Senator Levesque for the Win

Wednesday's Newport Daily News includes a full-fledged rebuttal of last week's rant by Cap'n Mike Caldwell from none other than State Senator Chuck Levesque. Senator Levesque took on each of Cap'n Mike six tales of cultural-soul-destroying America-bashing and pointed out how Cap'n Mike was full of bilge water about every one of them. And since Senator Levesque was using reasoned argument rather than my own bloggish snark, he was able to make his points in a more straightforward fashion than I did. In particular, writing about Anderson Cooper's broadcast of the Islamic Army of Iraq propaganda video, Senator Levesque wrote:

Our government has endeavored to shield us from the horror of the wars we currently fight. I believe that citizens in a democracy not only should not be shielded from the horrors of war, but are obliged to confront that horror. We, who make the decisions ultimately about our nation's conduct, cannot hide from the results of those decisions. We are made of sterner stuff than Capt. Caldwell thinks. If the cause is just, this nation will confront the cost, both human and financial, resolutely.

Exactly. Cap'n Mike and his fellow war hawks know perfectly well that the cause we are fighting for in Iraq is not just. They fear, correctly, that the more the American people are confronted with the rising cost of that unjust war, the more determined they will be to get us out of that war. That's why Cap'n Mike and his ilk always respond with shrill cries of fake outrage whenever anybody shows the American people what's actually going on in Iraq.

Bravo to Senator Levesque for delivering this broadside against Cap'n Mike's wingnuttery.