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MURTHA URGED SOMALIA PULLOUT IN 1993
Newsmax ^ | 11-21-05 | Newsmax Staff

Posted on 11/21/2005 7:31:25 AM PST by freedom4me

After terrorists attacked U.S. troops in Mogadishu, Somalia 12 years ago, anti-Iraq war Democrat, Rep. John Murtha urged then-President Clinton to begin a complete pullout of U.S. troops from the region.

Clinton took the advice and ordered the withdrawal - a decision that Osama bin Laden would later credit with emboldening his terrorist fighters and encouraging him to mount further attacks against the U.S.

"Our welcome has been worn out," Rep Murtha told NBC's "Today" show in Sept. 1993, after the Mogadishu battle cost the lives of 18 U.S. Rangers.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1993; cutandrunmurtha; mogadishu; murtha; pullout; somalia; x42
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To: freedom4me
What is up with this??? Is he one of the freaking old farts that left our soldiers hanging with their a$$ets out?? Now I am beginning to think less and less of him as a hero...
21 posted on 11/21/2005 7:45:31 AM PST by Danae (Anál nathrach, orth' bháis's bethad, do chél dénmha)
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To: conservativecorner

You beat me to it.


22 posted on 11/21/2005 7:45:33 AM PST by rvoitier ("Hug your babies tight"--Luanne Platter)
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Somalia was reported to be quite frustrated, but she was not available for comment....


23 posted on 11/21/2005 7:46:03 AM PST by clintonh8r (I hope I'm at home when the GOP Senate Campaign Committee calls for some money.)
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To: freedom4me

I agree with the Somalia pullout. Somalia is a country of no importance. If we didn't pull out - we'd probably still be there, much like Clinton's "one-year" engagement in the Balkans.


24 posted on 11/21/2005 7:46:03 AM PST by A Ruckus of Dogs
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To: freedom4me

Word to your Murtha.


25 posted on 11/21/2005 7:46:06 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: CitadelArmyJag

You got that right brother! All of it!


26 posted on 11/21/2005 7:46:23 AM PST by Danae (Anál nathrach, orth' bháis's bethad, do chél dénmha)
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To: freedom4me

Slick willie will be blaming Murtha for his ill fated Somalia decisions?


27 posted on 11/21/2005 7:48:34 AM PST by OldFriend (The Dems enABLEd DANGER and 3,000 Americans died.)
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To: freedom4me
Murtha's been a "cut-and-run" guy for quite some time.

Many people learned the wrong lesson from Vietnam and are forever damaged.

28 posted on 11/21/2005 7:50:01 AM PST by rhombus
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To: OldFriend

I wonder if Murtha's grandfather ordered a pullout of the Union from the Confederacy?


29 posted on 11/21/2005 7:50:01 AM PST by King Koffee
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To: nuconvert
I heard Murtha say that he meets with many commanders and while they rightfully don't say anything against the military strategy, he KNOWS they are not happy.

Excuse me, so now Murtha is a mindreader too???

30 posted on 11/21/2005 7:50:02 AM PST by OldFriend (The Dems enABLEd DANGER and 3,000 Americans died.)
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To: freedom4me
To give him a little credit, what Murtha says about Somalia is pretty well correct:

In Somalia a well-meaning humanitarian intervention ended in failure because we interjected ourselves into a civil war. I am not arguing that we should have acted decisively with a larger military force in either case. As I have explained, I opposed the intervention in Somalia from the day the decision to intervene was made.

The first President Bush intervened in Somalia's civil war at the instigation of the bleeding hearts in the MSM and the DNC, who were painting him as a heartless villain. Poor African blacks were being killed by vicious warlords, and Bush was urged that it was our job to go in and feed and protect the victims. After resisting for a while, Bush gave in to pressure and sent in troops on a humanitarian mission.

Then when clinton was elected, he expanded the mission, after the MSM decided that one of the warlords was more vicious than the others, and therefore should be fought. But Clinton refused to supply the armor that commanders on the spot said was necessary for the new, expanded mission.

So the whole thing was a matter of foolish do-goodism compounded by mission creep, as a result of political pressure put on the politicians by the bleeding heart media, who were chiefly responsible for what happened.

