The nasty Markos "Kos" Moulitsas Zúniga

So Daily Kos has sounded the trumpet for men to stream into their local recruiting offices? It is just like when Charlie Rangle called for the draft. Kos and Rangle (and one suspects Downer) don’t want to help the war effort, they want to injure it, so their calls are transparent. Despite the recruiting challenges, the Iraq effort has all the soldiers Sec. Rumsfeld wants it to, and that will not be affected if I and a million others sign up tomorrow.

But Kos doesn’t care about the Iraq effort, except insofar as he desperately wants it to fail. He repeatedly calls it Bush’s folly, as if it were a harebrained scheme cooked up one night rather than the considered opinion of over a decade of thought and thousands of bright minds. Such profound strategic decisions are always lost on the simpletons of the era; and history, when it remembers them at all, does so with a laugh.

When the war began with astounding success, the Left disappeared. I remember being online in the days surrounding the fall of Baghdad, trying to find what the leftist press and bloggers were saying. They were silent. Then as the insurgents began to slowly emerge, so too did these leftists. And by the time the insurgency had really begun to boil, the left had found its song again, and was as chipper as ever.

Let me say this: Everyone from Michael Moore to Kos and a thousand others like them begin by announcing that they are deeply offended by the suggestion that they are un-American and should never have their patriotism called into question. I will not call them un-American, they are anti-American. And I am not merely questioning their patriotism, I am declaring them to be traitors who want America to lose.

This is why they deny facts, take an anti-humanitarian view of the war, and have to keep insisting that Iraq is a failure even as the facts close in around them. Zarqawi and bin Laden know that Iraqi democracy is a body blow to Islamic fundamentalism, but Kos and his ilk haven’t the knowledge base or intellect to have determined as much. Iranian mulluahs and Syrian ba’athists know that a democratic Iraq will begin the ticking of the bomb underneath their own regimes, but Kos and his ilk haven’t caught on yet. Planners from the Pentagon and the British Foreign Office understood that Saddam harbored and gave succor to terrorist leaders and movements, but Kos and his ilk refuse to accept facts. 80% of Iraqis are happy they were saved by Americans and consider themselves to have been “liberated,” but Kos and his ilk don’t care about Iraqis. And the entire world is waking up to the fact that “George Bush May Have Been Right,” to paraphrase any of dozens of newspaper headlines from around the world, all except Kos and his ilk, who are so emotionally and professionally invested in American failure that they hold out fading hope that in spite of recent American successes, today might be the day it all falls apart.

It wouldn’t be so bad if Kos were just a dimwit who didn’t know any better, like the redneck at the bar who doesn’t even draw a response, because you know he’s not worth it. But Markos Moulitsas Zúniga -- Kos – is a much darker figure than that. His website is a clearinghouse for the hateful left, and a cheering section for the insurgency. After the Sunnis in Fallujah massacred four American contractors, Kos wrote this:

That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren’t in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

When a firestorm ensued, he tried to delete the quote and pathetically directed those who tried to link to it to some totally unrelated page. But screen shots endure, and he had nowhere to hide. His defenders will say that he apologized, which is manifestly false. He offered a qualified response saying that, “My language was harsh,” and then reiterating his contempt for the deceased. I’ve seen him interviewed since then, and when asked about the comments he smirked and again repeated his polished, non-denial denials.

For those who don’t know, here are the facts: The four men murdered were all retired US military veterans. They were delivering food to Iraqis when they were murdered. They weren’t waging war for profit, but were invited by the US military after the invasion to help the military and the Iraqi people.

From Army officer Jason Van Steenwyk,

“I should say that I had the privilege to meet many civilian contractors and security professionals from all over the world. Most of them were there supplementing coalition forces security, or providing needed logistical or security services to US troops and to the Iraqi people.

”Most of the American contractors I talked to had served 20 years on active duty with the US military in one capacity or another.

”Unlike my troops, these guys could have left at any time, just by saying "I quit" and catching a ride to Baghdad or Kuwait. Instead, despite the risks, they chose to stay.

”They are, in every sense, our partners. And their families, I'm sure, loved them and missed them and feared for their safety just as fervently as ours.

”Anyone who tries to force a moral distinction between our soldiers and these civilians who served alongside us--who dismisses them as "mercenaries" in it for the "pecuniary interests alone," and anyone who buys into that idea, is merely displaying a frightening degree of ignorance.”

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Incidentally, a “mercenary” kills for hire, these guys fed people for hire. And a “war profiteer” profits from the bad guys!! American WWII war profiteers sold arms to the Nazis, they weren’t helping the American military! Frightening degree of ignorance is correct.

Scott Helvenston, 38, was a former member of the US Navy SEALs who joined at the age of 17 and served until 1994. He then became a fitness instructor and actor, appearing in such films as GI Jane and Face/Off. He was the father of two sons, one 15, the other 13. His brother had this to say about Helvenston:“He's a hero. He died supplying food to people who needed it.”

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Jerry Zovko, 32, was a veteran of the US Army and a mechanic. He joined the army in 1991 at the age of 19 and served with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. His mother, Donna Zovko, had this to say about him:

”Jerry was a man with a principle, an idea. He loved people. He wanted the world to be without borders, for everybody to be free and safe. He went there to make it a better place. He was trying to stop something like this from happening to someone else.”

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Mike Teague, 38, was a member of the US Army, earning a Bronze Star in Afghanistan. He also served in Panama and Grenada. From his wife, Rhonda:

”Mike was a proud father, soldier, and American. I, his son Brandon, and his friends and family will miss him without measure.”

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Wesley Batalona, 48, was a former Army Ranger. A native Hawaiian, he joined the Army in 1974. He leaves behind a wife, June, and a daughter, Krystal. Said a friend of him and his family:

”He was a hero to us.”

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That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren’t in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

So today, Kos has offered his advice to the US military and his thoughts on our patriotism. Andre cut off the end of Kos’ quote:

The cowards in the 101st Fighting Keyboardists are the polar opposite [of the true definition of patriotism]. They lay shame to our nation.

You like that? We lay shame to his nation?!?! Kos points out that he was in the Army, he did a single stint for 4 years. Big deal. History is full of wicked traitors who have a military uniform hanging in their closet. But maybe I should cut Kos some slack. “Victories” like the one in Fallujah that got him so excited are increasingly rare these days, so little “wins” like today’s news that the Army and Marines are below recruiting capacity are all he has to look forward to.