Murtha-holics, don't read this post

This will bring Murthaholics, Sheehanistas, and Kerry/Clinton Kool-Aid drinkers a great deal of discomfort. From the Mudville Gazette:

Last night Congressman Murtha dismissed General Pace's comments at a "Town Hall Forum" in Arlington, Va., sponsored by Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) The Washington Post:

(snip...)

As the Post noted, MoveOn.org sent e-mails to opponents of the war urging the faithful to attend. And although several Iraq war veterans turned activist made the long trek to cheer him on, an actual "local vet" also made an appearance. The Post offered a partial quote: (Not a full quote from a dissenting viewpoint? The Washington comPost? No way! - Ed.)

But one veteran angrily confronted him.

Said former Army sergeant Mark Seavey, who recently returned from Afghanistan: "I keep hearing you say morale is low, and I resent that. I don't know who you are talking to. Morale . . . is very high."

But video of the event is available on CSPAN - and watching it reveals a much more interesting exchange. Sgt Seavey is the first man at the mike, at approximately the 34:30 point in the video (Update: Michelle Malkin has the exact segment here):

"Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sgt Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you, (applause)

"Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn't have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause) The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan.

"And Congressman Moran, 200 of your constituents just returned from Afghanistan. We never got a letter from you; we never got a visit from you. You didn't come to our homecoming. The only thing we got from any of our elected officials was one letter from the governor of this state (A Democrat - Ed.) thanking us for our service in Iraq, when we were in Afghanistan. That's reprehensible. I don't know who you two are talking to but the morale of the troops is very high."

Moran - who is one of the few congressmen supporting Charlie Rangel's call to restore the draft - responded quickly: "That wasn't in the form of a question, it was in the form of a statement. But, uhh... let's go over here." And he took the next question.

That was not in the form of a response to Sgt Seavey in any way shape or form.

Sounds like Moran took the usual Dem technique in dealing with the problem (in this case, an embarassing comment from a soldier): cut and run!

The Dems keep telling us not to forget Afghanistan, but that's exactly what they did here. In their rush to look "pro-soldier", they didn't even bother to get to know to whom they were faking their "gratitude"! But hey...they support the troops, right?

Finally, Murtha defended the terrorists "insurgents" in Iraq:

Bin Laden said he attacked the United States because of the troops in Saudi Arabia. That's terrorism. Terrorism was in London. Terrorism was in Spain. Terrorism was, obviously, in the United States.

That's completely separate from what's going on in Iraq. Iraq is an insurgency.
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"Very small proportion of the people that are involved in the insurgency are terrorists or how I would interpret them as terrorists."

I wonder if he feels like Cindy She-hag does about these guys: they're just poor misunderstood "freedom fighters"?

I've said it before: tell me again why no one trusts these people with national security?