While Republicans in congress wasted time debating a MoveOn.org advertisement calling for General Patraues to give an honest assessment of the war in Iraq, their own echo chamber has been labeled any military personnel who is for a withdrawal from Iraq as a ""The phony soldiers."

This "phony soldiers" term has been making the rounds in numerous right-wing media outlets and yesterday, it reached the loudest neo-con's soapbox as Rush Limbaugh started using the term on his national radio program.

Where is the outrage from the sitting Senators when a shock jock starts degrading American soldiers? What does Limbaugh and his right-wing friends (including frequent show guests like Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) think of Staff Sgt. Yance T. Gray, 26, and Sgt. Omar Mora, 28, who were among the authors of “The War as We Saw It" and who died in combat shortly after the piece was published on August 19th:

In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, "We need security, not free food."

In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are -- an army of occupation -- and force our withdrawal.

Until that happens, it would be prudent for us to increasingly let Iraqis take center stage in all matters, to come up with a nuanced policy in which we assist them from the margins but let them resolve their differences as they see fit. This suggestion is not meant to be defeatist, but rather to highlight our pursuit of incompatible policies to absurd ends without recognizing the incongruities.

We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through.

I'm not against taking Rush off the air for his remarks, but I'm certainly for his program being removed from Armed Forces Radio. No soldier serving in Iraq or Afghanistan should have to listen to his propaganda.........