Does the Left Want to “Civilize” the Military?

The Left is apoplectic that Lt. General James Mattis told some of his military colleagues that “It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right upfront with you, I like brawling. You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway, so it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.” Alan Colmes was horrified.

He asked his guests whether the general should resign his post. He asked, Is there any excuse for this kind of behavior or this kind of rhetoric?”

When Lt. Colonel Robert Maginnis used Patton as an analogy, Colmes asked, “Why are you making excuses for General Mattis?”

I can’t believe any of this. We now not only insist on gays in the military and women in combat, but pristine deportment — civilized deportment — by people we have trained to kill, to kill to protect us and our liberties.

Is the Left not satisfied merely with de-funding the military? Do they now want to neuter it as well, making its leaders conform to diplomatic standards? This may be news to liberals, but by the time we send our military on a mission, the diplomacy is over. The fact that this general says he has fun killing doesn’t bother me at all. He is there to kill a depraved enemy and to destroy things. He is not talking about killing innocent civilians. He is not talking about abusing or torturing captured prisoners, but engaging an enemy that is fighting back. I frankly can’t imagine getting enjoyment out of killing another human being, but I certainly have no problem with those who do — at least those who are assigned that duty under color of law — as is the case with our military in Iraq.

Do we want the military second guessing itself at every turn? Do we want the Left looking over its shoulder throughout the grit and blood of war? If we keep this up, we better get out of the war business. And we better expect to cede our liberties shortly thereafter. I’m sick of the politically correct apologies. This is entirely ridiculous and we ought to condemn it as such.

Can you imagine if someone with this mentality — e.g. John Kerry or Ted Kennedy — were commander in chief today?