Friday, January 06, 2006
Pace On Murtha
"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 reaction from Congressional Democrats should be vastly entertaining.
When Colonel Danny Bubp, himself a Marine, had the colossal nerve to express publicly to his Congresswoman what the vast majority of Marines think privately (that withdrawing from the field of battle and reneging on our promises would be a cowardly act incompatible with over 200 years of proud Marine Corps history) Rep. Harold Ford charged across the House floor in anger and had to be physically restrained. How dare one of those uppity military types voice an opinion? Who let him in here? House Democrats then tried to have his words stricken from the record before thinking better of it.
The media then launched a ridiculous smear campaign complete with unfounded allegations that Rep. ("Mean Jean") Schmidt "misquoted" Bubp. In reality, the only alteration between her remark and Bubp's quote was her substitution of Murtha's name for "that congressman who sponsored the bill" - a change that altered the meaning of Bubp's comment not one iota. They also tried to make hay of Bubp's statement that he never meant to imply Murtha was a coward. Well of course he didn't. Unless English is your second language, a plain reading of his comment (difficult, as most news accounts of the story omitted the quote and simply informed readers Schmidt had called Murtha a coward) makes it quite obvious that was never his intent. Schmidt and Bubp have agreed on this point from day one.
But undermining his own country's policies through distortion of the truth is hardly a first for Murtha:
In a statement released Thursday, Murtha said: "The military had no problem recruiting directly after 9/11 because everyone understood that we had been attacked. But now the military's ability to attract recruits is being hampered by the prospect of prolonged, extended and repeated deployments; inadequate equipment; shortened home stays; the lack of any connection between Iraq and the brutal attacks of 9/11; and - most importantly - the administration's constantly changing, undefined, open-ended military mission in Iraq.
"I didn't have concerns like these when I enlisted in the Marines during the Korean War or volunteered to go to Vietnam," Murtha said
As though Vietnam was a popular war: over before we knew it in three glorious weeks in 1963. You remember when JFK declared victory on that aircraft carrier, don't you?
Rep. Murtha is dishonest in his criticism. First of all, the United States had significant recruiting difficulties during Vietnam. History buffs (which Rep. Murtha clearly isn't) may recall that we had to institute a tiny detail called the draft. Second, equipment shortages are part and parcel of any conflict.
And finally, commands in Vietnam were resupplied by personal rotation. Individual Marines went over for one year at a time. Marine commands in Iraq and Afghanistan for the most part are rotating wholesale for half-year rotations. This is why they have been sent over more than once, and why their "home stays" are "shortened". Shorter rotations = shorter time between repeat deployments. Of course, Rep. Murtha doesn't want you to know that. My father in law was in the Navy in Vietnam. He did two one-year tours in country. This was not all that uncommon, unless your name is John Kerry and you managed to get yourself a cushy billet as an admiral's aide in DC after serving only three months of your one-year tour after getting some rice in your butt. Representative Murtha probably wouldn't like you to know that either.
But it's so much easier to control the dialogue if we can just keep those troublesome military folks (you know - the ones who are actually fighting the war) away from the megaphone and let the press control public perception. Just trot out a few worn out and disaffected vets, and if anyone dares to disagree with them - even active duty folks who actually know something about the subject - either refuse to cover what their remarks, mischaracterize them, or call them partisans.
Works like a charm.
5 Comments:
By 
Cardinalpark, at
Fri Jan 06, 08:51:00 AM:
This is why the country needs a Pace-like character as a President. A serious military guy as CINC. And for the country's sake, it would be best if he were a Democrat. But it would be ok if he was a Republican as well.
By Cassandra, at
Fri Jan 06, 09:16:00 AM:
I actually don't mind getting a reasonable Democrat in the White House - both parties have gotten so centrist I think the different in electable candidates is really marginal, now.
What continues to offend me about the DNC is their ridiculous pandering to people's feelings.
I'm sorry but you cannot and should not run a nation based on feelings. We all have them, but just because Mary Sue or Willard gets offended or feels marginalized or treated as Other by something is no reason to change our national policy. To paraphrase Spock, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...or the one". But the Dems are always asserting the anecdotal as some reason for changing public policy. "Waaah! Granny fell and scraped her knee!" Well, yes, but Granny has a family that should be taking care of her and a community surrounding her as well. I don't think Congress needs to pass a Unified Knee Rehabilitation Act to tax us all into perdition and address this particular circumstance. This, too the Republic can survive.
