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Friday on the floor of the House of Representatives, House Republicans pulled a stunt of unmitigated gall. And for these shameless bastards, that is saying something!
Ok, so here is the deal. On November 18, Pennslyvania Democratic Congressman Jack Murtha, a former Marine and veteran of both the Korean War and Vietnam, called Bush's war in Iraq a "flawed policy wrapped in illusion." He then advocated pulling all of our troops out of Iraq, among other suggestions. (for his actual speech I will attach video and also paste a link to the text of his remarks.)
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/pa
What makes this significant is that Congressman Murtha voted for the Iraq war and is one of the leading and most respected foreign policy voices in Washington. So immediately he was attacked by Vice President Dick Cheney, who Murtha promptly said this about: "I like guys who've never been there that criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done."
Then yesterday on the House floor, Ohio Republican Congresswoman, Jean Schmidt, the junior member of Congress, was forced to withdraw comments that she made by implying that Jack Murtha was a "coward." Schmidt had earlier shamed herself by passing on a message she received for Ohio State Senator and Marine Reservist, Danny Bubp, who is a known Republican stooge who helped Schmidt smear her previous Democratic opponent Paul Hackett, who is a veteran of the most recent war in Iraq. Schmidt's statement consisted of this message from Bubp: "He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message, that cowards cut and run, Marines never do." She was immediately shouted down, and in a rare occurence forced to withdraw those comments, as I said earlier.
Then California Republican Duncan Hunter forced a vote on an amendment to withdraw all the troops from Iraq immediately, with no plan or any thought whatsoever. Hunter and the House Republicans then tried to equate this amendment with Congressman Murtha, who has a more detailed plan for redeployment, and use this as a wedge to get House Democrats on the record as voting for a simple "cut and run" amendment. It was pure theater. A shameless ploy from a shameless band of cowards, who make it a priority to play politics with the lives of Americans in uniform, while refusing to hold the White House accountable for any type of plan to win the Iraq war or a viable exit strategy.
But, there is more to this than the political theater that occured in the House this past Friday. Because, for those of us who thought invading Iraq was a bad idea and have since criticized the poor execution of the war, Jack Murtha has touched on and lent his expertize to some issues that we have always been concerned with. For more on my opinion on this nearly two and a half years ago, read this column that I wrote questioning this administration's ability to deal with the aftermath of the Iraq War. http://wildcat.arizona.edu/papers/96/13
Going into Iraq was Mission Impossible at best. The country consists of 25 million people split into three groups, Shi'a Arabs, Sunni Arabs and Kurds. An elementary fact that President Bush apparently didn't even know 6 weeks before going to war in Iraq. (A prominent Iraqi-American had to tell this to President Dumbass at a WH Super Bowl Party in 2003) The minority Sunnis historically repressed both the minority Kurds and the majority Shi'a. Thousands of years of authoritarian rule also make democracy a foreign idea to Iragis and, in fact, in the Middle East, often tough authoritarian leadership is much more respected than any other. As in the case of Saddam, you had a brutal dictator who was able to impose a relatively secure society in one which now is full of tumult and chaos. Often in history, such as during the Cold War, authoritarian leaders such as a Saddam in Iraq or a Tito in the former Yugoslavia, are the only thing that holds a society together and keeps ethnic, religious and racial tensions from exploding. Witness the events of a decade ago in in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia. Now, my former professor, David Dunford worked in Iraq on the reconstruction after the initial war phase, and he told me a few years ago that Iraqis took to liberal democratic issues very quickly. So yes, many there do want democracy. And, it is capable of being done in some form. But, the point is, you cannot account for security in an environment where everything in the society has been imploded. And, you cannot account for security when you are not willing to commit the resources or the troop levels to do so. Even at that the outcome would be in doubt.
This administration steadfastly refused to look at planning from the State Department, the Army War College and other sources. They choose to see their own reality in which troops would be welcomed with open arms and everything would fall in place nice and easy. The refused to listen to military experts such as General Eric Shinseki, who advised using an overwhelming invasion force with hundreds of thousands of troops. The refused the advice of former National Security advisors such as General Brent Scowcroft (Bush, Sr) and Zbigniew Brzezinski (Jimmy Carter) who have consistently advocated more troops and warned against the possibility of a civil war. When Coalition Provisional Authority head, General Jay Garner balked at privatizing the Iraqi economy, he was replaced with L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer, who felt it was more important to write intellectual property into Iraqi law and ensure that American companies would be involved in divvying up energy assets, than to say, oh, rebuild the country and finish winning the war.
This whole situation has been a fiasco from the beginning, whether this administration was ginning up reasons to go to war, alienating our friends and allies, or completely blowing the execution of the war. Anybody who has a remote, miniscule knowledge of the Middle East could have told this administration this war and the democratization of Iraq would be difficult. They didn't want to listen. Now we are faced with an unlimited occupation in a hostile country, a situation that cannot be won militarily, over 15,000 American casualties, 200 billion dollars already down a rathole and still no viable plan to get troops out or win the situation. They refuse to understand that Iraq has fell into a lower grade civil war and that worldwide terrorism has increased exponentially since they executed this ill-fated idea.
Jack Murtha sees this reality. He has questions. I do to. So do millions of Americans, most who do not support this war anymore. Congressman Murtha said in his speech the other day that the American people are way ahead of the curve on this issue, that it's the politicians in Washington that don't get it. So will this reality fall upon deaf ears as usual? Will they do something about it?
Or will we continue to piss billions away and see thousands more of our finest citizens maimed and killed before the powers that be in all their infinite petty wisdom see the light?
I say expect Americans to be in Iraq for at least another decade, and probably for the rest of my life in some, way, shape or form. I say that our soldiers dying and leaders lying will continue as long as this President is in the White House. By then he'd have fucked it up so badly that we'll have to leave in shame or continue on his same disastrous "What, me worry?" Alfred E. Newman inspired path.
But, I am a cynical bastard, but who could blame me for that anymore.
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Here are clips of Murtha's speech and also the shameless Republican stunt from this past friday. They are taken from a post one Democratic Underground, by Nothing Without Hope, the clips are courtesy of liveoaktx.
John Murtha (D-PA) House Floor Speech Nov 18 (C-SPAN)]
Windows media, in FIVE PARTS:
Part 1: http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/murt
Part 2: http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/murt
Part 3; http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/murt
Part 4: http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/murt
Part 5: http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/murt
Also see:
Outrageous attempt to GOP attempt to call the fake resolution "The Murtha Resolution" - the Speaker says it's a matter of debate! Shouts ensue and finally the Speaker is forced to admit that the resolution being discussed is NOT the Murtha Resolution but the Hunter Resolution:
http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/buye
And to keep them together,
Dennis Kucinich's magnificent, impassioned speech on the GOP stunt/ fake resolution:
http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/kuci
And Henry Waxman's:
http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/waxm
And Jim McGovern's:
http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/mcgo
And Mel Watt's (speaking on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus):
http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/watt
And Nancy Pelosi's - ABSOLUTELY DO NOT MISS THIS ONE!!!:
http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/pelo
(There are many more at the Can-o-fun site)
And let's not leave out some of the slimy Republicans from this compilation:
Duncan Hunter (the author of the fake resolution the GOP attempted to attribute to Rep. Murtha):
http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/dunc
The ineffable Jean Schmidt:
http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/schm
And to top it off, a brief but very nasty smear job from Rep. Kingston:
http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/king
The Can-o-Fun home page is here: http://www.canofun.com/blog/defaul
(Click on "more" at the bottom of the few video clips on the right side to go into the pages of archives. Those above and more are currently on the first page.)