So Murtha was right in saying that we had no business there in the first place, and had might as well leave. The unfortunate result, of course, was that bin Ladin was encouraged to think we are paper tigers. It was clinton's fault for confirming bin Ladin, when he refused to respond to a series of attacks bin Ladin mounted on us all through the clinton presidency.

Certainly it would have been better never to have gone into Somalia in the first place. The whole idea was misbegotten.

Still, it's a good catch that the MSM are now lying again, and pretending that Murtha has always been a hawk. Not true.

31 posted on 11/21/2005 7:50:37 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Cicero
Then when clinton was elected, he expanded the mission, after the MSM decided that one of the warlords was more vicious than the others, and therefore should be fought

As I understand it, the warlord was no better nor nor worse than any of the others. He just didn't want to play cards with the UN.

32 posted on 11/21/2005 7:53:35 AM PST by A Ruckus of Dogs
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To: freedom4me

Was it not the Somalia pullout that gave bin Laden the impression that the U.S. wouldn't fight? Is Murtha trying to be two for two?


33 posted on 11/21/2005 7:54:28 AM PST by popdonnelly
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To: CitadelArmyJag

Agreed- Somalia was a disaster from inception. OTOH- IF we commit troops to an op, I DAMN WELL want to see they have what they need to COMPLETE THE MISSION.

That is my endless rant...from Nam to this day. We deploy with a P.S. "You must fight in a politically correct manner, meaning you can't really complete the mission we're asking you to..."

end rant.


34 posted on 11/21/2005 7:57:36 AM PST by SE Mom (God Bless those who serve..)
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To: freedom4me

Murtha's formula for fighting terrorism has been proven unsuccessful.


35 posted on 11/21/2005 7:57:53 AM PST by popdonnelly
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To: freedom4me

That was a noble effort until C.S. Clinton got hold of it and tried to Liberalize Somalia.


36 posted on 11/21/2005 8:01:21 AM PST by JustAnotherOkie
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To: CitadelArmyJag
We never should have been in Somolia or the Balkans in the first place.

It's a dilemma at best. Somalia was one in a string of problems that cemented conventional wisdom about use of the military. You begin with these nominally humanitarian-only missions, do some actions to try to improve success of that mission, and get burned. I think there was a wide consensus to just stay out of those situations. It amounted to straying from the more popular and proven strategy of either do nothing or go in with overwhelming force.

I think Osama's perception of this as a "congenital" cut-and-run tendency on our part was faulty. A lesson may be to try to avoid giving even the appearance of being weak. But it is too harsh to say, for example, 9/11 was OUR FAULT for showing weakness.

37 posted on 11/21/2005 8:01:45 AM PST by NutCrackerBoy
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To: A Ruckus of Dogs

All the warlords were equally a bunch of selfish scum. They fastened on him because they needed a goat, I think. And clinton was happy to cooperate because he wanted to look like the great white knight in shining armor.


38 posted on 11/21/2005 8:02:56 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: eastsider
This guy sounds like a present-day McClellan.

we liked that fella better known for his saddle quite well down here..lol

39 posted on 11/21/2005 8:03:33 AM PST by wardaddy (Captain Spaulding .....the perfect dinner guest)
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To: CitadelArmyJag
We went to Somalia under Bush 41. He sent troops to stop a genocide by the Jihadis. Good mission.

When he was voted out of office his plan to turn the peacekeeping over to the UN was dropped by BJ Clinton. He then launched on a campaign of "nation building" which was mostly involved in trying to get cuts of any aid deals for his cronies.

Then a warlord rose up, sponsored by Osama. And Clinton sent in the Rangers to take him out. But he also refused to give them back up (shades of his hero JFK).

And that's how we got Black Hawk Down. And then Murtha and friends turned it into Vietnam. And now they're trying to do it again.

Tens, if not hundreds of thousands died following the Somalia debacle brought about by Clinton and Murtha.

Millions died after the dims abandoned the people of Southeast asia and millions more lost their freedom.

40 posted on 11/21/2005 8:04:09 AM PST by Phsstpok (There are lies, damned lies, statistics and presentation graphics, in descending order of truth)
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