California Conservative

That I want Murtha out of the House of Representatives isn’t news. I’ve long been a proponent of his Pennsylvanian constituents vote him out of office. After Murtha’s latest diatribe, though, it came to critical mass. When he said that Marines had “killed innocent civilians in cold blood”, that took it beyond a policy disagreement. When he made that speech, it had the sound of him acting as judge, jury and executioner.

In addition to his ‘proclamation’ of guilt on these soldiers, it turns out that the military is having problems with him, too. Here’s a letter from Military Magazine:

Military
May 2006
Pg. 21

Letter To Congressman John Murtha

Dear Congressman Murtha,

Although it is difficult to keep up with politics from over here, your comments on immediate withdrawal have been noted by all of us. I cannot tell you the overall sense of discouragement, sense of betrayal and the feeling that few appreciate our efforts your comments have created. 1BCT has been frequently deployed in support of the War on Terrorism and we believe it is the correct fight and we believe we are winning. We have seen a significant improvement on the ground since we began combat operations in Baghdad three months ago.

I started in the U.S. Army in 1968 and retired in 1992, with most of my time in Special Forces or Airborne Infantry units. I came out of retirement to come to Iraq with the 1BCT and I enjoy service with these outstanding officers and men. They are better than we were and they carry the terrific burden of frequent deployments and a high operational-tempo. There are few complaints as they feel the mission is extremely important to the nation’s security, their families and to most Iraqis. They are dedicated to winning and I believe they are winning. It is obvious to this “old paratrooper” that your comments have hurt their morale and will eventually impact negatively on their efforts here.

“It is not enough to fight. It is the spirit which we bring to the fight that decides the issue. It is morale that wins the victory.

“Morale is a state of mind. It is steadfastness, and courage, and hope. It is confidence and zeal and loyalty. It is elan, esprit de corps, determination.

“It is staying power, the spirit which endures in the end… the will to win.

“With it all things are possible; without it everything else, planning, preparation, and production, count for naught.”

– General George C. Marshall

I sincerely believe General Marshall as deeply as I believe your statements have undermined the morale of these young soldiers. I have watched intently as your political party has attempted to use this war for political advantage and find it to be repugnant in the extreme. That your name is now inextricably linked to Senators Kennedy, Biden and Durbin, politicians who we believe do not support us, must be of great concern to your constituents.

How can you ask us to leave? Must we forget all the sacrifices, the deaths, lost limbs, lost marriages and the daily struggle to win? What do I say to my 22-year-old nephew, a staff sergeant with the 1/75th Rangers seriously wounded in Mosul last month or his brother, a sergeant in Germany just back from Afghanistan or my niece in ROTC, or my brother-in-law, a lieutenant colonel getting ready for his second deployment?

Would you have me tell them that all we have done thus far is for naught? It means nothing? How about, “Don’t worry; it happened to us coming out of Viet-Nam.” Don’t you remember?

Make no mistake; we are winning here. It ain’t easy and it may be difficult for you to see from your elevated position, but day in and day out, 24/7 we are pushing out combat patrols, taking the initiative away from the beheaders, limiting their ability to move, resupply and detaining and killing them. We are going to win here. We are going to leave this country far better off than when we started and America is going to be more secure for it. We will make the sacrifice. Will you?

Will America?

Remember 9/11.

Dave Rockwell, U.S. Army Paratrooper (Ret)

Mr. Rockwell makes it abundantly clear how the military is affected by Murtha’s diatribes, from his “immediate redeployment” speech, in which he said that “This war can’t be won militarily.” According to Mr. Rockwell, these soldiers don’t believe that for a minute.

Murtha has appeared on Meet the Press and Hardball numerous times and talked about how soldiers had told him they agreed with him. That didn’t appear to mesh with what Sergeant Mark Seavey. Here’s what Sgt. Seavey told Murtha and Virginia Congressman Jim Moran:

“Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sgt Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you…(applause).

“Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn’t have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause) The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan.

“And Congressman Moran, 200 of your constituents just returned from Afghanistan. We never got a letter from you; we never got a visit from you. You didn’t come to our homecoming. The only thing we got from any of our elected officials was one letter from the governor of this state thanking us for our service in Iraq, when we were in Afghanistan. That’s reprehensible. I don’t know who you two are talking to but the morale of the troops is very high.”

Frankly, I don’t trust a word out of Murtha’s mouth anymore. Based on David Rockwell’s letter and Sgt. Seavey’s speech, there’s ample proof that Murtha shouldn’t be trusted further than I could throw them…If I had 2 broken arms…And a broken back.

Why should I trust anything Murtha’s said without seeing irrefutable proof?

RELATED:
Jack Murtha, Traitor

Technorati Tags: Murtha, Iraq, Dave Rockwell, Sgt. Mark Seavey

Cross-post at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 21st, 2006 at 9:35 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Iraq, Military, Patriotism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.