Jed Babbin nails it on the head in the current National Review online. American Soldiers don't always like the job they're asked to do, but we know and accept with deep pride that it's our country that has asked us to do it. Some missions are bad, or tough, or have a price to pay to get done right. Worse though is a mission undertaken in vane.

"Kerry's message does not promise the men and women who are risking their lives that their sacrifices will buy anything different from what dozens of lives bought in Somalia. Instead, Kerry says that we want to turn Iraq over to others, and bug out. Our troops' morale — as best I can gauge it — is not down. They're not happy about doing what they're committed to do: No one wants to fight or suffer or die. But their morale depends on the resolve and commitment of their commander in chief, and the bond of trust between them and the president. If their morale isn't down yet, it will sink more and more as they think about what Kerry would do as president. They know he will not finish the job."

And finishing the job is what we're about. One of my Platoons has a motto. At every formation, when called to attention, they holler out at the top of their lungs, "Get 'Er Done!" There isn't a one of us here that doesn't understand that that is our mission, and we intend to get the job done.

Does Kerry think the job can't be done? Or does he think whatever would be gained is not worth the price we have to pay? No one knows, and Kerry isn't saying. Soldiers can ask only that the Commanders in Chief make that decision that they alone make the big bucks to make: namely, is it worth the cost? And where must we act in defense of our national security?

Very few soldiers I know find Kerry fit for those decisions.