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Last week, when Congress was getting ready to leave for the Thanksgiving break, Democratic Congressman John "Jack" Murtha , former Vietnam veteran, surprised his colleagues by saying "The U.S. cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily," It is time to bring them home." Congressman Murtha had previously supported the Iraq War Resolution, made visits to wounded soldiers in the hospital, talked to military commanders and has spent most of his career shunning the spotlight. Former war veterans who served with him in Vietnam say
he is a former military man deeply concerned about the troops. Immediately, Republicans chimed in comparing him to extreme liberal activist Micheal Moore, but now are tempering their criticism due to the blacklash from criticizing heartfelt non-politically motivated comments from a congressman and former war veteran. |
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LET'S GET REAL HERE BY KELLY THOMAS |
"I like guys who got five deferments and (have) never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done," Congressman Murtha PA congressman and decorated veteran of the Vietnam war.
Let's Get Real Here
AP Photo/Meet The Press |
Those of us concerned about this war including the physical and psychological impact on our troops, have been waiting for Murtha's comments for a long time. Why to go Jack!!! Now before some of you flip out, Murtha didn't say "Load the troops on a ship and move them out." He said, "We want a timetable, a plan for exiting, getting the hell out of Dodge." Is that so hard?
It would be easy for anybody who is halfway objective to go back from the beginning of Iraq and say over and over, "You have got to be kidding me, this is Vietnam revisited." In Vietnam, in the beginning, retaliation for the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a hidden agenda of wanting to leap into Vietnam. We wanted to stop communism, prevent the domino effect, flex our muscles, let a President make a splash for leadership; and with a slight hint of morality; we could keep a big country from over running a small one. (North over South-South Vietnam did have a government, albeit corrupt). This is all very simplified, of course.
Into the Vietnam war, "the goal" was to win the hearts and minds of the people and one way was Vietnamization, in other words, train the South Vietnamese, then turn the war over to them-does any of this sound familiar? We would take ground one day, give it up the next, but the VC owned the night. Need I go on. Suddenly, it is ten years later. Is that really what we want? Please!
A Noble Effort
Some say regardless of what happens, Iraq was a noble effort-, to me, this statement is a stretch. However, we are at a point in Iraq where we simply cannot influence what is going to happen. I hear all these talking heads: retired generals, think tank aficionados, on the talk shows; and, let's face it folks, they don't know squat. They speculate, they postulate, say what they think might happen, but know nothing.
We have realized that military power won't hack it alone in Iraq. Or, at least those of us who "think" have. The forces allied against us are simply too powerful. How can you deal with people who will blow themselves up and kill innocents without a pause? It doesn't take a Harvard scholar to get it. To continue indefinitely in Iraq, even past tomorrow without a plan is idiocy at the highest levels considering thousands of years of strife and an overlay of religiosity imbedded in the souls of the people, both friend and foe, of which we can't fathom.
As one who has not opposed the war, but the colossal mismanagement of it from the beginning, I think Murtha is right. Cheney wants to "shoot the messenger." This is a disservice to America and truly dishonors our fallen soldiers and those who will die before we finally come to our senses. God help us. kt
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