Sam Brownback emboldens the enemy.

Via Atrios, I see that Sam Brownback (R-KS) says all of this "emboldening" talk is silly. It's worse than silly, actually. It's un-American.

Can the Bushbots explain how a responsible patriot is supposed to exercise their conscience and freedom of speech and object to a given military action? The "once the boots are on the ground" fallacy just seems like a cowardly way to silence critics.

UPDATE

Paul Simmons at Right Side of the Rainbow writes,

All who oppose the surge or the war or both should ask — no, demand — that their representatives in Congress end funding for the troops in Iraq and get their boots off the ground. That’s what a responsible patriot would do. All the rest is political posturing or moral preening.

Few problems with that, Paul. One, that has nothing whatsoever to do with hiding behind the troops to tell two-thirds of the American people to shut up. Two, federal budgets aren't set week to week -- you think the troops would be going anywhere anytime soon if such a resolution passed tomorrow? And three, do you really believe "the surge" isn't political posturing?

You can argue that the Democrats and the sane Republicans who oppose the surge could be louder in their opposition. But as a practical matter, there's still not too much they can do about it, other than put political pressure on the Mouse-in-Chief -- the one who got us into this mess.

UPDATE 2

Gen. Anthony Zinni, former commander-in-chief of Central Command, told "60 Minutes" in 2004 that the notion that you can't criticize a war when troops are on the battlefield is absurd.

“It is part of your duty. Look, there is one statement that bothers me more than anything else. And that's the idea that when the troops are in combat, everybody has to shut up. Imagine if we put troops in combat with a faulty rifle, and that rifle was malfunctioning, and troops were dying as a result,” says Zinni.

“I can't think anyone would allow that to happen, that would not speak up. Well, what's the difference between a faulty plan and strategy that's getting just as many troops killed? It’s leading down a path where we're not succeeding and accomplishing the missions we've set out to do.”