -- the stakes are enormously high.

_

I just wish President Bush and his generals had been for these things all along.

_

Sadly, they were not.And we gave them a free pass.

_

Shame on us.

-- gunjam