American leftists appear to have some obsession with flogging themselves and the rest of us over America's past mistakes. They will tell you that America has done nothing good for the world at large. They will tell you that our democratic republic disenfranchises voices it does not wish to hear. They will remind you that African-Americans were once slaves in this country. They will remind you that women could not vote until the 20th century. They might remind you that originally, it was only land-owning men of a certain age that could vote. Although, that might negate some of their charges of racism and sexism beginning with the Founders and, of course, continuing to this very day. To hear them talk, we are the product of racist bigots and Americans have not changed anything for the better over the last 200 years.

The Founders of this nation did not start the nation without slavery. What they did was put a system in place that would allow the people of this nation to abolish the evil practice. Many of them clearly expressed their feelings on the matter, and less than 90 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence slavery was officially eliminated in the United States. Of course, the rights of the newly freed individuals were often neglected, infringed upon, and so forth. African-Americans were persecuted for decades after the Civil War. However, the nation as a whole was moving toward becoming better. In the 1960's, civil rights were again defined, granted, and measures were taken to assure that all Americans lived with the same rights and abided by the same laws.

The important thing to remember is that America as a whole was becoming better than it was when it was founded and positively influenced Europe, if not the rest of the world, tremendously on at least the slavery issue.

As much as American leftists love to describe the invisible hand which guides capitalism and produces so much wealth and prosperity for the people of this nation as a glass ceiling which oppresses women and minorities and limits their potential to succeed, there is little, if any, wisdom in this line of thinking. Many of these "progressives" are in fact and by their own admission Communists and Socialists. I believe they have little ground to stand on seeing as how neither of these systems have ever succeeded in any way unless you consider mass-starvation, mass-murder, and restriction of freedoms successful implementation of social and political theory.

In fact, capitalism has had the exact opposite affect on America. Capitalism was the vehicle by which Americans were able to abolish slavery. The creation and ultimate growth of the U.S. Treasury and the New York Stock Exchange provided a means by which many people could provide for their families and themselves outside of solely agrarian endeavors which relied on slavery. Investing, banking, retail, etc. boomed. The result was a society and an economy which did not rely on slavery for prosperity. This society then followed its collective moral conscience and the words of its Constitution which advised that "all men are created equal" and took steps to abolish the institution that the entire world had used for millenia. The industrial revolution created more opportunity in the U.S., as did every economic boom throughout the 20th century. That trend will continue all the way through the 21st century and beyond because it is built on solid rock.

Today the trend of beating ourselves up over past mistakes continues. Still, the American left has no intention of learning from the mistakes, changing what needs to be changed, and moving on. Of course, some of this attitude is driven by politics, but their words and actions are reprehensible. They can not be trusted with power.

Representative John Murtha (D-PA) believes that the U.S. military should "redeploy." The leader of this asinine and intellectually empty proposal often cites numerous mistakes made during the Iraq War. He cites Abu Ghraib. He cites possible errors in initial troop levels, and possible errors in current troop levels. Location is wrong. Timing is wrong. Zarqawi did not matter. Hussein is really a very nice guy. Not enough civilian casualties were avoided. The "Haditha Incident" is now his favorite criticism, even though nobody really knows what happened in Haditha yet. We have to say "allegedly" about crimes possibly committed by American civilians, but when a member of the American Armed Forces is accused of something, Murtha and others simply do not have time to wait and see if they are actually guilty. They immediately run to the closest camera and start blabbing about the murders as if a verdict had just been handed down. They refuse to accept that the mistakes are part of a greater good and are almost exclusively unintentional. They refuse to accept the remarkable restraint the U.S. has shown while fighting the War on Terror and Islamic Jihad as a truly progressive step forward from previous methods of fighting that is at times crippling and self-hindering.

One mistake that Rep. Murtha and the rest of the American left should acknowledge is the 1993 Mogadishu pullout. In 1993, Murtha boasted that he had gotten President Clinton's ear regarding the troops stationed in Somalia. He told "Today" that President Clinton had been "listening to our suggestions. And I think you'll see him move those troops out very quickly." "Our welcome has been worn out," Murtha said, explaining why he felt the troops needed to be redeployed. He also said, "There's no military solution. Some of them will tell you [that] to get [warlord Mohamed Farrah] Aidid is the solution. I don't agree with that."

Pulling out was, of course, the decision that President Clinton made following a battle which left 18 U.S. Rangers dead and humiliated. That proved to be a pretty bad decision, considering Osama bin Laden's remarks. This incident brought to life bin Laden's vision of America as a "paper tiger" that "did not have the stomach for war."

Well, that was true at the time. For Rep. Murtha, it is still true. He does not have the stomach for war. His advice and Clinton's decision did not work. It did nothing to benefit the United States or the people of Somalia. It embarassed our military and our country as a whole. It only helped warlords, al-Qaeda, and other terrorists. That way of thinking emboldened terrorists. It made them think that we were weak, and that all they needed to do was kill some of our soldiers and we would retreat. It was true at the time, but it is not true now. Reportedly, the terrorists in Iraq right now are seriously struggling with the U.S. presence.

Rep. Murtha was one of the first to condemn our military for alleged crimes committed in Iraq. However, when our soldiers have their hearts and genitals removed and placed in their mouths, he makes no effort to seriously condemn the crimes of the guilty. Desecration and decapitation are apparently only crimes if they are committed by Americans. Socialists parading around as Human Rights groups and civil libertarians make no mention of the Geneva Conventions. Moreover, cases against Americans do not even need to be proved. Only allegations are necessary to fan the flames of Americans' self-hatred.

In 1993, America was weak. Today, we are strong. If we want to stay strong, we need to eliminate people like John Murtha from the U.S. Congress. We need to be proud of where we are today; not necessarily where we started, and we certainly regret our mistakes, but we are proud of the good that we have accomplished. Diana Irey is running against Murtha this year for Congress. I strongly suggest showing your pride by sending her a few dollars to help her defeat this blundering, power-hungry buffoon.

Send Murtha and the rest of the Congress a message. Stop hating yourselves and your country. We are doing the right thing today. We will not allow the country to be turned over to a bunch of socialist, communist sympathizing, Holocaust-denying, Castro-loving, Che-t-shirt-wearing fools who understand neither human history nor human nature.