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| Fifth Column |
| "Baghdad Jim" Moran gets smacked down by Afghanistan vet |
| 2006-04-13 |
| By Wade Zirkle, Washington Post EFL, LRR> Earlier this year there was a town hall meeting on the Iraq war, sponsored by Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), with the participation of such antiwar organizations as CodePink and MoveOn.org. The event also featured Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a former Marine who had become an outspoken critic of the war. To this Iraq war veteran, it was a good example of something that's become all too common: People from politics, the media and elsewhere purporting to represent "our" views. With all due respect, most often they don't. The tenor of the town meeting was mostly what one might expect, but during the question-and-answer period, a veteran injured in Afghanistan stood up to offer his view. "If I didn't have a herniated disc, I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops," said Mark Seavey, a former Army sergeant who had recently returned from Afghanistan. "I know you keep saying how you have talked to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. The morale of the troops I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back despite the hardships. . . ." "And, Congressman Moran, 200 of your constituents just arrived back from Afghanistan -- we never got a letter, we never got a visit from you, you didn't come to our homecoming. The only thing we got was a letter from the governor of this state 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." What was the response? Murtha said nothing, while Moran attempted to move on, no pun intended, stating: "That wasn't in the form of a question, it was a statement." It was indeed a statement; a statement from both a constituent and a veteran that should have elicited something more than silence or a dismissive comment highlighting a supposed breach of protocol. This exchange, captured on video (it was on C-SPAN), has since been forwarded from base to base in military circles. It has not been well received there, and it only raises the already high level of frustration among military personnel that their opinions are not being heard. . . . |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #2 No pollster is going to dare poll the military vote for these upcoming elections. Nor will they intentionally poll family members of military personnel. Fortunately for the democrats, the military hatred for the MSM stands as a buffer; but if that hatred ever gets redirected to its proper cause, democrats will be severely punished. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-04-13 14:04 |
| #1 If you put Murtha and Moran in a barrel and rolled it down a hill, you'd always have a sleazy, traitorous S.O.B. on top. And I don't want to hear anything about Murtha's service, either. Benedict Arnold, Lee Harvey Oswald and John Kerry served too. |
| Posted by: mac 2006-04-13 13:36 |