Dissecting Murtha's Evolution on Combat

Apparently the media would like you to believe that Rep. John Murtha's opposition to the war in Iraq and demands for a swift exit are of recent vintage - only created after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Well, that would only be part of the story. As Paul Harvey might say, here's the rest of the story.

If anyone in the media bothered to do their research, like Sweetness and Light have done, the media would have come up with the following:

REMOVAL OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES FROM SOMALIA

House of Representatives - November 09, 1993

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, let me just make a couple of points...

When I went to Somalia the first time, Mr. Speaker, my reservations remained the same. I told the new administration, when it came in, ‘We should get out of Somalia as quickly as possible,’ and in the middle of July I said, ‘Get our troops out because this could deteriorate into a very tragic situation.’...

The President has reassessed the situation...

Mr. Speaker, I would urge the Members to vote against the amendment offered by the gentleman from New York [Mr. Gilman] and give the President an opportunity to get the troops out in an orderly manner as quickly as prudently possible.

Rep. Murtha called for the swift exit from Somolia in 1993, which came shortly after the Black Hawk Down incident (October 13-14, 1993), where 18 Rangers were killed and 73 wounded. The US withdrawal from Somolia doomed not only Somolia for more than 15 years of violence, but spurred on al Qaeda to conclude that the US was a toothless tiger that could be forced to withdraw if its nose got bloody.

So, far from being an isolated position, Murtha is counseling the same position that he took in 1993. In the interim, the 9/11 Commission concluded (p. 96/97 of the final report) that the hasty withdrawal from Somolia emboldened terrorist groups like al Qaeda into launching ever more complicated and damaging attacks against US interests, including the 9/11 attacks.

The world now faces a resurgent Islamist threat from Somolia, which remains a lawless region and could be the poster child for the definition of failed state. Terrorists love failed states. They're the places where terrorists can seek and obtain safe haven, far from the prying eyes of a government. The UN and world failed to take and maintain action in Somolia, which has meant that Somolia continues to be a threat to world security to this day. We've seen in just the past few weeks that Mogadishu was overrun by Islamists who have already begun imposing strict Islamic law on the capital. I have no doubt that the Islamists will provide al Qaeda and other like-minded terrorist groups the free operation and support they desperately need now that Afghanistan and Iraq are no longer hospitable to their operations.

And yet Murtha counsels speedy withdrawal from the field of battle despite knowing what happened in 1993, in 1983 when President Reagan failed to take appropriate action against Hizbullah in Lebanon following the Marine barracks bombing, and even the 1979 failed rescue operation to liberate the hostages in Iran. He couldn't be more hopelessly wrong - again.

Withdrawing from the field of battle prematurely emboldens our enemies, provides aid and comfort to those who know that if they simply wait out the US for any amount of time after giving a bloody nose, they can win. Our enemies know that they don't have to win to beat the US, they just have to avoid losing.