Why Durbin's Comments Kill

Doug TenNapel has a great interview with Air Force Major Steven Givler on the ins, out, morality and nature of the war in Iraq. In it is a quote that is the meat on the bones of allegations that Dick Durbin and others put our soldiers at risk with their degrading talk of our treatment of prisoners. Here's what Major Givler had to say:

I’ve shared helicopters with just-captured insurgents fresh from the battlefield. I’ve seen how our troops handle them with care and respect, despite the fact that, given half a chance, any one of them would have done anything they could to kill every one of us.

Ultimately we know this is to our advantage. The Japanese were tenacious fighters, in part because they believed that they would be tortured if we captured them. An enemy confident that he will be well-treated is more likely to surrender. A population that understands we are there to protect them (as does the Iraqi population) is more likely to support us. Probably most importantly, when we’ve behaved honorably we can go home with honor and resume our peaceful lives.

An enemy that thinks it will be treated like Hitler treated Jews, Stalin treated dissidents and Pol Pot treated just about everyone is more likely to fight like the Japanese soldier than he is to surrender.

Each time a Durbin, Dean, Pelosi, Kennedy or Reid lies about prisoner treatment for their political gain and tells our enemy that if captured, they will be subjected to torture, they are telling these terrorists, "Go ahead, fight harder, kill more of our soldiers." And why again do they do this? For their political gain, period.

A recent Pew Center poll shows Dem favorability has dropped three times faster than GOP favorability since 2001. (It shows Dems still have higher favorability -- 55% to 52% -- but it's from Pew so it's a suspect poll.) It's actions like their Gitmo rants and embracing of Michael Moore that have them dropping so fast, but the DNC leadership, sunk in blind hatred, just can't help itself.