E.J.'s Dem heros
E.J. Dionne writes about questions raised about John Murtha's Purple Hearts and makes the unfortunate comparison to the Swift Vets who told the truth about Kerry which Dionne labels as a smear.
What upsets E.J. is that when his guys waive the bloody shirt to give authenticity to their calls for retreat, people are challenging how bloody the shirt was rather than their goofy policy positions which E.J. seems to favor. The reason this is happening is becasue the other Democrats who are calling for retreat already have no credibility on national security and so they push forward their wounded vets to prop up their wounded credibility.
Murtha makes an easier target to challenge because his arguments for retreat are based on a false premise.
His first false premise is that the US troops have become the principal target of the terrorist. The opposite is the case. The enemy avoids attacking US forces because every time he has tried it he has lost. The main target of enemy ordinance, be it human bombs or car bombs, is the non combatant population of Iraq. The enemy does this because it is too weak to attack defended positions. This was clearly demonstrated during elections last year where by December there were virtually no attacks on the well defended polling places.
His second false premise is that the Army is "broken." There is no evidence of that at any level in the chain of command. The US military in Iraq is doing a great job adapting to the situation presented by a thinking enemy and destroying that enemy.
His third false premise is that the morale of the military is bad. This is untrue despite his attempts to undermine morale and recruiting. At a town meeting with flakky Democrat Comgressman Moran they were both challenged on this contention by a sargeant who was just back from Iraq. The seargeant said not only was the morale good, but that none of the 200 troops who had just returned from Iraq to the northern Virginia area had been visited by the two to ask them about their morale.
E.J. never questions Murtha's premises because he relies on Murtha's bloody shirt waiving to give his goofy arguments credibility. That led to challeges to the credibility of the bloody shirt to which Murtha has offered so far a non response and E.J. gives his "how dare they" response. But the bloody shirt argument should not overshadow the argument over Murtha's false premises.
What upsets E.J. is that when his guys waive the bloody shirt to give authenticity to their calls for retreat, people are challenging how bloody the shirt was rather than their goofy policy positions which E.J. seems to favor. The reason this is happening is becasue the other Democrats who are calling for retreat already have no credibility on national security and so they push forward their wounded vets to prop up their wounded credibility.
Murtha makes an easier target to challenge because his arguments for retreat are based on a false premise.
His first false premise is that the US troops have become the principal target of the terrorist. The opposite is the case. The enemy avoids attacking US forces because every time he has tried it he has lost. The main target of enemy ordinance, be it human bombs or car bombs, is the non combatant population of Iraq. The enemy does this because it is too weak to attack defended positions. This was clearly demonstrated during elections last year where by December there were virtually no attacks on the well defended polling places.
His second false premise is that the Army is "broken." There is no evidence of that at any level in the chain of command. The US military in Iraq is doing a great job adapting to the situation presented by a thinking enemy and destroying that enemy.
His third false premise is that the morale of the military is bad. This is untrue despite his attempts to undermine morale and recruiting. At a town meeting with flakky Democrat Comgressman Moran they were both challenged on this contention by a sargeant who was just back from Iraq. The seargeant said not only was the morale good, but that none of the 200 troops who had just returned from Iraq to the northern Virginia area had been visited by the two to ask them about their morale.
E.J. never questions Murtha's premises because he relies on Murtha's bloody shirt waiving to give his goofy arguments credibility. That led to challeges to the credibility of the bloody shirt to which Murtha has offered so far a non response and E.J. gives his "how dare they" response. But the bloody shirt argument should not overshadow the argument over Murtha's false premises.
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