6 January 2006 (# 32)
Ms. Kimberly Hefling of the
Associated Press filed a report earlier today on the smarmy actions of Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Peter Pace:
Rep. John Murtha says the military is blaming him for a recruitment slump instead of recognizing mistakes that have led to an enlistment shortage.
"They're trying to direct attention away from their problems," said Murtha, D-Pa., a decorated Marine Corps veteran who has become a leading voice in Congress advocating an early withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a news conference Thursday
that Murtha's remarks about Iraq are damaging to troop morale and to the Army's efforts to bring up recruitment numbers. Pace, the nation's top general, was asked specifically about an ABC News interview this week in which Murtha, 73, said if he were eligible to join the military today he would not join, nor would he expect others to join.
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In a statement released Thursday, Murtha said:
"The military had no problem recruiting directly after 9/11 because everyone understood that we had been attacked. But now the military's ability to attract recruits is being hampered by the prospect of prolonged, extended and repeated deployments, inadequate equipment, shortened home stays, the lack of any connection between Iraq and the brutal attacks of 9/11,
and — most importantly — the administration's constantly changing, undefined, open-ended military mission in Iraq."
Link: http://tinyurl.com/d5ha6We have a pandemic in the United States of America, and Gen. Pace has been infected just as many, many others with the virulent
Bushlie virus. All forms of deception are manifest by those infected. Another symptom is perhaps being displayed by Gen. Pace, i.e., he's operating under the presumption that he must obey his civilian bosses even when they are criminals, i.e., the "just following orders" symptom manifested by -- if they tell him to blame it on Murtha, so be it.
Obviously, our entire military establishment has been being corrupted by the neoconsters since prior to SCOTUS inserting Bush in the White House.
Perhaps it is time for those campaigning for Congress in 2006 to reflect on the Oath of Office that not just many of them have taken but also every military officer takes particularly in the context of the fact that Mr. Bush, during a broadcast to the Nation on December 18, 2005, admitted to breaking the law and declared unequivocally that he intended to continue breaking the law. Senator Feingold summarized Bush’s display as well as anyone:
Reacting to Bush's vow to continue spying on Americans, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., said the president's remarks were "breathtaking in how extreme they were." Feingold said it was "absurd" that Bush said he relied on his inherent power as president to authorize the wiretaps. "If that's true, he doesn't need the Patriot Act because he can just make it up as he goes along. I tell you, he's President George Bush, not King George Bush."
Link: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121705Y.shtml At
DAILY KOS, blogger Carl Nyberg, a Navy Academy graduate and officer, reflected on the lawlessness of Bush and his neoconsters minions and has begun a discussion of how military officers, following strictly their oath of service, should call upon Congress to determine if Bush has exceeded his authority and violated the Constitution. Link to an interesting discussion, text of the letter and various edits are located here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/5/22416/09406Gov. Dean, when you consider all the retired senior military officers, ambassadors, foreign-service officers, and high visibility Republicans (e.g., Ike’s son) who endorsed Senator Kerry in 2004, it was obvious, well before all the revelations of Bush and the neoconsters deceptions and crimes that were uncovered in 2005, that folk in the know, knew America was in grave danger.
When you see Gen. Pace blaming Rep. Murtha for something that Gen. Pace knows is not the reason for the collapse of support for the military then you know that the crisis is expanding.
What matters is do the people of America recognize how badly they’ve been deceived. The actions of a Carl Nyberg and the comments of many who responded to his letter are one glimpse that folk get it. Another glimpse comes from one of the many accounts of the “Town Hall” meeting that Rep. Murtha and Rep. Moran hosted yesterday evening – this one written by Steve Cobble:
I went to northern Virginia Rep. Jim Moran's Town Hall with Rep. John Murtha last night. It was a huge crowd--the overflow room overflowed, and they had to turn hundreds of people away! - -and the crowd gave Rep. Murtha a very warm welcome. The most interesting thing that happened all night, however, was the spontaneous, loud, sustained applause that erupted from the crowd when one questioner said the word
"impeachment".
It reminded me of a similar response from the crowd last July, in Oakland, California, when Rep. Barbara Lee sponsored a panel on the Downing Street Minutes, on which I was honored to be included. The same thing happened. The crowd wanted to end the war, and most of them were demanding investigations into the lies that took the nation to war.
Grassroots progressives want some answers, some investigations, some justice. People are not willing to accept that we have to put up with an America where the President and Vice-President can lie us into a war, torture, spy without a warrant, out CIA agents, aggressively act "above the law" on purpose, unilaterally abrogate treaties, insult and intimidate the rest of the world, and violate the principles of Nuremberg and Geneva –
All without oversight or penalty.
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-cobble/impeachment-rocks-the-hou_b_13366.htmlDuring the next few days, more than 150 of these types of gatherings are going to be happening all over America. The core issue is legitimacy of our government and the fact that the current Congress has been a willing participant and enabler of Bush and the neoconsters’ shredding of our Constitution in their drive toward establishing a totalitarian oligarchy in America, and their pursuit of lawless imperialism.
Any candidate expecting support must come to terms with the reality that if they are willing to speak the truth and campaign on the basis that they will hold Bush, Cheney all all their neoconster minions accountable for their lawlessness – they will win. Otherwise, they're part of the problem.
Thank you for your continued leadership,
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