Whatever happened to Semper Fi ?

New York Daily News ^ | 11/18/05 | Editorial


Whatever happened to Semper Fi?

Congressman John Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, is a retired Marine colonel, decorated Vietnam veteran, ranking member of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, longtime supporter of the military and a noted hawk who was an early advocate of the U.S. incursion into Iraq - a man, in short, none would call faint of heart. When such a figure declares that the time has come for America to turn tail and bug out, his views carry more weight than do the similar assessments of the Dennis Kuciniches and Barbara Boxers and Cindy Sheehans of the world. But, sadly, he is as wrongheaded as they are, and Murtha might as well be sending up the white flag for all the terrorist gangs to see. Doubtless there is much rejoicing in Al Qaeda's rat holes this day over still another encouraging cut-and-run signal from U.S. shores that maybe someday soon, with U.S. troops pulled out, the rodents will have Iraq - and beyond - all to themselves.

Murtha's mouthings arrive hard on the heels of ex-President Bill Clinton, whose utterly disgraceful shame-on-America remarks in Dubai the other day could only have made it sufficiently plain to many millions of Middle Easterners, both those who are with us and those who are not, that the United States cannot be counted on to stand behind the historic mission that toppled the butcher Saddam Hussein, helped persuade crazed Libya to give up its nuclear intentions, was instrumental in driving Syria out of Lebanon and is daily leaning hard on the malevolent mullahs of Iran.

Defeatism, it's called. Willingness to give it all up. In Washington, it isn't so much the war effort is going badly as it is the poll numbers are going badly. Congress has a nervous eye on America's popular distemper, and many on Capitol Hill want some idea of a withdrawal deadline. But a commander would be mad to even consider setting such a deadline, inviting an implacable foe to sit tight and wait it out.

There's still a job to be done - a miserable slog, no doubt, and one, it is true, that could and should have been undertaken more efficiently from the beginning. But the job cannot be left unfinished. Yes, defeatism is in the American wind, there's no question about that. It must not prevail. For what is already in the wind far across the sea is the gleeful, hideous laughter of a triumphant enemy.
Torog Reviewed by Torog on . Whatever happened to Semper Fi ? Whatever happened to Semper Fi ? New York Daily News ^ | 11/18/05 | Editorial Whatever happened to Semper Fi? Congressman John Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, is a retired Marine colonel, decorated Vietnam veteran, ranking member of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, longtime supporter of the military and a noted hawk who was an early advocate of the U.S. incursion into Iraq - a man, in short, none would call faint of heart. When such a figure declares that the time Rating: 5