I Have Not Yet Begun to Give Up!
Don’t Give Up the Surrender! Damn the Factedoes, Full Surrender Ahead!
Inspiring words from American history, updated for current circumstances. But the last word on surrenderism, of course, came from McAuliffe, Bastogne, Christmas 1944. His enigmatic, Kraut-confusing response is marvelous in how it can used equally well to express defiance as to describe surrenderism … “Nuts!”
Which brings us to Murtha, a diehard surrenderist now beginning to recognize his position is untenable, putting out capitulation feelers. But he cautions that just because he may be ready to give up, it doesn’t mean he’s throwing in the towel. Here’s a little more Murtha from Bloomberg:
Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) — Democratic Representative John Murtha said he is “optimistic” that House Democrats and President George W. Bush can agree on Iraq war funding after an earlier $50 billion proposal linked to troop withdrawals was blocked in the Senate.
“Congress wants to come up with an agreement,” Murtha, chairman of a House subcommittee on military spending, told reporters in a video conference from his office in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. “Leadership may be willing to compromise” on the time line for withdrawing troops from Iraq, he said.
…
Murtha, who returned Nov. 27 from a trip to Iraq, said the military situation there has improved “substantially” with the deployment of more troops, yet the Iraqi government has failed to capitalize on the reduced violence in Baghdad.
“The central government is pretty close to dysfunctional,” Murtha said. “They need to do something for heaven’s sake, and that has not happened.”
…
Murtha said he was encouraged by a telephone conversation on Tuesday with Bush’s Iraq coordinator, Army Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, about reaching a compromise on war funding.
Though the timeline may be a point of negotiation, Murtha said troop training and readiness requirements and prohibitions on torture would have to be included in final legislation.
“Congress has passed `no-torture’ legislation over and over again,” Murtha said.
Murtha said that because of the number of troops in Iraq and the amount of support equipment in the country, a full withdrawal could take as long as two years. Still, Congress should press for troop withdrawal dates to put pressure on the Iraqi government and limit the American commitment, he said.
“The American public is impatient, Congress is impatient,” Murtha said. “We need a goal.
I’m getting a weaselly squirm feel off that. More charitably, I believe what Murtha is saying is that he is ready to discuss surrender terms, but would like to be allowed to keep his sword. Murtha must have been reading the AP, that’s why he’s wavering. Syriously though, he may find the will to fail in these words. It’s never too late to start losing. Take it from someone who knows, like this tidal expert.
Welcome Punditeers, etal! Relax, smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. Do your bit to thaw Canada, beer’s in the beer fridge. Surgeon General tells Santa to lose it, but around here we’re aiming for immoderation in all things. Like CNN, which could have settled for a window box but turns out to be growing a forest. This is still America, right? Must be, with all the raw sewage.
Topics: pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:24 am on Friday, November 30, 2007
11 Responses to “I Have Not Yet Begun to Give Up!”
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November 30th, 2007 at 10:21 am
…prohibitions on torture would have to be included in final legislation.
Building some kind of prohibition on “waterboarding” into a piece of funding legislation and then making it some kind of sine qua non for passage of troop support money…
…is just another aspect of the power struggle thing between the legislative and executive branches.
And, as a citizen, I would like to note that the pretend holier than thous (I won’t mention names like John Murtha) look dumber than a box of rocks.
(well, ya, John, everybody and their pet turtle knows that cohesive and meaningful “governance” in Iraq isn’t yet up to par)
Listening to John Murtha, I think, must be worse than waterboarding.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
“…for I plan not to sail in harm’s way”
November 30th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Soldier: “Where ya headed General?”
Patton: “Berlin. I’m going to personally negotiate with that paper hanging sonuvabitch.”
November 30th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
“I regret that I have but one life to . . . ” Nope. Can’t do it.
November 30th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
‘“Congress has passed `no-torture’ legislation over and over again,” Murtha said.’
Yeah, right.
Liberal Democrat morality says its o.k. to drop atomic bombs on effectively defenseless cities in Japan frying ten of thousands of civilians (when the Democrats are in power), but it’s a great moral evil to dunk a captured terrorist’s head under water for 30 seconds (when the Republicans are in power).
Spare me.
November 30th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
231 (IIRC) years from independence and my country’s “governance” is also not meaningful or cohesive… How odd. Mr. Murtha should just retire and settle in to running a neighborhood association.
November 30th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
‘Murtha said. “We need a goal.”‘
Smash state sponsors of terrorism and kill terrorists. Also, I’d like to throw disloyal Democrat congresscritters into a concentration camp at Tule Lake.
Those are my goals.
December 1st, 2007 at 9:33 am
Murtha is such a disgrace to his office.
December 1st, 2007 at 10:54 am
Pretty good goals, D. Surls.
December 1st, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Thanks.
December 2nd, 2007 at 4:32 am
It took a few years for the U.S. Constitution to be worked out after the American Revolution. Murtha would set a date to bring the redcoats back in.