It's a simple but potent message from the frontliners, the boots on the ground,

While the left may sing themselves to sleep each night comforted by their pseudo support mantra "Support the troops, not the war", the real troops are having none of it.

What the left does not get is that while they do not believe in the war, the troops do.  What the troops feel from their "support the troops, bring them home" chants is frustration that their nation does not believe in them and is abandoning support.

Watch the clip and see for yourself how the troops feel.

The question becomes can you support them and their ideals and not give them the support for the mission they are doing?  While the left sees no conflict, the troops feel it.  How can we support them and not equip them for success?  Oh sure, we give them armour, or guns.  Do we give them belief?  Trust? They also need the emotional support.

Because the war is winnable.  They know it.  They just wish you did too.

And yes, that includes equipping them with solid leadership.  I am not letting Bush and the Pentagon off the hook.

McQ at Qando nails it thus:

We’re not talking a general philosophical discussion here. We’re talking about a particular war and a mission assigned by the Commander in Chief to the troops on the ground.

While I can appreciate the argument that you can support the troops by wanting them home or wanting them properly equipped or any of a number of other reasons, if you don’t support their mission then whatever support you do claim is qualified support. A bit like saying “we want you to look like a soldier, and we love you for being one, but we can’t support you acting like one it this instance”.

Indeed.  He also notes a conversation between Hugh Hewett and Mark Steyn, addressing the defeatist Democrats and the turncoat defeatist Republicans:

HH: Well, here’s a cultural reference that a lot of GOP Senators don’t seem to understand. It’s the war, stupid. Mark Steyn, I understand Biden and the Democrats cannot be rescued from defeatism, but are you amazed or revolted, or both, at the round heels in the Republican caucus.

 

MS: Yes, I think in fact, this is far more dangerous than either the hysterical left, or the obviously defeatist Senators such as Ted Kennedy. I think these sort of wise old birds like John Warner on the Republican side, who think that they’re somehow crafting a kind of compromise position that the entire nation can unite around. For a start, I don’t think this is their…I think it’s a Constitutional affront, that this is not what they should be doing, micromanaging the degree of aggression with which you wage a war. I think that’s disgusting, and almost certainly doomed to fail, and people like John Warner should be called on it when they go that route. So I think that’s a disgraceful thing they’re doing.

Indeed.

Here is the bottom line folks.  These troops that John Kerry and Charlie Rangal think are ignorant and uneducated are there, and see the war in a clarity you will never understand, and they are there to win.  And like it or not, all the anti war resolutions and protests are doing is making the enemy stronger, and in the end they are killing our troops.

Once we were united against our enemy, now we are divided, and standing in that divide are the troops.

So support them with all your heart so they can win it with you, or sit back and watch them try to win it in spite of you.

Also seen at Hot Air and Sister Toldjah