Cheney said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute that there is no problem debating whether the United States and its allies should have gone to war in Iraq, but he lashed out at some in Washington who have aggressively questioned the administration.

"What is not legitimate, and what I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible, is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence," Cheney said.

Cheney again said that "withdrawal would be a victory for terrorists" and an "invitation to further violence."

"It is a dangerous illusion that another retreat by the civilized world would satisfy the appetite of terrorists .. We will not retreat in the face of adversity."

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld went on the offensive as well, appearing on several Sunday talk programs.

On Sunday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, disagreeing with Murtha, said troop levels in Iraq will remain at 160,000 as Iraqis prepare for elections Dec. 15, and forces will return to a baseline strength of 130,000 when the commanders there determine that conditions on the ground warrant a drawdown. Pentagon policy has long based significant redeployments on the situation at hand.

Rumsfeld, appearing on the Sunday morning news shows, acknowledged that questions about war ought to be debated, but he also warned that words have consequences for both the insurgents in Iraq and the U.S. troops opposing them.

"The enemy hears a big debate in the United States, and they have to wonder: 'Maybe all we have to do is wait and we'll win. We can't win militarily.' They know that. The battle is here in the United States," Rumsfeld said on "Fox News Sunday."

Arguments over pulling out troops immediately, he added, may lead Americans serving in Iraq to question "whether what they're doing makes sense."

"We have to all have the willingness to have a free debate, but we also all have to have the willingness to understand what the effects of our words are," Rumsfeld said on ABC's "This Week."

Congressman Murtha, a former marine, sent a huge insult directed at US forces in Iraq, suggesting that there have not been any signs of success in Iraq; completely disregarding the success of their new democracy.

Murtha wasn't backing off Sunday, when the death toll in Iraq climbed past 2,090. "There's no question we're going in the wrong direction and we're not winning," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "There's nothing that's happening that shows any sign of success."

The Pennsylvania Democrat predicted that most if not all U.S. troops will be out of Iraq by the time Americans vote in November 2006. Rumsfeld, however, said that leaving too soon would allow Iraq to be turned into a haven for terrorists.

"There's no doubt in my mind that were we to pull out precipitously, the American people would be in greater danger than they are today," the defense secretary told CBS' "Face the Nation."

Murtha said he believes Iraqis can take over the battle against the insurgents and allow U.S. troops to move out of danger.

"We just have to give them the incentive to take it over," he said. "They're going to let us do the fighting as long as we're there. And, until we turn it over to them, they're not going to be up to standards."

All of this comes after Friday's Capitol Hill kerfuffle, which concluded with a 403-3 vote against an immediate pullout--quite an embarrassment for anti-war Democrats--particularly Murtha--the same Democrats who screamed 'bloody murder' when Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, quoted a message from a Marine colonel, saying, "He asked me to send Congress a message - stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message - that cowards cut and run, Marines never do." Keeping in mind, these Democrats who began shouting across the center aisle, denouncing the apparent quip equating Murtha, a former marine, to a coward, were inconspicuously silent when Senator Dick Durbin equated US forces to Nazis, Soviet gulags, and Pol Pot's killers in Cambodia this summer, and have yet to denounce the repeated insinuations by their electorate that President Bush is worse than Hitler.

Let's hope for a continued fight back against the spineless Democrats, and as the real news from Iraq proves Murtha wrong, let's hope that the Democrats can finally support our troops, and even root for them, rather than insult them and their efforts, and root against them.