Shame on Me
So thinks this writer, responding to my post earlier today about John Murtha’s legislative obstructionism:
SHAME on you!
John P. Murtha is a honorable war veteran of this country, which is a lot more than you can say for Bush, Cheney, or any of the neo-cons in this administration. Isn’t it odd that the people who have never been to war are the most eager to use war and to send our children to war.
I’m happy to debate the war in Iraq on its merits (or demerits), but, honest to God, do we have to hear this again? What are the corollaries of this argument? That you have to be a war veteran to declare war (FDR: chickenhawk)? Or that war veterans never commit US troops to speculative military adventures (JFK: peacenik)? John Murtha did serve his nation in an unpopular war, for which he deserves our thanks. Then who should know better than he the corrosive effects on the troops of domestic hostility toward the war effort? And I don’t mean just their morale, though certainly that, too. I mean, literally, who’s got their backs? Murtha wants to muck up the plans to send more troops. That may make him a hero to the Cindy Sheehans of this country (and, yes, I’m sorry for her loss–of course I am), but not to me. His actions imperil the troops, which earns him no thanks from me. It is he who should be ashamed.
I’ve argued with other neo-cons (it’s not an insult, at least not to me) that you can be anti-war and support the troops. But this isn’t how.