Rep. John Murtha is supporting the troops:
Rep. John P. Murtha is continuing his assault on the Bush administration's Iraq war policy, asserting this week that the U.S. Army is "broken, worn out" and "living hand to mouth."
The Pentagon and a senior Republican senator sharply disagreed with his assessment.
Speaking to civic leaders Wednesday in Latrobe, Pa., in his home district, Mr. Murtha also said the Pennsylvania National Guard is stretched so thin that it will take a year before it can send fully equipped units overseas again.
"You cannot win this thing militarily," Mr. Murtha said later at a press conference. "Most of [U.S. troops] will be out of there in a year if I have my way."
Mr. Murtha, senior Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, has emerged as one of his party's most vocal war critics, after voting to authorize force to remove Saddam Hussein. He now says that vote was a mistake and last week called for quick withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq.
Nicely put Mr. Murtha.
I'm sure Al Jazeera will be airing this tid-bit of brightness and glee over and over and over again, and I'm sure those who think killing civilians, terrorizing Iraqi neighborhoods, and blowing up children gathering candy in the streets are more than pleased to hear those words.
Very nice indeed if the intent is to embolden the terrorists and demoralize the side attempting to defeat them.
It'd be one thing if Murtha's words were true. It's damned near treasonous when in fact you hear from those serving that Murtha is full of crap:
With all the eagerness of a dog returning to something it has vomited up, the conventional media has latched onto Rep. Murtha's rambling discourse about the Army being "broken" and "has done all they can."
Unmitigated crap.
...
As anyone who has read this blog knows, The Inner Prop and I served in Operation Enduring Freedom V (Afghanistan, March 2004-March 2005). We stood at the end of the longest sustained supply line in the history of human conflict. We were in war-torn Central Asia. Af-frickin'-ghanistan. We had decent food, e-mail, phone (OK, sometimes they weren't always working, but almost all the time) excellent medical support, good pay, regular (if slow) mail. We had a PXs at most of the larger bases, and coffee places sprang up too. We had so damned much ammunition that we needed to build a bigger ammunition supply point at Bagram, AF. We had so many vehicles that we were constantly squabbling over where to put them all - and we had enough up-armored ones too. Our supply warehouses were stuffed with clothing, boots, body armor and the like. "Living hand to mouth" is the worst lie of the bunch.
Read it all. Major John makes a strong argument that in fact, Rep. John Murtha is a liar.
And Juliette asks a most relevant question:
Should we believe the words of a retired military colonel, sixteen years out of his commission, who was one of the presiding officers of a military that was indeed “broken and worn out?” Or should we believe the present-day members of the strongest and most motivated armed forces in history who are reenlisting in droves (as of July 2005)?
At some point, one would hope, saner voices in the Democratic party will begin to speak up and speak against what borders on treasonous speech.
Rep. Murtha is aiding and abetting. He is not supporting our troops.
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