Murtha the Marine (Vanity)

November 19, 2005 8:28 AM PST | self

[keat]

To everyone who feels the need to cut the traitorous Congressman Murtha slack because he served in the Marine Corps, might I remind you that Lee Harvey Oswald did as well.

[JCEccles]

I'm sick of word games. I don't a damn what you call it, it's going to get more Marines killed.

Why do you give Murtha a pass to encourage the enemy to kill more Marines?

[hflynn]

This is someowhat off topic I realize but I personally think Oswald was never within 200m of the weapon that killed JFK.

I was responding to the post. Do I believe Oswald was the shooter? No.

[timpad]

Why do you give Murtha a pass to encourage the enemy to kill more Marines?

Where in my post did I mention giving Murtha a pass? I stated several times that I disagree with him strongly. If those are the word games that you're sick of, we're all done here.

[Colonial Warrior]

Psssst......beware of the Holy Hand Grenade!

A reading from the Book of Armaments, Chapter 4, Verses 16 to 20:

Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying, "Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals ... Now did the Lord say, "First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

[xcamel]

I will say one thing, the left has exposed a soft underbelly that should be exploited at all costs. The "former military men" now gone daft or senile are put up as some shining beacon of patriotism for the left, are but one thing.

Useful Idiots.

Jimmy Carter was a career navy man, John Kerry was an army fraud, Colin Powell had his nut$ removed by bureaucrats working 24/7 against him.

We have to wake up and call a turncoat a turncoat and rub the lefts' face in it for a while. Stop giving them the ammo to beat us up with, and realize that no military man since WWII worth his honor would go anywhere near modern politics.

A "mili-politician" is merely a civilian, and to think anything more than that dishonors the rest of the armed forces.

[keat]

This one, I can't let go.

Good points, all.

[Steve Van Doorn]

Did you here what he said and not just the tone of his voice? Murtha said, "our troops are now the enemy." The guy is a loony toon with a commanding voice.

[driveserve]

"I totally disagree with Congressman Murtha but a Marine who has won a Bronze Star with Combat V 1966, Purple Heart 1966, Purple Heart, second award, 1966 among other medals has the right to state his position."

Does John Kerry, three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star & a Bronze Star, have the same right to denounce the military vis-a-vis Abu Graib, CIA, etc. like he did the Vietnam soldiers when he returned from Vietnam, because it is, as you say, his "exercising his right to state his position"?


Would you say that he (Murtha) has an "absolute moral authority" on the subject ala' Cindy Sheehan?

[Mullen]

First of all, everyone has a right to say what they want to: that's the First Amendment and it is one of the many things these troops are fighting for. Furthermore, discussion should be encouraged, not smothered. I have never really bought into the "don't say that or our trooops' feelings might get hurt" argument. And I certainly have not bought into the frequent rhetoric from the right that dissent is "treasonous." Seriously, doesn't anyone else here feel me on this? Isn't anyone tired of hearing the word "treason" bandied about in response to honest political discussion?

I think what you mean to ask is either 1. should we shout down Kerry/Murtha/etc. with incessant insults, smears, assasination of character (which seems to be occuring with increasing frequency) OR 2. should we disagree with Kerry/Murtha/etc.'s points.

I think the answers, clearly, are:
1. No
2. Yes

[hflynn]

Does John Kerry, three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star & a Bronze Star, have the same right to denounce the military vis-a-vis Abu Graib, CIA, etc. like he did the Vietnam soldiers when he returned from Vietnam, because it is, as you say, his "exercising his right to state his position"?

You should can on your hands and thank God Kerry was free to express his I am against after I was for positions. It is the only reason he is not President of the United States.

Would you say that he (Murtha) has an "absolute moral authority" on the subject ala' Cindy Sheehan?

Cindy Sheen? Your stuck on stupid. We are talking about Murtha's political opinions and his right to have them. Do you have anymore right to a political opinion than Murtha? No you don't.

[usmcobra]

Both Oswald and Murtha should be refered to as EX-Marines, and will be by the MSM.

Cowardice in the face of the enemy can never be tolerated, either in the ranks or in Congress.

[hflynn]

Did you here what he said and not just the tone of his voice? Murtha said, "our troops are now the enemy." The guy is a loony toon with a commanding voice.

