Poll: Democrats Hurting Troop Morale
Interesting...
That last point is one I've been making again and again. All this dissent from Democrats over Bush's foreign policy decisions has less to do with sound policy than it has to do with winning elections.
Many will ask, in response to this poll, "Are Democrats not allowed to speak out against foreign policies they disagree with?" The answer is: Of course they are. The problem is not the dissent itself but rather the what is driving the dissent.
Democrats have been telling Americans, almost since the beginning of this war, that Iraq is a "quagmire." That we cannot win. That things are going terribly and we should just cut and run. Yet our troops, who are actually on the ground and dealing with the day-to-day realities of our occupation of Iraq, don't feel that things are going terribly at all. They believe in their mission and feel that they're making great progress. They are inflicting casualty ratios on the enemy that near 20 or 30 dead terrorists to every one dead American soldier. They are rebuilding schools and hospitals. They are watching as democracy they fought for takes root in a long-oppressed land.
So when they compare their reality with the bill of goods being sold to the American people by leftist politicians and the mainstream media what else are they to feel but demoralized?
Perhaps they wouldn't feel demoralized if the story from Democrats and the media matched, in any way, the reality they know in Iraq, but the fact is that it doesn't, and the disconnect between Democrat griping and reality is what has the soldiers feeling down. Perhaps if Iraq really was going terribly, if the situation were really as hopeless as the left would have us all believe, the troops would feel encouraged by the idea that someone at home was getting it right. Instead, because the rhetoric from the left doesn't match reality, the troops feel like they're being undermined at home by a bunch of power-hungry politicians.
And that's a shame.
Washington Post - Democrats fumed last week at Vice President Cheney's suggestion that criticism of the administration's war policies was itself becoming a hindrance to the war effort. But a new poll indicates most Americans are sympathetic to Cheney's point.
Seventy percent of people surveyed said that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale -- with 44 percent saying morale is hurt "a lot," according to a poll taken by RT Strategies. Even self-identified Democrats agree: 55 percent believe criticism hurts morale, while 21 percent say it helps morale.
The results surely will rankle many Democrats, who argue that it is patriotic and supportive of the troops to call attention to what they believe are deep flaws in President Bush's Iraq strategy. But the survey itself cannot be dismissed as a partisan attack. The RTs in RT Strategies are Thomas Riehle, a Democrat, and Lance Tarrance, a veteran GOP pollster.
Their poll also indicates many Americans are skeptical of Democratic complaints about the war. Just three of 10 adults accept that Democrats are leveling criticism because they believe this will help U.S. efforts in Iraq. A majority believes the motive is really to "gain a partisan political advantage."
That last point is one I've been making again and again. All this dissent from Democrats over Bush's foreign policy decisions has less to do with sound policy than it has to do with winning elections.
Many will ask, in response to this poll, "Are Democrats not allowed to speak out against foreign policies they disagree with?" The answer is: Of course they are. The problem is not the dissent itself but rather the what is driving the dissent.
Democrats have been telling Americans, almost since the beginning of this war, that Iraq is a "quagmire." That we cannot win. That things are going terribly and we should just cut and run. Yet our troops, who are actually on the ground and dealing with the day-to-day realities of our occupation of Iraq, don't feel that things are going terribly at all. They believe in their mission and feel that they're making great progress. They are inflicting casualty ratios on the enemy that near 20 or 30 dead terrorists to every one dead American soldier. They are rebuilding schools and hospitals. They are watching as democracy they fought for takes root in a long-oppressed land.
So when they compare their reality with the bill of goods being sold to the American people by leftist politicians and the mainstream media what else are they to feel but demoralized?
Perhaps they wouldn't feel demoralized if the story from Democrats and the media matched, in any way, the reality they know in Iraq, but the fact is that it doesn't, and the disconnect between Democrat griping and reality is what has the soldiers feeling down. Perhaps if Iraq really was going terribly, if the situation were really as hopeless as the left would have us all believe, the troops would feel encouraged by the idea that someone at home was getting it right. Instead, because the rhetoric from the left doesn't match reality, the troops feel like they're being undermined at home by a bunch of power-hungry politicians.
And that's a shame.
Never mind, then: Down with criticism!!!
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