BlackFive

In the same way I don't countenance the chickenhawk argument, I don't automatically give former military folks a free pass. Well Rep. Murtha has used up his good will and is rapidly looking at a boot in the ass. When you allow your politics to push you around the bend and declare the military not a fit or decent place to serve you lose any respect I had for your service. Murtha has become the latest victim of BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) to allow his disagreement over policy to turn him into a blithering ass clown.

In an ABC News interview aired on Monday, Murtha was asked whether he would join the military today. "No," replied Murtha, who in November called for a pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq.

"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 said. "Exactly right," Murtha replied.

I served faithfully and honorably under WJB Clinton, and although I had less than zero respect for the man, I honored the position of Commander in Chief and I never transferred my dislike of the man to the military at large. Fortunately we have a fighting leatherneck as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and in refreshingly blunt language he reminded Murtha what the consequences of his foolish remarks were.

"Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a news conference Thursday that Murtha's remarks about Iraq are damaging to troop morale and to the Army's efforts to bring up recruitment numbers. Pace, the nation's top general, was asked specifically about an ABC News interview this week in which Murtha, 73, said if he were eligible to join the military today he would not join, nor would he expect others to join.

"That's damaging to recruiting," Pace said. "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 are doing to serve this country."

Military officers usually are reluctant to get drawn into political debates, but Pace said Murtha's remarks about recruiting are relevant to his responsibilities as Joint Chiefs chairman."

The bloated defeatist defended his statements saying:

"Speaking before a town hall meeting on Iraq in Arlington, Va., hosted by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., Murtha said Pace called him to discuss the war.

"Peter Pace told me this last night: They know militarily they can't win this," Murtha said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others at the Pentagon, including Pace, have said repeatedly that victory in Iraq will not be achieved by U.S. forces defeating the insurgency militarily but rather by U.S. forces providing the Iraqis the military, political and economic wherewithal to overcome the insurgency."

In his dotage Murtha can be forgiven the inability to understand Pace's strategic grasp of the situation, and his misrepresentation of Pace's comment. Heck the king of "cut & run" was doing what the rest of the left is and ignoring the gargantuan piles of good news to focus on any tidbit or morsel of ugliness they can find.

Pace noted, correctly, that a military victory is impossible against an insurgency of this type as the bad guys will never engage in suicidal force on force engagements. But that was never the (non-existent) plan, we always knew that the military had to provide security while the Iraqi forces were trained and took over. Once Iraqis were seen as running their own country politically and security-wise, there would be too little popular support to allow an insurgency. If following a plan that has yet to miss a milestone and every day hands more pacified turf over to the Iraqi forces is blindly staying the course, I guess I'll take it over deliberately running into the rocks for political gain.

I know it hurts the left to even consider the fact that W won this war and the troops will be coming home to a public that honors their victory, but hey "that which doesn't kill me" right?