I'm going to (oh dear) agree with hoosier and Rudey. This whole "well I served so I can't be criticized" thing is ridiculous. It's like saying all children are innocent and never do anything wrong.

Like I said in an earlier post, Murtha is not this paragon of courage he's being portrayed as. He's supposed to represent his district in congress, not spout off whatever pops into his head - and in his district, it's 2-1 AGAINST what he said. If he ends up losing his seat over this I am going to laugh hard. But like I said....doubtful it will happen because everyone knows when you get a Congressman w/ that kind of seniority you don't give it up - you just hold your nose & vote him back in.

And I think the reason hoosier pointed out that the majority of Murtha's service was in the reserves is because the thread title calling him a "37 year Marine veteran" is somewhat misleading. Oh, the irony.

That's very common when reserve service is tacked on to active duty.

It really doesn't matter much, though. The Congresswoman is still trying to get both feet out of her mouth. You might note that she amost immediately asked that her comments be stricken from the Congressional Record and apologized.

Yes, maybe she said something stupid. It doesn't change the fact that Murtha's an asshat.

I'm sorry a what? ;)

In all seriousness though I can understand why Murtha said what he did - he has always been one who's concern for the troops has been out in the open. After all wasn't he the guy that complained about the lack of proper battle-vests?; the lack of up-armoured HMVEE's?; the troops being treated in Germany having to pay for the hospital food?

Basically he cares more for the troops than he does the bigger picture - that's something I can't fault the guy for even if I completely disagree with his call for withdrawal. The only ones making hay of it were the some of the more hawkish or right-wing commentators and politicos... until of course the embarassing coward remarks. If the remarks had come from someone that had also served, or if the remarks hadn't involved such a base personal attack, then things might have blown over... but the fact of the matter was that he was called a coward (besides the whole implication that he wasn't a Marine anymore) on the floor.

6 years active duty.

No years active duty.

Did you intend to make this post look like you have no idea what you just said or what you were trying to prove?

Damn you and your logic - hoosier doesn't like it when logic/reality gets in the way of his political arguements :D

Again, to take it even a step farther...