After reading the following story this morning on Fox News, I am left utterly dumbfounded that our general in charge of the Afghanistan campaign has to make such an appalling statement. How any military leader can in good conscience sacrifice the lives of our American soldiers for such a mission goal is unconscionable.

We might as well turn our Department of Defense into the Department in Charge of Promoting Self-Esteem by Force.

Top U.S. Commander Says Taliban Winning Communication Initiative

America’s top commander says the United States and its allies in Afghanistan must “wrest the information initiative” from the Taliban and other insurgent groups, in an assessment made public last Monday.

Gen. McChrystal said the mission has changed in Afghanistan from a goal of struggle for the ‘hearts and minds’ of the Afghan population, to one of giving them the ‘trust and confidence’ in themselves and their government, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

On second reading, I see an even more insidious agenda at work, just another example of supplanting American Exceptionalism and the defense of Western culture with multiculturalism and cultural relativism that says that no culture’s values are above anyone else’s – that all are equally valid.

Exactly what Comrade Obama has been preaching since he took office.

How else to interpret this change from “winning hearts and minds” which means promoting and defending our values of freedom and rights of all individuals to ” giving them the trust and confidence in themselves and their government” which means making people feel good about what they now believe in: no change required.

So American and Western values are no longer worth promoting to the rest of the world – we no longer will even attempt to defend them (except as one choice among many equally valid choices)? This is what generations of Americans have shed their bloods for?

So if the people want to maintain 9th century values to oppress women, require strict adherence to Sharia, and bring the world under domination by their version of Islam, including annihilating all infidels (unless they convert) – then we should eagerly participate in help make them fell good about these things so that they have trust and confidence in the themselves and their government.

And if “trust and confidence in themselves” means that they go out and try by force make the rest of the world have the same type of “trust and confidence” – that’s perfectly fine too?

Does that mean our military are now going to be trained to facilitate encounter groups while the Taliban are continuing to assassinate tribal and governmental leaders under their version of “winning hearts and minds”?

This is total intellectual and moral mush.

Indeed, this is nothing short of sacrilege. And if the American people go along with the leadership that produces such spittle, then we will share culpability for this betrayal of American and the world.