Jack Murtha Would Not Join Military Today

With a huge finder's fee to Drudge, Jack Murtha, in remarks released on Monday, said that he would not join the military today.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rep. John Murtha, a key Democratic voice who favors pulling U.S. troops from Iraq, said in remarks airing on Monday that he would not join the U.S. military today.

A decorated Vietnam combat veteran who retired as a colonel after 37 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, Murtha told ABC News' "Nightline" program that Iraq "absolutely" was a wrong war for President George W. Bush to have launched.

"Would you join (the military) today?," he was asked in an interview taped on Friday.

"No," replied Murtha of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees defense spending and one of his party's leading spokesmen on military issues.

Whew. I guess that means we are spared the expense of having to order several sets of camouflage XXXL military garments and a helmet big enough to fit over that huge head.

Jack Murtha is crying huge crocodile tears because he wasn't consulted prior to the invasion of Iraq. He has decided to pick up all his toys and go home, however not before kicking sand and throwing a huge temper tantrum.

As a member of Congress and a decorated Veteran, Murtha is owed a certain amount of respect, and it probably would have saved the White House a lot of trouble if they had sent someone over to talk to him. However, the White House has countless military strategists and officers (those abreast of current capabilities and not relying on outdated military experience.) Consulting with Murtha would have been out of courtesy and not integral to any planning. If the military is to consult with every retired career veteran nothing would ever get done.

Now, after many weeks of Murtha's droning on and on and on, he has used up his "respect buffer." I do recognize his military service and for it he deserves my thanks, but his self esteem issues shouldn't be played out week after week on television and in the press. He is becoming as irrelevant to this debate as Cindy Sheehan always was. For Sheehan, who never possessed any claim of honor other than having mothered a heroic son, irrelevancy is inevitable and deserved. For someone like Jack Murtha, who once wore America's military uniform with honor, it is a tragic descent, though, now also deserved.