Sadly, 15 Opportunities to Confront Murtha's Drivel Are Missed

When will the media confront this antiwar bully?
Why is this anti-war, antimilitary liberal constantly getting a pass from the media?

Video is HERE

From Meet the Press today, June 18, 2006:

MR. RUSSERT: The president says, “stay the course,” that within the next six months, Iraq will be secure under the direction of the new prime minister, and to do anything less now would be irresponsible.

REP. MURTHA: Well, “stay the course” is “stay and pay.” This is the thing that has worried me right along. We’re spending $8 billion dollars a month,(1) $300 million dollars a day. And to give you some perspective of what that means, Gates said, “I’m going to quit the corporation, or I’m going to—less time with the corporation.” Well, you weigh $30 billion dollars. That’s four months of the cost of this war.(2) This port security, if you want to spend more money, it’d would take 47 years the way we’re spending it. Education, the No Child Left Behind,(3) a couple months of the war would pay for that. Whose going to, whose going to pay for this down the road? Our children and grandchildren are paying for this war.(4) And then you have the, the, the emotional strain, the, the, the people who are being hurt.(5)

On the floor the other day, you may have heard this, one fellow says, “We’re fighting this war.” We’re not fighting this war.(6) One percent of the American people, these young men and women are fighting this war, with heavy packs, with 70 pounds of equipment, with helmets on in 130 degrees. That’s who’s fighting this war. And they say “stay the course.” There’s no plan.(7) You open up this plan for victory, there’s no plan there. It’s just “stay the course.” That doesn’t solve any problem.

It’s worse today than it was six months ago when I spoke out initially.(8) When I spoke out, the garbage wasn’t being collected, oil production below pre-war level—all those things indicated to me we weren’t winning this, and it’s the same today, if not worse. Anbar Province. There’s not one project been done in Anbar Province.(9) Two million people live there. They have no water at all,(10) no oil production, they have no electricity at all(11) in that province where is the heartland of the defense. The first six months we went in there, no—there—not a shot was fired,(12) so it shows you how it’s changed.

It’s getting worse.(13) That’s why I feel so strongly. All of us know how important it is internationally to win this war.(14) We know how important. We import 20 million barrels of oil a day—we use 20 million barrels of oil. We know how important, international community. But we’re doing it all ourself, and there’s no plan that makes sense. We need to have more international cooperation. We need to redeploy our troops, the periphery. What happened with Zarqawi could have been done from the out—it was done from the outside.(15) Our planes went in from the outside. So there’s no reason in the world that they can’t redeploy the troops. They’ve become the targets, they’re caught in the civil war,(17) and I feel very strongly about it.

MR. RUSSERT: You sure do, Congressman…

Nice followup, Tim! And, I thought you were supposed to be a tough interview!

Here are a few missed followup questions from the first two minutes of the Liberal Hawk‘s interview today on “Meet the Press”:

1.) $8 billion dollars a month- Murtha said the war cost $9 billion a month last week, $6 billion a month in December… Now it’s $8 billion? Which is it?

2.) …$30 billion dollars. That’s four months of the cost of this war. (see #1)

3.) No Child Left Behind- Murtha says that he “will restore education funding”. The US has increased spending on elementary and secondary education by 41 percent despite the War on Terror!

4.) Children and grandchildren are paying for this war. They are going to pay for the cost of 9-11 too- $639.3 billion – and some 2 million lost jobs.

5.) The people who are being hurt in the war. – There were 2,752 lost on one afternoon on 9-11. There have been 2,503 heroes lost in over three years in Iraq (June 18, 2006).

6.) We’re not fighting this war? Huh? Aren’t there 130,000 American troops currently in Iraq?

7.) There’s no plan. – The White House has a plan for Iraq and National Security. It’s the democrats who do not have a plan for Iraq!

8.) It’s worse today than it was six months ago – Umm… Democratic Government in place, Zarqawi dead!

9.) There’s not one project been done in Anbar Province. – That is just stupid! Murtha is not being honest here… See USAID Al Anbar is a large province where hundreds of projects have been completed.

10.) They have no water at all. – They didn’t before! In 2003, Iraq’s 140 major water treatment facilities were operating at about 35 percent of their design capacity (3 billion liters a day) due to inadequate maintenance, lack of plant operators, power shortages, and looting.

USAID has restored or provided new water treatment to over 2.4 million Iraqis and sewage treatment to over 5.1 million.

11.) No electricity (in Al Anbar) – They had none before! In 2002 Baghdad had access to electricity on a near continuous basis while the rest of Iraq was limited to 3 to 6 hours daily. The U.S. government has made significant progress in improving electricity supply in Iraq and distributing it more equitably throughout the country. USAID has added over 1490 MW of new or rehabilitated capacity to the electrical grid.

12.) The first six months we went in there (Al Anbar), …not a shot was fired. – Wrong- Fallujah is just one city in Al Anbar that has seen several “shots fired” throughout the war.

13.) It’s getting worse. (See #8)

14.) All of us know how important it is internationally to win this war. – Then why “cut and run“?

15.) What happened with Zarqawi could have been done from… the outside. – We had troops there within 20-30 minutes of the strike! That’s hard to do from Okinawa!

By not confronting this blowhard, the media is being totally irresponsible and unfair to the American people! Sick!…

But at least as the interview goes on, Murtha gives the American public a taste of the idiocy from the Left. Wishbone says it best in commenting at Protein Wisdom:

Exhibit A of why, though many of us have “issues” with Dubya, we don’t trust your guys with a burnt out match much less national freakin’ security.

As further proof of this, the liberals thought it was a an epic speech on national security.

Update: (8:30 PM) No he didn’t! Murtha went to Okinawa AGAIN today!

Blackfive has a visual!
Tom Maguire is taking notice.
Ann Althouse has a brilliant analysis on Murtha’s bumbling.
HotAir has more on Murtha’s lunacy.
Murtha Must Go blog says “Murtha’s piehole opens even wider.”
Michelle Malkin has more on the story this morning (Monday).
Expose the Left has the outrageous video.

Update 2: (10:00 PM) There’s a lot of talk about Murtha’s Somalia Style pullout from Iraq. What is not mentioned is that it was Murtha himself who repeatedly pushed Clinton to pullout.

Update 3: (Monday AM) Okinawa will not work. The troops are relocating to Guam.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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Thanks for sharing!