The new season of Real Time began tonight, and the opening piece (not the monologue crap) had to be very disappointing to him. He seemed almost heart-broken, much like Hillary’s feelings, that there might actually be good news from Iraq. NYT’s correspondent Damien Cave was on reporting live from Baghdad. Yes, he did have some not-so-good news for Bill, but no matter how much Bill tried to bait him, Damien reported honestly that things are getting better, the locals weren’t 100% against us, and that progress was being made. Yes, the political progress could be better, but hey; it’s a whole different scenario than it was under Saddam.

Bill asks him about the morale of the troops, because even though President Bush says they are “steadfastly” behind him, he has his doubts:

CAVE: You know, it’s actually kind of a mixed deal. I mean I talked to a commander the other day who said that the political debate at home is bizarro-land and something that he doesn’t connect with at all. He’s just here to do his mission. And I think that’s probably the view of most soldiers in Iraq. They’re just here to do their job and they don’t think too much beyond that. Morale, I would say, is probably surprisingly high in some units. And then in other units, there is the sense of ‘well, gosh, is this really working?’ ‘why am I here for the third time?’ But, I have to say that’s probably rare. Most of the units that I spent time with, again are just focused on trying to do the job in front of them. It’s about clearing the neighborhood that they’re in, or trying to get the guys that they know are there. But you don’t hear a whole lot of the chatter that you might hear in Washington when you’re out with the soldiers.

MAHER: But what about the morale of the insurgents? Is there any doubt among these people that we are not going to outlast them? I mean we do have debates on how long the surge will last. It seems to be a debate about a matter of months, sometimes a matter of years. Come on…these guys are gonna wait us out for as long as it takes. Isn’t that the bottom line in Iraq?

Bill, are you kidding me? Do you really dismiss the morale of our troops then feel the need to ask about the morale of the insurgents? You pitiful little bastard. Feel free to go join them any time you deem it necessary to further demoralize our troops’ morale by the Hollyweird leftards.

Watch Maher’s diatribe here.

Burning question: Why and/or would Bill Maher think a NYT’s reporter would know what an insurgent’s morale is?