Rep. John Murtha (D, PA) has been a Congressman for a long, long time. As the ranking
member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Murtha has been the leading beneficiary of defense campaign
contributions in the House and number 3 overall in Congress. In 2004, Murtha ranked behind only President Bush
and candidate John Kerry in overall political donations from the defense industry, according to Newsbusters.org.
This past June 11th, Congressman Murtha was challenged by the Los Angeles Times to explain his pork barrel spending
efforts to benefit his brother. In an article by Ken Silverstein and Richard Simon, it was demonstrated that at
least ten clients of Murtha's brother - Robert "Kit" Murtha - benefited from being awarded $20.8 million
dollars in 2004 defense contracts. Investor's Business Daily is the sole newspaper with coverage of this potential
scandal. It reports that Roll Call, the Hill newspaper, suggests that the Murtha brothers and Robert's firm, KSA
Consulting, might be candidates for a House ethics committee inquiry.
Clearly it was a good time for Murtha to claim hero status.
A week ago, John Murtha made a speech in which he built on the following points:
- Our welcome has been worn out
Our troops are suffering and losing
The U.S. cannot accomplish anything more militarily
It's time to bring the troops home
While the propagandist press hailed these words as the conscience of a converted war hawk, the points sounded
familiar. In fact, the very words were familiar. Perhaps, we had heard them before.
As reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and recorded in the November 9, 1993 Congressional Record (page H9054),
the points are taken from Congressman Murtha's speech denouncing America's military presence in Somalia following
the "Black Hawk Down" episode 12 years ago.
In other words, Murtha's position is not new nor is it an epiphany. He is, says columnist Ed Morrissey, a consistent
isolationist not a newly converted hawk.
At the time, Murtha's PR folks gladly took credit for the American withdrawal, saying President Clinton was following
Murtha's sound advice. It would be fair to look at the result of following Murtha's exact same advice that he has
given today. Can Iraq become Somalia? It is still a failed state.
The adventures in Mogadishu began under Bush 41 when he sent American troops as part of a U.N. mission to combat
famine in a lawless state. It was under President Clinton in 1993 and his hapless Secretary of Defense Les Aspin
that America expanded its role to combat local warlords, especially the most vicious one - Aidid. Secretary of
Defense Aspin refused to refit the deployed troops with the necessary equipment for the altered mission. Troops
sent to deliver food and water were expected to fight a war without the necessary support, including tanks. Reaction
to his neglect of duty ended Aspin's career.
A popular movie depicts the incident known as 'Black Hawk Down" in which U.S. military are ambushed and their
bodies stripped and dragged through the streets for the binefit of international television cameras.
Osama bin Laden was in Somalia at that time. His forces were weak and unable to fight or flee. He was highly vulnerable
but he escaped. However, Somalia was a great learning experience for AQ. From the American behavior there and elsewhere,
the bin Laden doctrine of asymmetrical warfare evolved. American's fear casualties more than they fear defeat.
After all, the Americans fled Somalia after just 18 casualties. America is sufficiently well-off and isolationist
that it cares not one whit about what happens to its allies. Or its enemies either. It will always prefer tax money
spent at home to tax money spent elsewhere. American public opinion will consistently favor the easiest way out.
It was clear to Osama that America, with its vast military power, was powerless because of what he regarded as
its ingrained cowardice. The United States had cut and run from casualties in Vietnam, Teheran, Beirut, the Khobar
Towers, Tanzania and Kenya. The attack on the USS Cole was absorbed without retaliation. Americans will not invest
lives to support its beliefs, AQ doctrine stated.
The American elites had even invented a doctrine to rationalize their behavior. If these AQ attacks were not part
of a common war with radical Islam but individual and isolated criminal acts, then police response was adequate.
The police function of slow, complicated and careful investigation to establish a case that would stand up in court
usually proceeded in media silence and was easily and quickly forgotten by the public. Silence and delay allows
the political elite to keep the public comfortable with losing a little bit at a time just so long as the consequences
are deferred or, even better, absorbed by someone else.
Following leaders who agree with John Murtha's point of view, the United States has not won a shooting war since
World War II. As columnist Rick Martinez has pointed out, America fought to a draw in Korea, lost skirmishes in
Lebanon and Somalia, lost a war in Vietnam and were winning a war in the Persian Gulf until it decided to keep
a tyrant in power, deferring the outcome for a decade.
The image, prevalent in much of the world today, is that America is a paper tiger because it will not fight to
win and it cravenly abandons its allies. Its latest iteration came from an Asian mayor speaking last Wednesday
who stated flatly that China would beat the United States in war because of its perceived character flaws. (It
is, of course, important to note that he is critical of the Western reverence towards individual life. To his secular
Communist soul, losing 500 million Chinese to nuclear war would be a welcome population control. The same line
of thinking has been heard by the new leaders in Iran who said that they would be willing to lose half their population
in order to destroy Israel.)
We are, in truth, nearer to a win in Iraq that we realize. It remains for the administration to also realize that
the final battlefield is Congress and the artillery is the media. President Bush has proven that he can withstand
MSM assaults but his party, worried about mid-term elections, has not. Uninformed, falsely-informed or ill-informed
public opinion is no basis for foreign policy. Fear and appeasement is no formula for political leadership. The
public is near to calling for a "plague on both your houses."
Reporter Rick Martinez is right on the money when he says "Timetables are pointless. The men and women serving
in Iraq are coming home. The only real question is whether we are willing to do what it takes to return them as
winners."
11/25/05
