John "Iraq Rose" Murtha: Meet Defeat

John Murtha was Tim Russert's guest on Meet the Press this morning.

Well, I didn't see that coming. (Rolls eyes)

I think it would be interesting to tally up Murtha's Sunday morning talk show appearances since he started his Tokyo Rose-style crusade last fall. It's like a perpetual round robin.

Maybe Russert was too preoccupied thinking of his book sales to do a half-way decent job of questioning him. Perhaps he's fatigued from fulfilling all of his promotional duties to plug his new book as the best Father's Day gift ever.

The interview was more than twenty minutes of Murtha blustering and blathering the same points OVER and OVER AGAIN.

It was the typical "We're making no progress," and "We're recruiting terrorists," and "We have no plan." It's Groundhog Day with this guy.

But something caught my attention during "Iraq Rose" Murtha's familiar dance. He made repeated references to Bill Clinton and Somalia.

Murtha said that we need to do in Iraq what Clinton did when things got dicey in Somalia. Clinton "reevaluated" the situation and pulled out -- a smart thing in Murtha's view.

Don't forget that in Somalia Clinton put our troops in harm's way inadequately armed, exactly what Murtha has accused the Bush administration of doing.

Recall what REALLY happened in Somalia. It's certainly not something we would want to repeat.

Clinton launched a new mission: In August 1993, he sent in a force of Rangers and Special Forces units to capture the brutal warlord Mohammad Farrah Aidid and restore order.

That force asked for heavy armor--in the form of Abrams tanks and Bradley armored vehicles--as well as the AC-130 gunship, but the Clinton Administration denied those requests. On October 3 on a mission to pick up Aidid, two Black Hawks were unexpectedly shot down; in the ensuing urban gun battle, 18 American soldiers were killed and another 73 injured.

Many military experts believe that if the U.S. forces had had armor, fewer would have died. Secretary of Defense Les Aspin resigned two months after Somalia, having acknowledged that his decision on the armor had been an error. A 1994 Senate Armed Services Committee investigation reached the same conclusion.

Do you think Murtha is genuinely forgetful and historically-challenged or genuinely ignorant?

TWICE, I heard Murtha say that we need to do what Clinton did in Somalia.

...[P]erhaps the most poignant statement came from retired Lieutenant Colonel Larry Joyce, father of Sergeant Casey Joyce, a Ranger killed in Mogadishu: "Had there been armor . . . I contend that my son would probably be alive today."

Mr. Clinton's responsibility in Somalia doesn't stop there. Despite the mistakes that October day, Aidid had been struck a blow. The U.S. military, with 18 dead, wanted nothing more than to finish what it had started. Mr. Clinton instead aborted the mission. The U.S. released the criminals it had captured that same day at such great cost, and the U.N., lacking U.S. support, was powerless to keep order. Somalia remains a lawless, impoverished nation. Worse, the terrorists of al Qaeda interpreted the U.S. retreat from Somalia as a sign of American weakness that may have convinced them we could be induced to retreat from the Middle East if they took their attacks to the U.S. homeland.

Murtha's catch phrase to counter the charges of his promotion of a "cut and run, retreat and defeat" strategy in Iraq is "stay and pay."

According to Murtha, if we stay in Iraq, we will pay dearly. He is oblivious to the cost of leaving, absolutely oblivious. He believes that we should follow Clinton's strategy in Somalia as a model.

Because Clinton hastily retreated, we paid a heavy price. We didn't stay and we paid.
From Frontline's "Hunting Bin Laden":

"After leaving Afghanistan, the Muslim fighters headed for Somalia and prepared for a long battle, thinking that the Americans were like the Russians," bin Laden said. "The youth were surprised at the low morale of the American soldiers and realized more than before that the American soldier was a paper tiger and after a few blows ran in defeat. And America forgot all the hoopla and media propaganda ... about being the world leader and the leader of the New World Order, and after a few blows they forgot about this title and left, dragging their corpses and their shameful defeat."

Clinton's Somalia legacy is one of the blackest stains (among many stains) of his presidency; yet that is Murtha's idea of a plan for Iraq!

It's mind-boggling!

I have no respect for how Murtha has conducted himself since he started his "Iraq Rose" act. While opposition is legitimate, his methods for opposing policy have been irresponsible and damaging to our troops and the hope for a stable and free Iraq.

I think he has been responsible for recruiting terrorists by giving our enemies a non-stop feast of anti-American fodder for months now. I hold him accountable. In my opinion, he's got American blood on his hands.

Remember, Murtha wants to be Speaker of the House. He has his sights set on being a national leader and playing a key role in setting the direction for the country.

"Iraq Rose" as the majority leader in the House -- That's a frightening prospect for the country and the Free World.