Last week in an ABC News interview, Congressman John Murtha (D — PA) said if he were eligible to join the military today he would not join, nor would he expect others to join.
What Rep. Murtha has effectively done is renounce his service. He has abandoned the troops serving today.
Which makes him a deserter, and equally as vile as the likes of Pablo Paredes. When Sen. John Kerry betrayed his fellow soldiers during the Vietnam war, he became a deserter in my book, too. Once a Soldier denounces his military service and abandons his brothers-in-arms, he no longer deserves the respect of having served.
I have been stewing over this statement for nearly a week. And I’m even more furious now than when I first heard it. And I’m not the only one. Veterans, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and especially Marines are taking Rep. Murtha to task for his statement.
Soldiers like Sgt. Mark Seavey, who called out Rep. Murtha and Rep. Moran (D — VA) at a recent Town Hall meeting. Or Soldiers like Vietnam veteran General Wagner, who could barely contain his anger and disdain for Murtha and Moran at the same Town Hall meeting.
And Soldiers like the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Peter Pace:
“Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a news conference Thursday that Murtha’s remarks about Iraq are damaging to troop morale and to the Army’s efforts to bring up recruitment numbers. Pace, the nation’s top general, was asked specifically about an ABC News interview this week in which Murtha, 73, said if he were eligible to join the military today he would not join, nor would he expect others to join.
“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.”
I am more proud of my military service than of any other thing I have ever done. Nearly every other Veteran I have talked to feels the same way. I can’t ever imagine telling somebody — under any circumstance — that I would not do it again. In fact, Rep. Murtha, if I were eligible to join the military today , I would do it again. Does that make me a better man than you, Mr. Murtha? You bet your ass it does.
You, Mr. Murtha, have also made my little brother’s job, (he’s a SFC in command of his own US Army Recruiting Station) more difficult by trying to persuade young men and women not to enlist. But my brother will meet his mission despite your attempts to sabotage it, because he too is a much better man than you, Mr. Murtha.
If you ever find yourself sitting at the same bar as my brother and I, Mr. Murtha, your best play would be simply to buy us a beer, pay your tab, and crawl out of the bar and out of our sight — because you no longer deserve nor are welcomed to sit at the bar and share a beer with real Soldiers and veterans.
You have proven—without a doubt—that you are no longer worthy of being called a Marine.
Luckily for Rep. Murtha, there are still plenty of men and women better than himself who are willing to serve today to protect his thankless ass.
I actually spent a week away from the tv set last week and glad I did. This would have made me sick. But, in the end, people like Murtha and Peloisi, Kerry etc. end up hanging themselves. I would expect that Murtha will have a very hard time getting reelected after that diarrhea of the mouth and furthermore, that level-headed democrats (the few there are) will now desert him.
Left by dianne on January 9th, 2006 at 12:36 pm