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A few days after returning from my seventh trip to Iraq for FOX News, I was called upon to comment on the most recent affront to those who are fighting terrorists in Saddam's former fiefdom. The offense occurred during the January 2nd broadcast of ABC News' "Nightline," when Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a combat-decorated Marine veteran of Korea and Vietnam, was asked by interviewer John Donovan about the Congressman's willingness to serve in our Armed Forces:

Q: "Would you join today?"

A: "No."

Donovan then opined, "And I think you're saying that the average guy out there who's considering recruitment is justified in saying I don't want to serve."

A: "Well, exactly right."

Set aside for a moment whatever might be happening in Murtha's private, personal or political life that has prompted him to become the point-man for the "surrender now" wing of the Democrat party -- and consider the latent effect of such an exchange on an all-volunteer military in the midst of a war. This is not just dissent. It is at best, discouraging to young Americans who consider donning a uniform to be a noble way of serving their country. At worst, it is potentially disastrous.

Murtha's echo of the '60s mantra, "Hell no, I won't go," heard chanted on college campuses during the Vietnam war, is a step further into defeatism for the anti-military, blame-America-first leaders of his party. Fortunately, few of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines I have interviewed in Iraq have ever heard of Murtha. Unfortunately, thanks to the efforts of the so-called mainstream media, his words may well prompt some here at home to dismiss military service. In the midst of a war against brutal terrorists who fly airplanes into buildings, blow up trains and sever the heads of innocents, it undermines both America's effort in Iraq and presents problems for our national security as a whole.

Discouraging young Americans from joining our Armed Forces has implications well beyond Mesopotamia. The young men and women who have chosen the honor of wearing this country's uniform also serve around the globe. There are 100,000 troops in Europe, roughly 35,000 in both Korea and Japan, and 15,000 more in Afghanistan. Our Air Force has aircraft -- and personnel -- on every continent. The U.S. Navy has ships and sailors in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf and off North Korea and China. Marines routinely deploy to every theater. All of them are volunteers. All of them are, at minimum, high-school graduates -- members of the brightest, best-educated, trained, equipped and combat-experienced military force in history. If the "don't serve now" movement takes hold in the opposition party, defending America's interests around the world could soon become impossible.

Murtha's defenders say he is just being "sincere" in his opposition to the war he voted for in 2002. That may be so, but it doesn't make him right, nor should his prior military service inoculate him from criticism. The leaders of his party denigrate not just the leadership of the commander in chief, but the courage and perseverance of those doing the fighting by claiming "we cannot win" in Iraq. The Congressman is quoted saying that the U.S. Army is "broken, worn out" and "living hand to mouth." All of this would come as a surprise to the members of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines and the 2nd Combat Brigade of the 28th Infantry Division -- of the Pennsylvania National Guard -- I recently covered in Iraq.

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