Mission accomplished. Again.

I'm really sorry. I can't imagine how hard it must be to be a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan right now, and I know it's important to use positive milestones over there to build morale. But it's not fair to tell our troops and their families that we've broken the backs of insurgents when it's clear we haven't yet.

We've won? Great. Then BRING OUR TROOPS HOME. NOW. I'll be the first one at the parade, thanking our troops for their bravery and for their sacrifices -- and I'll promise them I'll do everything I can to make sure the administration doesn't gut veterans' health benefits. Again. I'm really thankful for their service. They'll do something I won't. They deserve our support and respect -- which to me means not lying to them.

You don't respect our troops or their families by blowing sunshine up their asses. You respect them by telling the truth. I'm sick of hearing we've rebuilt Afghanistan, that we're thisclose to catching Osama, that the noose is tightening on Mullah Omar, that we may still find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or that the explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, ammo, and everything else we basically handed to the enemy won't really be a big deal. You know, because we've broken their backs.

I'm not saying a 4-star should get up in front of a camera and say, "wow, we're really screwed." Report our successes, absolutely, and be proud of them. But be realistic in their significance. Don't undermine what confidence people have left in you. And sadly, there isn't much confidence left.

Major combat operations in Iraq ended about a year and a half ago, remember?