One year ago today, Murtha Declares Iraq in Civil War; Calls for Redeployment.

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It was a full year ago today former war-hawk and U.S. Representative John Murtha (D-PA) publicly renounced his support for the war in Iraq, conceding that Iraq was now in the midst of a civil war, proposing an “immediate redeployment to the periphery” to start us on the path out of Iraq.

That was 783 dead soldiers ago.

For his reversal of support for the war, the Neo-Conservative Right declared Murtha typified the Democrats willingness to give up when things got tough (this from a bunch of Draft Dodgers and Deferment hounds during Vietnam), resulting in the Right’s new catch-phrase: “Cut & Run” Democrats. Freshman Neo-Con Rep Jean Schmidt, looking to score some cheap political points, in blatant violation of House rules, attacked fellow Congressman Murtha on the floor of the House, blasting the former Marine Drill Sergeant and Decorated Vietnam Vet as being a “coward”, repeating the “Cut & Run” meme… implying all Democrats are “gutless cowards”.

Unfortunately for Republicans, the Iraqi’s didn’t cooperate with their Grand Illusion that things there were improving and would continue to do so, so long as we “Stay the Course“. Reality slowly sank in, and by October of this year, even Rush Limbaugh was suggesting redeployment as a possible exit strategy out of Iraq (though he never actually used the word “redeployment”).

And now, thanks to an earthquake of an election that flipped control of BOTH the House and the Senate over to the Democrats (not one single incumbent Democrat lost their re-election bid), has the White House and fellow Republicans started to concede that Iraq is a mess that will not be tolerated much longer, and an exit strategy needs to be devised. It’s a shame it took the lives of 783 US service men & women to get them even that far.

But if “one year” makes you sick, what about two?

Two years ago during the Presidential debates between John Kerry and George Bush, the former prosecutor Kerry stated the obvious, that terrorism is a tactic that can never be defeated like a country. So trying to “defeat” terrorism guarantees a war without end. The goal therefor must be to reduce terrorism to the level of “a nuisance” that can be dealt with as a matter of “law enforcement”, not military force.

Despite the obvious logic of this, the Right seized upon Kerry’s statement to score some cheap political points, ridiculing the concept of terrorism as “a nuisance”, perpetuating the notion that Democrats are “a bunch of cowards” that “don’t have the stomach for war”.

Flash forward two years later to last Monday. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Peter Pace, in an interview on MSNBC, told the interviewer that “Winning… is simply having each of the nations that we’re trying to help have a secure environment”, and in using Washing D.C. police as an example, “keeps the level of crime below the level at which the government can function. That’s really what winning in the war on terrorism is”. Sound familiar?

That revelation only took 1720 dead U.S. soldiers.

This entry was posted on November 17, 2006 at 9:15 am and is filed under Political News. 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.