Murtha Lays Out a Plan

The Colossus offers some geography and map reading lessons to a confused John Murtha.

For the record, I don't really get the latest Democratic meme that says, "pull the troops out to a friendly country near Iraq, so we can go BACK in case something happens."

This armchair General frowns on such absurdity. What they are saying is, we should have a farther reach, thus necessitating a longer response time "in case there's more terrorist activity." I might understand nonsense like this from Pelosi or Dean, but Murtha was a Marine for Pete's-sake, and here he is demonstrating the operational acumen of a demented jelly-fish.

Secondly, why do they have to leave the country? If you believed the Democrats, all of Iraq is going to hell, when 90% of it is completely calm and getting stronger every day. Arabs are vacationing in the Kurdish north, and the Shia south has some issues with some hardliners down there, but they more resemble the Klu Klux Klan than the organized mass-murderers in al-Qaeda.

The United States has purposely put itself into the middle of the worst insurgent strongholds in Iraq to demonstrate to them that they cannot beat us, and to prove to the Iraqi people that we will not allow them to terrorize the Iraqi people anymore.

The PLAN that they keep claiming isn't there, is to replace our guys with Iraqis. Right now, the Americans have the offensive capabilities to hunt down and kill terrorists in their "safe-houses", while the new Iraqi security forces hold and secure ground that is gained from these offensive operations. Demonstrating sound offensive capabilities against guerrillas is NOT easy, and even Russians have demonstrated ineptitude in this area against the Islamists in Chechnya.

I'd be willing to bet that those who say we are losing the war haven't read one after action report of the combined Iraqi-U.S. operations making up the Anbar campaign. Town after town is being liberated from the terrorists' grip. This stuff takes time, but in relative terms, I think even Patton would be envious as to the success the U.S./Iraqi coalition has had in this effort.

I do give Murtha credit though, for the last few years, I have been pounding the Dems for not having a plan. Now at least they offering alternative solutions. Granted, their solution is "Retreat!", but now I can argue with its substance, versus engaging in more shadow boxing.