R.I.N.O. Alert

R.I.N.O. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska has said "that the war in Iraq has destabilized the Middle East and is looking more like the Vietnam conflict from a generation ago."

I'm sorry, but last I checked there wasn't much going on in the Middle East, other than freedom being spread. I'm not aware of open war between nations going on in the streets of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, etc. Have there been missles no one has seen lobbed at Israel?

If the Mid-East were destabilized, I think we would be seeing all these things . . . but we're not, so it isn't. The only "destabilization" I can think of is that the people of these countries have finally begun protesting their captors. If that is destabilization, then bring it on.

We haven't had a major terrorist attack, on par with 9/11, since 9/11. Madrid and London, though horrible, were not MAJOR attacks.

We have been hunting down and capturing the troublemakers, not leaving them to "destabilize" the Middle East.

Hagel, who was among those who advocated sending two to three times as many troops to Iraq when the war began in March 2003, said a stronger military presence by the U.S. is not the solution today.

"We're past that stage now because now we are locked into a bogged-down problem not unsimilar, dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam," Hagel said. "The longer we stay, the more problems we're going to have."

Why? Because Chuck Hagel thinks so? God bless him for his service in Vietnam, but I think he's entirely wrong on this one. We are winning the war in Iraq, just as we are winning the war in Afghanistan and the War on Terror in general. Perhaps we do need to send more troops in, but the "insurgency" is not insurmountable.

We have lost a number of brave and honorable men in this war, but the numbers are not comparable to how many we lost in previous wars. We aren't down to our last Marines. And even if we were I would dare Chuck Hagel to tell those Marines to back down. He would learn his lesson. The Marines believe in their mission and so do I.

We are doing what we should have done in Vietnam---helping a people take back their freedom. They are doing it. Perhaps Hagel missed the January 30 elections in Iraq. Perhaps he missed the fact that the Iraqis are writing a constitution. While they might not be on the easiest path, they are definitely working on it. They aren't bogged down and neither are we. We are winning the war and we will win the peace.

After all, Rome wasn't built in a day.