Don't let them call you sissies

I'm about to play devil's advocate and attract a bunch of new enemies.

The History Channel is airing another one of those "Last Days of WWII" installments this morning, and I'm starting to wonder how such a tough people ended up so soft.

In just one battle with Japan, the U.S. sustained 5,000 casualties. We're talking about one battle. Juxtapose this with our excursion in Iraq. Into our third year of the Iraq War, we have sustained around 2,000 deaths.

Cindy Sheehan, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you lost your son to George W. Bush's war. You are a grieving mother, and I wish I could do something to take the emotional pain away. I can't.

But listen up, anti-war crowd: We are never going to win this argument by electing Cindy Sheehan our spokesperson. By saying, "Oh my God, it's terrible! More than 2,000 Americans have died in Iraq!" we only make our political enemies laugh at us.

And, frankly, the approach is embarrassing. We come off just like the sissies they like to call us.

Go ahead. Skewer me for not volunteering, myself, to go fight. Your criticism, however accurate and perhaps deserved, would still be a diversion designed to avoid argument with my point.

Oppose this war in Iraq. I am your ally. But we will never convince enough of Red State America to join our side if we continue to cry about the 2,000 American troops who have died since we entered Iraq in 2003. It's a number that has yet to equal even half of the casualties Pacific Theater troops sustained in just one battle of WWII.

Attack this President from the Cindy Sheehan flank, and we do nothing but solidify Red State America's view of us as a bunch of hippy sissies. I'm no sissy, and neither are you. Let's not play into their hands.