You Almost Feel Sorry For Him

I'll admit that I didn't see Murtha on Meet the Press but I've read the transcript. Based on what he said, I can't help but picture him as a doddering old fool who should've been put out to pasture long ago. Here's some of his statements that lead me to that belief:

REP. MURTHA: On the floor the other day, you may have heard this, one fellow says, "We’re fighting this war." We’re not fighting this war. One percent of the American people, these young men and women are fighting this war, with heavy packs, with 70 pounds of equipment, with helmets on in 130 degrees. That’s who’s fighting this war. And they say "stay the course." There’s no plan. You open up this plan for victory, there’s no plan there. It’s just "stay the course." That doesn’t solve any problem.

Murtha's obviously forgetful because no one is that big a liar. Let's remind this fool of the plan for victory:

Specific steps that President Bush initially outlined to al-Maliki:

Finally, the Prime Minister has taken immediate action to engage the international community, and we’re going to help him. Earlier, the international community pledged about $13 billion to help this new government and they’ve only paid about $3 billion. And so we’re going to help encourage those who’ve made a pledge to pay up to help the new government succeed. Plus, he’s working to develop what he’s calling an international compact. Under this compact, Iraq will take a series of steps in the political, economic and security areas. And then the international community will provide more robust political and economic support.

• I told the Prime Minister I’ll designate Deputy Treasury Secretary Bob Kimmitt to lead our efforts on behalf of our country and the people of this country. He’ll be supported by State Department Counselor Phil Zelikow and other senior officials, and they will soon travel to the United Nations and then to Baghdad for consultations. And then they’re going to travel across Europe and Asia and the Middle East to discuss the compact, and secure support from governments for this new government.
• Prime Minister Maliki is working to build confidence in the Iraqi security forces, and he has a plan to do that. To assist him, we’ll continue embedding coalition transition teams in Iraqi army and police units. We’ve deployed advisory teams to assist Iraq’s new ministries of, Ministers of Defense and Interior, both of whom I met. We want to help them build the command and control capacity of their ministries. In other words, you can’t have an effective army unless you’ve got command and control coming out of government.
• We want to establish an internal affairs bureau, to root out corruption. No question this government has got to deal with corruption at all levels in order to earn the confidence of the people. And, of course, we will encourage them and help them investigate and punish human rights violations in order to earn the confidence of all Iraqis.
• Part of the Prime Minister’s plan is to improve the Iraqi judicial system. And to assist him, I’ve directed the Attorney General and the Secretaries of State and Defense to work together on a new rule of law initiative. Under this initiative, we’ll help train Iraqi judges, increase security so they can do their jobs, improve Iraqi prison capacity, and help the Iraqi government provide equal justice for all its citizens.
• Secondly, the Prime Minister has a plan to revitalize the Iraqi economy. He understands that the people have got to feel benefits from the new government. I mean, it’s a simple concept, but it’s a profound one. I’ve directed our Secretary of Treasury and the Treasury Department to send teams of experts to Iraq to help the government create a public finance system that is accountable and transparent. These advisors will help Iraqis develop an economic framework that promotes growth and job creation and opportunity. I’ve directed the Secretaries of Commerce and Agriculture to travel to Iraq as soon as possible to meet with their counterparts.
• We have, we’re working with the Iraqi government on measures to protect key infrastructure from insurgent attacks. There’s rapid repair teams that are being established that will quickly restore oil and electricity production if and when attacks do occur.

What Murtha says isn't a plan consists of:

• helping Iraqis build the command and control capacity of their Defense & Interior ministries.
• establishing an internal affairs bureau to root out corruption
• train Iraqi judges, increase security so they can do their jobs, improve Iraqi prison capacity, and help the Iraqi government provide equal justice for all its citizens.

That's before we start talking about the military operations in the aftermath of Zarqawi's death:

Here’s some of the most noteworthy statistics:

• The US says coalition forces in Iraq have carried out more than 450 raids since the death last week of al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The US said 104 insurgents were killed and 759 "anti-Iraqi elements" captured.
• Gen Caldwell said 28 significant arms caches had been found by US and Iraqi forces. "Removing the personal threat of Zarqawi disrupted other al-Qaeda network, forcing the terrorists to reshuffle their leadership, dislodging them from their quarters," Gen Caldwell said.

These operations are putting AQ in Iraq on the run and they're shutting down the insurgents' network. If that's Murtha's idea of not having a plan, then please don't give us a plan. We can use more of it.

REP. MURTHA: Now, let’s, let’s, give me, give you an example. When we went to Beirut, I, I said to President Reagan, "Get out." Now, the other day we were doing a debate, and they said, "Well, Beirut was a different situation. We cut and run." We didn’t cut and run. President Reagan made the decision to change direction because he knew he couldn’t win it. Even in Somalia, President Clinton made the decision, "We have to, we have to change direction. Even with tax cuts. When we had a tax cut under Reagan, we then had a tax increase because he had to change direction. We need to change direction. We can’t win a war like this.
This guy’s sitting back there criticizing, political criticism, getting paid by the public taxpayer, and he’s saying to us, "We’re, we’re winning this war, and they’re running." We got to change direction, that’s what we have to do.

Murtha is so delusional that he's touting Clinton's unilateral defeat to some third world tyrants as some sort of sign of wisdom. It's been well-documented that UBL thought of that as proof that America was a paper tiger.

MR. RUSSERT: But it’d be tough to have a timely response from Okinawa.
REP. MURTHA: Well, it, you know, they, when I say Okinawa, I, I’m saying troops in Okinawa. When I say a timely response, you know, our fighters can fly from Okinawa very quickly. And, and, when they don’t know we’re coming. There’s no question about it. And, and where those airplanes won’t, came from I can’t tell you, but, but I’ll tell you one thing, it doesn’t take very long for them to get in with cruise missiles or with, with fighter aircraft or, or attack aircraft, it doesn’t take any time at all. So we, we have done, this one particular operation, to say that that couldn’t have done, done, it was done from the outside, for heaven’s sakes.

Capt. Ed makes the point that

"Okinawa is five time zones away, over 5,000 miles from Baghdad. And that's considering a straight flight, which unfortunately means we would have to violate Chinese airspace for about half of the trip. Do you suppose the Chinese would give us access to their airspace if we explained that this huge mission of military bombers and fighters would pass through quickly on their way to Iraq?

Is John Murtha really that dumb?"

Ed, the tragic thing is that I think he is that dumb. That's why Murtha's gotta go.

Technorati Tags: Diana Irey, Murtha, Iraq, Somalia, Clinton Administration

Cross-post at LetFreedomRingBlog