May the "Rednecks" and Veterans of Pennsylvania's 12th District Defeat Congressman John Murtha
By Dave Gibson (11/03/08)
There has been a great deal of effort applied by the mainstream media to ignore the recent unsavory remarks made by Congressman John Murtha (D-PA), towards the folks of his own district. In response to a question about how Obama will do in Pennsylvania, Murtha told a reporter for Pittsburgh’s WTAE-TV: “there’s no question Western Pennsylvania is a racist area.”
A week later, Murtha further showed his true feelings for his constituents by saying : “this whole area, years ago, was really redneck.”
As I said, there has been relatively little press coverage given to Murtha’s incendiary remarks, which would have ignited a firestorm of controversy, as well as nearly constant media attention if the remarks had been made by a Republican politician. However, Murtha has a history of attacking those he claims to represent.
Though the left-leaning John F. Kennedy Library Foundation gave Congressman John Murtha (D-PA) their Profile In Courage Award, there is little doubt that the former president whose name adorns the award was spinning in his grave when the seditious John Murtha was named as a 2006 recipient. Murtha, who has been giving encouragement to the insurgents in Iraq since his call for U.S. withdrawal in November 2005, chose the side of our enemy when he so famously characterized U.S. Marines as murderers.
In 2006, Congressman Murtha began to hold news conferences and make the talk show circuit in order to slander our Marines. In an appearance on MSNBC's Hardball, Murtha told host Chris Matthews: "Well, I'll tell you exactly what happened. One Marine was killed and the Marines just said we're going to take care -- we don't know who the enemy is, the pressure was too much on them, so they went into houses and they actually killed civilians." Murtha went on to liken the supposed Haditha incident to the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
The Haditha incident was first reported by TIME magazine. Reporter Tim McGirk based his article on hearsay from local Iraqis and in particular from someone TIME characterized as a "budding journalist," who was nothing of the sort. While, we have come to expect aid and comfort to be given to our enemies by leftist organizations such as TIME magazine...We do not expect it nor should we accept it from U.S. Congressmen.
Congressman Murtha went even further than TIME did by saying: "It's much worse than was reported by TIME magazine. There was no firefight. There was no [bomb] that killed those people. Murtha claimed that there were "about twice as many" Iraqi civilians killed than as previously reported.
Amid a firestorm of bad publicity for the Marine Corps, eight Marines were charged with murder in the Haditha incident. Seven of those eight have been completely cleared of charges, and charges have been reduced against another, with still no conviction in that case. Two of the Marines have lawsuits pending against Murtha.
Despite obviously making a rush to judgment, and being completely wrong about what happened that day in Haditha, Congressman Murtha has never offered an apology to those Marines he so viciously slandered.
The effects of Murtha's daily heckling of our troops along with his constant call for U.S. surrender have been twofold. His words, no doubt contributed to lower morale amongst U.S. forces serving in Iraq, and the Muslim insurgents were emboldened by the anti-U.S. rhetoric Murtha continues to spew. Guerilla attacks on U.S. troops greatly increased in the shortly after Murtha made the comments about our Marines. Within a month of his attack, two U.S. Armey privates were kidnapped, tortured, and beheaded in Iraq.
While the enemy we face in Iraq is barbaric, they are certainly not unsophisticated nor unintelligent. The Islamic terrorists have studied the lessons of Vietnam and know that the American people have little taste for war. They also read American newspapers and pay close attention to U.S. public opinion. The enemy believes that if they can keep the insurgency alive long enough, political pressures will eventually dictate the withdrawal of American forces before the job is finished. Congressman John Murtha is no doubt seen by the insurgency as a gift from Allah!
Murtha constantly holds up his service as a Vietnam veteran as a license to say anything against our troops, no matter how treasonous. He immediately dismisses all arguments for staying the course in Iraq if the words do not emanate from a combat veteran. He attacked President Bush and Vice President Cheney by saying: "I like guys who've never been there, who criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and sent people to war and then don't like to hear suggestions that may need to be done."
Murtha touts the fact that he has won two Purple Hearts and for many election seasons, subjected the voters of his Pennsylvania district to tales of his own heroism. However, Murtha's own accounts of the injuries he received in Vietnam contradict the U.S. Marines' versions.
The official Marine Corps casualty reports show that near Danang, Vietnam on March 22, 1967 and again on May 7, 1967 Murtha was injured. The report reads: "In the first incident, his right cheek was lacerated, and in the second, he was lacerated above his left eye. Neither injury required evacuation." However, in 1994 Murtha told the Herald-Standard: "I was wounded in the arm with shrapnel from a bullet that hit the motor mount of a helicopter. In the other, my knee was banged up and my arm was banged up when a helicopter was shot down from a very few feet." Still another version of the events were reported in 1967 by the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, which were taken from a letter Murtha wrote to his wife.
Former Congressman Don Bailey (D-PA) has said many times that Murtha admitted to him in the 1980's that he did not really deserve his two Purple Hearts. In January, Bailey told Cybercast News Service: "[Murtha] is putting himself forward as some combat veteran with serious wounds and he's using that and it's dishonest and it's wrong." Bailey is a Vietnam veteran serving in the Army's 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. He was awarded three Bronze Stars and one Silver Star.
Congressman Murtha just as Sen. John Kerry has refused to sign form 180, which would release his military medical records. Apparently, Murtha has something to hide which may be the ultimate motivation behind his attack on American Marines in Iraq. Perhaps, in his persecution of current combat soldiers he is exorcising his own demons.
Whether the motivations behind Murtha's treasonous actions were political (At the time, he was angling for the post of Majority Leader.) or personal...His actions were treasonous nonetheless.
A vote for William Russell on Nov. 4, will bring to an end the 35 year reign of John Murtha and send a clear message of support to our troops. Show them just how many “Rednecks” and veterans there are in the 12th District.
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