Man of the Year 2005 Pick—Rep. Jack Murtha

12/26/2005

Paul Munnis

My candidate for “Man of the Yea,” is Representative Jack Murtha, D, Pa. Consider the situation as it stood in October of 2005. America was bogged down in a war in Iraq that was clearly going no place. The Bush Administration was telling America to prepare for ten to twenty years of occupation duty in Iraq. Army Enlistments were down. A shortage of troops was projected. The U.S. Military was telling the people of America that the Iraqi forces were shabby and incapable of self-defense. We are pouring $150 Billion a year worth of money into a nation where we can’t even keep the electricity humming or the water flowing for the money spent. Little benefit for the expenditure is reflected in the American economy or accrues to the average taxpayer.

Along comes Rep. Jack Murtha, saying that Bush is running a stalled campaign wrapped in illusion. The GOP reacts to the blunt criticism from a former Marine hero war hawk and then things start to happen—fast.

If it weren’t for Rep. Jack Murtha the Iraq War would be still stalled in its tracks.

Murtha has put incredible pressure on the GOP to get the Iraqi’s doing their job of military self-defense.

He has broken the back of GOP lethargy and is forcing them to use Iraq’s as targets instead of American soldiers—talk about “Supporting Our Troops.”

Rep. Murtha has altered the ten to twenty year forecast made by the GOP of how long America will be occupying Iraq.

He has done more Congressional oversight of the War in Iraq than the several Congressional committees who are responsible for it.

With Civil War in Iraq now all but certain, these are key to American withdrawal for indeed American’s fighting a religious war in Iraq by siding with Shiites or Sunni’s is just not in the cards. We should not be killing Sunnis for the Shiites. That is not a correct or a proper job for American soldiers.

Even now, by complaining that too few American troop are being brought home, Rep. Murtha is forcing reappraisal of the rate at which Iraqi’s are taking self-defense responsibility. He is forcing accelerated training of the Iraqi Army. He is causing troop withdrawal to be taken seriously. Some twenty four thousand Minnesotans may not have to serve in Iraq as a result. Even if they do end up serving in Iraq they will be safer as a result.

Let’s say that Rep. Murtha shortens American involvement by a mere 5 years. At the rate of $150 Billion a year in Iraq expenditure then the savings is $750 Billion. Not a small piece of change and the number could easily double or triple. Rep. Murtha has done more to cut government spending then the whole rest of the Congress when they are all put together and taken over the full five year period of Republican governance.

When viewed this way it points out how shallow the GOP efforts at cutting government spending really are. Mostly the GOP is all Show and no Go on this subject. The GOP Congress has done more to increase government spending with this war in Iraq then what the public realizes.

My pick for ‘Man of the Year for 2005’ is Rep. Jack Murtha. He is really a heroic figure and he deserves the American Medal of Freedom.