St. Murtha’s Day speech
Posted on November 18, 2005
Congressman John Murtha, a Democrat from Pennsylvania and decorated Vietnman War veteran, has called for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Some would argue that he is calling essentially for immediate surrender, and that was precisely my initial reaction. However, because of my respect for the man’s military service, and because he outranks me (he retired as a Colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve), I decided that I needed to consider his words more fully before I wrote about his statement.
Every single news report I’ve read or seen on the story quotes exclusively from the first and last paragraphs of Congressman Murtha’s statement, and fails to mention the rest of it. Here are the quotes you will see over and over again:
“The U.S. cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. It is time to bring them home”…”The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It’s a flawed policy wrapped in illusion. The American public is way ahead of the members of Congress.”
But there is a lot more to Murtha’s statement. You can read it yourself at his own congressional website, as I have. Having done so, I find myself even more deflated and disappointed than my initial reaction upon hearing the news account of his statement.
Among other reasons, I am disappointed because today’s soldiers (I use the term generically and include all branches of service) have been denied anything resembling the St. Crispen’s Day speech that they so very much deserve. Whether you consider the war to be tragic or triumphal, or a qualified mix of both is of no consequence; the fact is that the tone from the media and the President’s political enemies has been muted at best and defeatist consistently, from the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The President’s declaration that “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon” was a long time ago, and was delivered before anyone entered combat in the new War on Terror.
So go refresh your memory on the St. Crispen’s Day speech, to contrast with the messages our soldiers get today ( Click here to read it for yourself. I especially like how the speech is sparked by another character in essence complaining that the king had too few troops in the fight.)
This leads me, finally, to what Congressman Murtha really said in his complete statement, one which the jihadists would be forgiven if they took to calling it their St. Murtha’s Day speech. I believe that because it seems that this a beginning of something. It feels planned, as evidenced by all of the well-worn talking points buried in the statement, and as evidenced by the nearly identical reporting of all of the media on the statement on the very day it was delivered. Congressman Murtha, a decorated veteran, is the cover for all others who will echo his call for surrender.
“I have been visiting our wounded troops at Bethesda and Walter Reed hospitals almost every week since the beginning of the War. And what demoralizes them is going to war with not enough troops(ed: earlier in his statement he implied we had too many troops; now it’s too few troops) and equipment to make the transition to peace; the devastation caused by IEDs; being deployed to Iraq when their homes have been ravaged by hurricanes (ed: the Congressman knows that this myth spread by the far-left websites right after Hurricane Katrina is not true, yet repeats it here); being on their second or third deployment and leaving their families behind without a network of support. (ed: as a retired reservist, the Congressman knows that the last statement is also untrue and is a slap in the face of everyone who works in the various Family Support Groups in the services, and an insult to the intelligence of anyone familiar with military culture. The Congressman knows this ‘without a network of support’ business is simply a lie, and his saying it, more than anything else, convinces me that his statement as a whole has little to do with strategic thinking about America’s interests, but is instead a emotionally-driven bit of political theater).
Murtha continues:
“Many say that the Army is broken.” (ed: there, in a nutshell, is the mirror opposite of the St. Crispen’s Day speech in Henry V. Congressman, what does ‘many’ mean? Do YOU say it?) “Recruitment is down, even as our military has lowered its standards.” (ed: perhaps some of you can help me out with hard numbers, but it seems to me that neither of those statements is true).
“But the war continues to intensify. Deaths and injuries are growing, with over 2,079 confirmed American deaths.” (ed: Blackfive, Mudville, is this true? I thought the Iraqization of the fighting was starting to work and that American deaths, while tragic, are declining. Perhaps I’m wrong, but if I am correct and the Congressman is not, then the entire premise for his ’stunning and corageous’ statement is not only bogus, it is essentially declaring defeat about five minutes after it looks like we won). “Our troops have become the primary target of the insurgency.” (ed: Again, milbloggers, help me out with this. Murtha’s rationale for pulling out doesn’t seem to me to be grounded in reality. First it was the contractors and aid workers and journalists and even the UN headquarters, then it was civilians, then it was Iraqi police recruits, and now it is fellow Arabs in places like Jordan — has the US Military ever really, in a significant way, been the ‘primary target of the insurgency’?)
Just a little more:
“My (Murtha’s) plan calls:
To immediately redeploy U.S. troops consistent with the safety of U.S. forces. (ed: with all respect, Colonel Murtha, after a more thorough read, yes, I do see this as a call to surrender)
To create a quick reaction force in the region. (ed: this sounds suspiciously like taking away the new Iraqi government’s sovereignty and placing it in the hands of a multi-national authority. Whenver I hear the words ‘quick reaction’, I think ‘Europe’, for some reason)
To create an over- the- horizon presence of Marines. (ed: what the hell for? If you are serious that there might be a reason and possibility that they would actually be used, then why make them go through the dangerous step of deploying ‘over the horizon’, when they are already there right now with infrastructure in place? Or is it that you don’t really mean there is any possibility of them ever being used?)
To diplomatically pursue security and stability in Iraq (ed: I cannot comment on a sentence that doesn’t actually say anything).
Thus ends my analysis of Congresman Murtha’s (COL Murtha, USMCR ret.’s) statement, one which I don’t think it too hyperbolic to suggest will become celebrated by jihadists around the world as their St. Murtha’s Day speech.
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