For the life of me I cannot understand when the Dems became a party of whiners. I am reminded of Monty Python: "Let us not go to Camelot -- it is a silly place".
Sorry for the rant.
By sunguh5307, at
Fri Jan 06, 11:14:00 AM:
I hate to use the ambiguous 'they' in referring to the Left, but it is 'they' who are politicizing the military. A military that has to get involved in politics, become a sophisticated media machine, is not good for democratic longevity.
Advice for the opposition- let the military do the job. Win an election and you can change it. Until then, whine at your own peril.
By 
, at
Fri Jan 06, 07:11:00 PM:
As far as I am concerned, Murtha has verbally thrown his medals, military career and good sense over a wall just like Kerry did a long time ago. Some patriot!?! He has proven himself to be a disgrace. Shame on you, Murtha.
By , at
Fri Jan 06, 08:29:00 PM:
Murtha is only doing the Ghost Dance. That is "normal" for the "crisis cults" which involve non-rational belief systems that cultures develop when under severe stress and faced with breakdown,"
A MUST READ - Promise you will see the "CRISIS CULT" at work in every LEFT output - Hear the Ghost Dance drummings as you read or hear the latest LEFTY meme while visions of FDR & JFK flash in their minds.
I PROMISE YOU WILL NOT REGRET READING THIS:
End-Time Panic and The Liberal Ghost Dance
The great psychoanalytic anthropologist Weston LaBarre wrote extensively of "crisis cults," which involve non-rational belief systems that cultures develop when under severe stress and faced with breakdown. Similar to the neurotic individual, at the core of every crisis cult is a welcome but false "noble lie" which "is defended with the same religious fanaticism as neurosis." As he writes, "Crisis cults are notable for their foolishness and unreality, because they tend to deny and misapprehend the real situation surrounding the society. But they all promise relief from unendurable current catastrophe." In fact, as irrational as they may appear on the surface, the crisis cult is "the would-be therapy of the traumatized culture." It doesn't do anything in the real world, but it comforts those who cling to the beliefs of the crisis cult.
In his book The Ghost Dance, LaBarre describes dozens of crisis cults. In fact, the book takes its title from one of the most famous crisis cults, the Ghost Dance of the late 19th century, when American Indians were facing the complete dissolution of their way of life--loss of their hunting territories, near extinction of the once vast buffalo herds, a series of disastrous military defeats, multiple droughts, and new and fatal diseases. The Ghost Dance was a fantasied solution to all their problems, involving the widespread idea that "a new skin would slide over the old earth, covering up the whites and all their works, and bringing upon it new trees and plants, great buffalo herds, the ghosts of the dead, and the great departed warriors and chiefs." This utopia would come about if only each person in all the tribes danced the elaborate Ghost Dance.
Another famous example is the "cargo cult" of early 20th century New Guinea. There, the natives couldn't help but notice that they had to work very hard, while the white colonialists seemed to sit around a lot, and received great stores of goods simply by sending out little scraps of paper. They reasoned that this had something to do with the mysterious cargo ships that left with native products and returned loaded down with all of the machines and other items that seemed to make the white men so powerful. The New Guineans developed the idea that these powerful objects were fashioned by their ancestors in a far-off volcano and were actually meant for them. But in order to ensure receiving them, they would have to imitate the behaviors of the white men by "sitting solemnly and speechlessly around tables," waiting for their ship to come in, so to speak.
YOU MUST READ IT ALL - YOU'LL HEAR THE "GHOST DANCE" DRUM BEAT WHENEVER MURTHA,PELOSI,REID, KENNEDY AND ALL THE LSM & 527 MINIONS OF THE LEFT!
http://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2006/01/end-time-panic-and-liberal-ghost-dance.html
Click here: One Cosmos: End-Time Panic and The Liberal Ghost Dance
Once you have read the entire essay you'll give kudos to Dr. Robert Godwin for painting these vivid word pictures.
Visions of FDR, JFK fill their heads and set the beat - with absolutely
no understanding.
"a slow withdrawal will look like victory" John Murtha - need I say
more??
