EDITORIAL - "The American People have demanded a new direction in Iraq by voting in a majority of Democrats during the last election," shout Nancy Pelosi, Jack Murtha and other Democrats in Congress.

No, actually the election was very close and Ms. Pelosi became a majority leader with only a razor-thin margin. Consider what could have happened, for example, if Ted Kennedy had gone back to Chappaquiddick just before January 4, and had accidentally slipped into the water without being able to swim there as well as he did back in 1969. Mitt Romney, still Governor, might have appointed a Republican to take his place. Or, if Senator Joe Lieberman, now an Independent, gets tired of seeing his former party move closer to the left, and decides to join the Republican Party. If anything like this were to happen, the Republicans would be in control because Vice President Dick Cheney would have the deciding vote in case of a tie. This is how close the Congress is divided. No wonder Pelosi is trying to fool us.

There may be other cases where this could happen because too many people are troubled by how these Socialists or Far Leftists, who now dominate the Democrat Party, are doing all they can to get our nation to surrender to the terrorists. They claim to be patriotic and perhaps they believe this to be true. But if they are, then they are either fatally misguided or are simply pandering to frightened or uneducated voters who see or read only news such as IEDs exploding in Iraq.

In 2005, John Hughes reported for the Christian Science Monitor, "Writing to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the elusive terrorist leader in Iraq, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, made it clear that creating instability in Iraq is only the beginning of a plan to establish a fundamentalist Islamic regime across the Middle East."

Although Zarqawi is now dead, this plan lives on. Intriguingly, he cited Vietnam as an example of how to conduct the campaign in Iraq, with special emphasis on manipulation of the media. Zarqawi had written, "More than half of the battle is taking place on the battlefield of the media….we are in a media race for hearts and minds."

The "Drive-by Media," as Rush Limbaugh likes to label it, has been very accommodating in helping al Qaeda win this race. We hope that it is doing this unknowingly, that only ratings or circulation drives both TV and newspapers. The media believes that if it shows coffins or keeps reporting that 3,000 American soldiers have been killed over the past three years in Iraq, that this will bring in more readers or viewers and thus justify its advertising rates. "60 Minutes" just did a story of a few soldiers who believe that the Iraq War is lost! In any war, one can always find a few warriors to say that they do not know why they are in battle. When I fought in the South Pacific invasions, during WWII, I had no concept of why we were where we were. Enlisted military people are not able to see the big picture. All I knew was that I wanted our side to win, as wanted by most of our troops today!.

A reminder worth repeating: The media fails to headline that approximately (according to FBI statistics) 17,000 Americans are murdered, EACH YEAR in the United States! Nor do they remind American voters who have forgotten, or had never really learned in their history books, that over 405,000 American troops were killed during WWII in about the same relative time as we have lost 3,000 in Iraq! Yes, even one death is tragic, but one must be able to understand that some deaths are necessary to save thousands, indeed millions of innocents. If we had not created a presence in the heart of the Middle East, how many more 9/11s would there have been? Where are the screams about the many Americans murdered here in the USA, or the hundreds killed in car crashes? It is time for Americans to readjust their priorities.

With the news concentrating on only the evil in Iraq and none of the good that is going on there as we build schools, hospitals and infrastructure, no wonder that the polls reflect a loss of appetite for winning this war against terrorism. No wonder there are so many who only think of bringing home all the troops. And no wonder that our populace stops at this point without realizing the consequences of this action. So many simply think that if we leave Iraq, the Middle East terrorists will be kind to us and leave us alone. Too many Americans fail to understand that such weakness only encourages the Islamic groups to believe that they now have the power to convert all of America and Israel, by force, to the fundamental form of Islam. Lose in Iraq and their suicide bombers and IEDs will be spilling blood in every major American city instead of just overseas. With terror tying us up in the US instead of in the Middle East, Iran will have no problem dropping bombs on Israel.

The Democrats, especially, Murtha, Pelosi, Obama, Hillary, Edwards and Gore, via their speeches being picked up by Aljazeera, are giving hope to the terrorists that if they use enough terror, we will surrender. This lack of will or strength on our part has caused al Qaeda to increase its terror by moving up to chlorine gas attacks as part of their IEDs in Iraq.

Oh, you say, chlorine gas is a violation of the Geneva Accords? Yes, our Supreme Court ruled that this Iraq war was bound by the Geneva Conventions. I guess that this former Legislative Court forgot to tell the terrorists that they were now being regarded as a legitimate uniformed nation and, as a result, they, too, must abide by the Geneva rules.

But then, most of our politicians now use polls to fight this war. Obviously our Congress thinks that the way to fight a war is better done by polls of these learned American citizens, than by what our officers learned at Annapolis and past wars. It is amazing to me that the American people are so skilled in war commands, but so few seem to know about our government or our history.

In Iraq, their citizens are being chlorinated; here in the USA, we are being Murtharized and Pelosirized. This is more dangerous to us than the chlorine is to Iraqi citizens.

How long until we Americans realize just what kind of enemy we are facing? Are we ready to fall to Islam? How long before their flag flies over our White House? Can the American citizens really educate themselves on how they are being used by the terrorists and by the far left politicians before it is too late? Will we soon have a new Vichy-type government as France did after being conquered by Hitler? How long until we slouch our way to France's folly? Perhaps the new "Marshall Pétain" will be named John Murtha, as a reward for his attempt to decimate our forces in Iraq! Guess which current government officials (or candidates) will also be a part of this new Vichy-type fundamentalist Islamic regime in America? Can Americans wake up soon enough to prevent this?

Americans, it’s your call as to what kind of America you will leave to your grandchildren!