Extreme left wing antiwar rhetoric makes you sound like a loony toon which brings us to the question, Why would supporters of the War on Terror want to stop Murtha from leading the House of representatives and the Democratic Party to political suicide? The answer is we don't. Let him state the mainstream position of the Democratic Party and let the Democrats suffer the political consequences.

[hflynn]

Both Oswald and Murtha should be refered to as EX-Marines, and will be by the MSM.

I haven't seen a MSM article on Oswald in quite some time but I just did 2 google searchs on Murtha. First search argument was "Former Marine Murtha" and it had 65,300 hits. Second search argument was "Ex-marine Murtha" and it had 341 hits. So Former Marine is how the MSM overwhelmingly describes Murtha.

Cowardice in the face of the enemy can never be tolerated, either in the ranks or in Congress.

Extreme left wing rhetoric is exactly what we want to continue to fall from the lips of every Democrat who gets face time with a TV camera, microphone or any other MSM outlet. The biggest political issue for the American people is the nation's safety. Each time a Murtha or a Kerry or a Kennedy, etc spouts their anti-war rhetoric an increasing number of Americans will come to realize the nation's safety cannot be entrusted to a Democrat today, tomorrow or decades into the future.

[usmcobra]

I said "SHOULD BE" refered to.

I don't want left wing rheatoric to be broadcast to the world or to our troops, for one it only demoralizes our troops and emboldens our enemy, and two their lies are so big and so many that all of them cannot be disproven before the damage they do is done.

One thing that should be checked into is what type of reserves Murtha served in,

the regular reserves

or the indiviual ready reserves, which basically does nothing and gets paid nothing.

But as we have seen in the past It would seem that finding out some things are harder then they should be.

Clicking the above link is supposed to take you to John Kerry's military records as recorded on his own website.

[hflynn]

I said "SHOULD BE" refered to

And then there was a comma and.......? Murtha will continued to be referred to as former marine more often than EX-marine by the MSM.

Regarding Kerry's military records, they will never be completely released by Kerry. Some say the reason is Kerry was court martialed for not showing up for duty in his last year of active duty and was later silently pardoned by President Carter. A more benign explanation was that Kerry's college grades were included in his military records. Kerry's GPA was lower than W's which would have been extremely damaging to Kerry's presidential campaign since the Democrats kept insisting a genius was running against an idiot. Ultimately this proved to be true, Kerry was and is an idiot.

Can't fine much of Murtha reserve duty record but on his Website it says the following:

In 1959, Captain Murtha took command of the 34th Special Infantry Company, Marine Corps Reserves, in Johnstown. He remained in the Reserves after his discharge from active duty until he volunteered for Vietnam in 1966-67, receiving the Bronze Star with Combat "V", two Purple Hearts and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. He remained in the Reserves until his retirement.

I checked Amazon and Murtha did publish a book called "Vietnam to 9/11" which I would suppose documents his military service.

[usmcobra]

Kerry was in the inactive reserves until the 80's if memory serves me.

Most officier are reservists either as active inactive or ready resserve. I'd like to know more then can be googled.

[hflynn]

I'd like to know more then can be googled.

Me too but I'm not willing to spend a nickel on a Kerry or a Murtha book. Next time I'm in a library I'll see if anything is in-house on either one of them.

[driveserve]

No. I mean to ask what I asked. The reason I ask is because of the need of poster hflynn to cite Murtha's medals in an attempt to bolster his point that Murtha should not be shouted down, ridiculed or otherwise called names for saying stupid things. The fact that Murtha is a member of Congress AND a decorated war veteran doesn't give him license to say things that 60-years ago most all of us would have considered traitorous in a time of war. What that fact does however is make his fall from honor that much harder for all of us to witness. His position on the war should not be encouraged. It should be & needs to be smothered for the destruction it would wrought should it prevail.

And now it seems (according to another posting on FR) that Murtha's exhibition was quite a cynical one at that. Not the heart-felt, honest position poster hflynn believes it is.

[driveserve]

I do indeed thank God everyday for Kerry's failed bid.

The reason I brought up Cindy Sheehan is because of your citing of Murtha's war decorations. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times tried the same tactic in declaring that Sheehan has "absolute moral authority" due to the fact that her son died fighting in Iraq & the MSM has run with that non sequitur. Murtha's decorations do not bolster an already morally bankrupt position. If anything, they make his position even more so.

[hflynn]

I stand with the President and Vice President both of whom agree with me that free speech is not limited to those who agree with you.