Insults against West Point by MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews are part of a pattern of left-wing denigrations against Americans serving in uniform. It's a motif indicative of an anti-military mind-set that is as dangerous as it is rude.Discussing the West Point audience's response to President Obama's speech about Afghanistan, Mr. Matthews quipped on Tuesday: "I saw a lot of, if not resentment, skepticism. I didn't see a lot of warmth in that crowd out there that the president chose to address tonight. And I thought that was interesting: He went to maybe the enemy camp tonight to make his case. I mean that was where Paul Wolfowitz used to write speeches back in the old Bush days. That's where he went to rabble-rouse the 'we're going to democratize the world' campaign back in '02. So I think it was a strange venue."
So, when did our brave military cadets become "the enemy camp"? If Mr. Bush or Mr. Wolfowitz went to West Point to "rabble-rouse," does that make the cadets a rabble? And why would it ever be a "strange venue" for any president to go to the U.S. Military Academy to talk about a war?
Mr. Matthews at least apologized to cadets for his stupid comments the next day without weasel words, but it's troubling that he even expressed such sentiments - which are shockingly common among some liberal Democrats. In 2006, Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, said: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." At another point, the obtuse Mr. Kerry accused American soldiers in Iraq, in the "dead of night," of "terrorizing kids and children, you know, women. . .."
In 2005, Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, compared U.S. treatment of prisoners to that "by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others - that had no concern for human beings." In 2006, Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, falsely accused Marines in Haditha of "murder" and said there was "no doubt in my mind" about that judgment. In 2007, there was the notorious "General Betray Us" ad from MoveOn.org criticizing Gen. David H. Petraeus, which continued a leftist routine of verbal assaults on our fighters that goes back to Jane Fonda's slur that our soldiers in Vietnam were war criminals.
To set the record straight for confused Democrats, our armed forces are not criminals and not the enemy. They are heroes. Back to you, Chris ...
