Murtha has Gone the Way of Sheehan
Congressman Jack Murtha as many of you know has been a vocal anti-war critic of the Bush Administration. I didn’t mind Murtha speaking his mind which he has a right to do about the war, but now he has gone the way of Cindy Sheehan and lost any legitimacy he had with me by attacking the military itself. For those who haven’t already heard about Congressman Murtha’s comments against army recruiting here they are via Greyhawk:
“Would you join (the military) today?,” he was asked in an interview taped on Friday.
“No,” replied Murtha of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees defense spending and one of his party’s leading spokesmen on military issues.
“And I think you’re saying the average guy out there who’s considering recruitment is justified in saying ‘I don’t want to serve’,” the interviewer continued.
“Exactly right,” said Murtha.
Maybe Congressman Murtha is discouraged by the fact that the military has made all it’s recruiting goals for the last 6 months and needs to speak out against military recruiting. This however has drawn the ire of Marine and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace:
A large segment of the clip had to do with opinion about the war, and that’s not my lane. This country’s strength is based on the ability of its citizens and its leadership to have divergent views.
There were two parts in what I saw that went directly to my lane in the road, which is the health of the U.S. military. One was a statement that the U.S. Army is not well trained. The United States Army is well-trained. It is the best trained army in the world. It has never been better-trained, and we will continue to make sure that it stays well- trained.
The second was a quote that you just mentioned. That’s damaging to recruiting, it’s damaging to morale of the troops who are deployed, and it’s damaging to the morale of their families who believe in what they’re doing to serve this country. We have almost 300 million Americans who are being protected by 2.4 (million) volunteer active, Guard and Reserve members. We must recruit to that force. When a respected leader like Mr. Murtha, who has spent 37 extremely honorable years as a Marine, fought in two wars, has served the country extremely well in the Congress of the United States, when a respected individual like that says what he said, and 18- and 19-year-olds look to their leadership to determine how they are expected to act, they can get the wrong message.
I could care less when Congressman Murtha criticizes President Bush or the reasons for going to war. That is in his lane to do so as a Congressman. However, I do get offended when he attacks the US military itself. Trying to discourage people from enlisting in the military only makes things more difficult for the soldiers who are already in. Less recruits does not effect operations in Iraq. It effects other parts of the world where the US military has obligations. The Army will always fully man units in Iraq which means they will take soldiers from lets say Korea to do this, leaving the soldiers who are in Korea to do more with less.
Plus Murtha’s attacks on the military about poor training, lack of armor, Abu Graib, etc. is old news. His complaints are no longer relevant today. General Tommy Franks always liked to say that the enemy has a vote in war and the insurgents and terrorists got their vote in Iraq and the US Army reacted and now troops are armored and better trained in guerrilla warfare to deal with the threat.
Murtha’s comments drew the ire of one Army sergeant that confronted him and fellow war critic Congressman Moran at a recent town hall meeting in Washington broadcasted on this CSPAN video:
“Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sgt Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you, (applause) “Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn’t have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause) The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan.
“And Congressman Moran, 200 of your constituents just returned from Afghanistan. We never got a letter from you; we never got a visit from you. You didn’t come to our homecoming. The only thing we got from any of our elected officials was one letter from the governor of this state thanking us for our service in Iraq, when we were in Afghanistan. That’s reprehensible. I don’t know who you two are talking to but the morale of the troops is very high.”
Moran – who is one of the few congressmen supporting Charlie Rangel’s call to restore the draft – responded quickly: “That wasn’t in the form of a question, it was in the form of a statement. But, uhh… let’s go over here.” And he took the next question.
These congressmen completely avoided this war veteran’s claims which even further destroys any legitimacy these critics have.
When is the anti-war left going to learn that attacking the military will not get you anywhere. The vast majority of the American public respects the military. The far left kooks thought they had the spokesman to push their agendas with due to Murtha’s former Marine Corps background. If he would have stuck to strategy and policy in Iraq I think people including myself would take his views more seriously. However, when he attacks the military it shows that his strategy is driven more by his hatred of President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld than any concern for the soldiers.
Mudville has got more on this, Skippy-san shares his viewpoints, along with Commander Salamander.
