Liberal Talk Radio

Democrats make a lot of mistakes when talking about the military, as this article in the NYT makes clear. Sen. Clinton, like so many other silly Democrats, thinks that the way to win support from the military is to do nice thigns for the troops, like fund body armor and veterans hospitals:

In the Senate, Mrs. Clinton has supported expanding medical benefits for National Guard members and reservists and providing aid to those with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Bu tthe way this reads is that she wants to coddle the troops. But the seemingly counterintuitive thing about the military is that they like getting put in harm’s way, as evidenced by:

She has also defied liberals in her own party at times, endorsing the expansion of the Army, supporting financing for missile defense, and refusing to support a total ban on land mines.

And

It is also part of an effort to shed the image some voters hold of her as an antimilitary liberal, defined by her opposition to the Vietnam War and, now, by her criticism of the Bush administration’s conduct of the war in Iraq.

See? Opposing wars and land mines clearly is only something you do if you’re anti-military. To be pro-military, you have to want to fight, fight, fight. That’s how being pro-war becomes inseparable from being pro-military (and “pro-troop”!). After all, as Madeline Albright famously asked, “what’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?”