Murtha: Lebanon redux?

Murtha likes to boast of his "strategic prowess" when he stated that he advocated for the U.S. withdrawal from Lebanon after the Marine barracks bombing in 1983:

He warned the Today show in September 1993, “Our welcome has been worn out.” A month later, he assured the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he could not “see any achievable goal or national security interest in this operation.” And Murtha boasted on “Meet the Press” Sunday, “When we went to Beirut, I said to President Reagan, ‘Get out.’” (emphasis added)

As history has shown, Murtha's advice netted disastrous consequences:

Both retreats emboldened Osama bin Laden to strike the Great Satan in the belief no serious consequences would follow. More than 5,500 American deaths later, Jack Murtha still thinks this was capital statesmanship.

And now Jack Murtha is repeating his "grand strategy" advice to Israel:

Murtha wants an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon

Once again, Pennsylvania Democratic congressman breaks with Bush

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

By James O'Toole, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pennsylvania's Rep. John Murtha said yesterday that he favored an immediate cease-fire in the fighting in Lebanon.

His stand places the veteran Johnstown Democrat at odds with the Israeli government, and -- on yet anther major Middle Eastern policy issue -- at odds with the Bush administration as well.

As the ex perpetrator commander-in-chief William Jefferson Clinton once stated on the campaign trail,

"One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results"

By those standards, Congressman Jack Murtha is truly certifiable.