Is Jack Murtha a Coward and a Traitor?

The American Thinker ^ | 11/20/05 | J. Peter Mulhern

[Kitten Festival]

The prize for the most dramatic oratory in the United States Congress in the new millennium goes to fledgling Representative Jean Schmidt. In the midst of debate over whether the House of Representatives should vote on a resolution endorsing immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq she conveyed a message she had received from an active duty Marine colonel, to Representative Jack Murtha. Murtha, a decorated Marine veteran, inspired the debate earlier this week by calling for withdrawal from Iraq.

Representative Smith’s message quoting the colonel was simple: “Cowards cut and run, Marines never do.” [snip] When people engage in debate within the boundaries of legitimate disagreement they should be respectful. But we need to maintain those boundaries.

Jack Murtha’s call for immediate disengagement took him far outside the boundaries of legitimate disagreement. He has never been able to articulate any plausible basis for his position on Iraq. There is a simple reason for that. There isn’t one.

Reasonable people cannot differ about whether or not the United States should press forward with our war against the terror masters. For the time being Iraq is inevitably the principal front in that war. A congressman who tries to duck his share of the responsibility for prosecuting that war is displaying moral cowardice. Any American who recommends retreat is injuring his own country and calling his own patriotism into question.

[A CA Guy]

The poster above was correct, so was Benedict Arnold.

[MadIvan]

I regard him as a tool. He's being used by the leftist establishment.

Regards, Ivan

[JCEccles]

Despite clear evidence that our Marines are doing a magnificent job achieving all objectives in Iraq, Murtha, perhaps the most powerful and visible Democrat with a military background in Congress, has very publicly announced that our Marines have failed, cannot win, and must be withdrawn. He has said "they have become the enemy" and that terrorism actually started when our Marines and soldiers got to Iraq in 2003. These are exactly the same points that bin Laden and al-Zarqawi have been making all along.

I merely asked you what you thought the effect of his comments have been on our Marines and on the terrorists who kill our Marines. Do you not know? Do you not care?

It's okay to use common sense in forming this opinion.

[JennysCool]

You're mixing apples and oranges, there. Those folks wanted to secede to form their own country. these folks simply want to tear ours down around us in the name of their selfish party and their lust for power.

[cynicom]

You saying I am stupid or Murtha is stupid, or both???

I actually felt sorry for the old man. He had to use letters from soldiers and their families as a crutch to bolster his argument for leaving Iraq. It was his proposal and he had to sink with it, it was not a pretty sight.

[punster]

"I don't know if he's a coward, but he certainly is a traitor and a liar."

Perhaps, we could say Jack Murtha is a real murtha faker.

[DallasSun]

Every soldier to whom I have spoken to about Murtha would hate your comment. As I do. It is a shame a soldier cannot disagree with us politically without being vilified. They disagreed with him also about pulling out of Iraq at this time. But to them, he served this country with honour.

[FreedomSurge]

Murtha did not vote his conscience. He is a LIAR. He is a FOOL.

[citizen]

"Ain't no fool like an old fool."

[FlingWingFlyer]

Does this go for Timothy McVeigh also?

[timpad]

Those folks wanted to secede to form their own country. these folks simply want to tear ours down around us in the name of their selfish party and their lust for power.

The Rosenbergs and Alger Hiss wanted to secede? I missed that. I thought they wanted to tear us down in the name of their selfish (Communist) party and their lust for power. To do so, they passed vital secrets to the enemy. THAT is treason.

[Poser]

No. He's just a sentimental old fool.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

In the midst of debate over whether the House of Representatives should vote on a resolution endorsing immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq [Representative Jean Schmidt] conveyed a message she had received from an active duty Marine colonel, to Representative Jack Murtha. Murtha, a decorated Marine veteran. . . .

I heard an ABC (a.k.a., A BS) radio "news" segment that replayed Rep. Schmidt passing along the message but failed to include the part where she made it clear that the message was from the named active duty Marine colonel -- thus the words became the words of Representative Schmidt and added to the left's "Bush [Republican] derangement syndrome." Nice going, ABS employees!

[jude24]

Yes. Anyone who doesn't parrot the Bush line of the day is a traitor. [/sarcasm]

Murtha's right. We're in the way. They don't want us there. We should leave at the earliest possible date.

[A CA Guy]

He isn't only disagreeing, he fails to give any valid reason for his views. He just makes blanket dangerous statements that gives aid and comfort to our enemies.

He and the rest of the Democrat party are providing endless propaganda for Al Jazerra that supports the terrorists.

He's saying that we aren't accomplishing anything in Iraq and doesn't acknowledge any of the progress or historic events that have happened.

He's a willing tool for the enemy as far as I am concerned. I don't see how what he does is benefiting America.
Maybe once he was a hero, but people change and at this point I think the fact surrounding this man paints him to be a modern day Benedict Arnold. I agree with the earlier poster in that description.

[fizziwig]

True. I was trying to give the benefit of the doubt...but alas, thee is no doubt....he is just another self promoting idiot who happened to be a marine.

[Riptides]

Mr.Murtha is not a coward.
What the House Republicans did on Friday night was brilliant. By forcing a vote they forced everybody to put their vote where their mouth is.
It was the epitome of hypocrisy when Jack Murtha, who on Friday morning demanded the immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq but yet didn't have the balls to vote that way Friday night. On second thought, maybe he is a coward.

[A CA Guy]

You go out too soon without properly trained people to keep the peace there and there will be slaughtering of Iraqi citizens.

The left had also broken the will of the American people as they try to do now in Nam. As you know, those that stood with America in Nam were pretty much abandoned and they were slaughtered.

200k troops of Iraq are trained to some level of competence, when they have the ability to make a go of handling themselves, we go. Or if we are asked to leave earlier by an Iraqi President to leave, we go sooner.

[Gritty]

Murtha is an old fool who ought to know better, but obviously either doesn't or doesn't care.

Just like John Kerry, Murtha and the anti-war Democrat Party are using individual honorable military service and combat medals merely as deceptive props to hide their real agendas. They are not honoring them, but degrading them.

It would be safer to to inhabit a foxhole with a constantly blowing foghorn and flashing lights than any of these scoundrels. Not a one of them is worth the powder to blow them to the hell they richly deserve.

Fools and knaves, all of them!

[Lacey]

I like the way Mark Steyn addresses it:

How dare you question my patriotism?", well, yes, I am questioning your patriotism -- because you're failing to meet the challenge of the times.