GOP to troops: America hates you

If I were an American soldier in Iraq, I'd be convinced that Americans hate me. And if I were an Al Qaeda terrorist, I'd be convinced that America no longer has the will to take me on. Why? Because scores of Republicans in the House and Senate, and the Bush administration, just told me so.

Before this week's debate in the House and Senate on Bush's "surge" escalation plan (the plan to send 40,000 additional US troops to Iraq), it would have been easy for Al Qaeda terrorists or our soldiers to think that the vigorous debate about the war in America is simply an expression of our democracy, rather than evidence of our disgust with our troops and our lack of willingness to continue the war on terror.

But now all that has changed.

The Republicans have made it clear, in practically every speech they've given recently - including the testimony of General Petraeus, our new top general in Iraq - that the resolutions being debated this week, resolutions that have the support of the majority of the House and Senate, and that reflect the will of 63% of the American people who oppose Bush's "surge," are evidence that everyone who supports those resolutions hates our troops and has lost the will to fight the war on terror.

The only reason our troops will be dispirited, and Al Qaeda emboldened, is because some of the most senior voices in the American government told them that this is the meaning of the debate this week in Washington.

Every Senator, House member, and general who told our troops that 63% of Americans and the majority of the Congress hate them, and who told our enemy that the majority of Americans have lost the will to fight the war on terror, have in my view committed treason. There is no other explanation for why Republicans would be so cavalier about sending such an awful message to our troops and our enemy.