If you’re looking for pieces on Jack Idema and his team, please click on this link.

Kit has an exclusive with chaplain Truby, an acquaintance of Jack Murtha. What I zoned in on was this paragraph:

I have known Jack Murtha for a number of years and was a former constituent of his at one time. Several years ago he was directly responsible for getting immediate White House and Pentagon action for a humanitarian operation being run by Keith Idema in Afghanistan and he did so based solely on one phone call from me asking for some help. I had no idea what he would and could do…and did. That is the Jack Murtha I knew.

Read the whole thing.

But the controversy that has emerged over Jack Murtha are his statements that we should withdraw from Iraq.

Underscoring the rising emotions of the war debate, Murtha uncharacteristically responded to Vice President Cheney’s comments this week that Democrats were spouting “one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges” about the Bush administration’s use of intelligence before the war.

“I like guys who’ve never been there that criticize us who’ve been there,” said Murtha, a former Marine. “I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don’t like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done.”

Referring to Bush, Murtha added, “I resent the fact, on Veterans Day, he criticized Democrats for criticizing them.”

The White House fired back from Busan, South Korea, where Bush was meeting with Asian leaders.

“Congressman Murtha is a respected veteran and politician who has a record of supporting a strong America,” said White House press secretary Scott McClellan. “So it is baffling that he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

“The eve of an historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists,” McClellan said. “After seeing his statement, we remain baffled - nowhere does he explain how retreating from Iraq makes America safer.”

On Congressman John Murtha, from Pennsylvania’s 12th District:

U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha has dedicated his life to serving his country both in the military and in the halls of Congress. He had a long and distinguished 37-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps, retiring from the Marine Corps Reserve as a colonel in 1990; and he has been serving the people of the 12th Congressional District since 1974, one of only 131 people in the nation’s history to have served more than 30 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and one of only 224 Members of Congress who have served 30 or more years.

Congressman Murtha is so well-respected for his first-hand knowledge of military and defense issues that he has been a trusted adviser to presidents of both parties on military and defense issues and is one of the most effective advocates for the national defense in the country. He is ranking member and former chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, a Vietnam combat veteran and a retired Marine Corps colonel with 37 years of service, a rare combination of experience that enables him to understand defense and military operations from every perspective.

He learned about military service from the bottom up, beginning as a raw recruit when he left Washington and Jefferson College in 1952 to join the Marines out of a growing sense of obligation to his country during the Korean War. There he earned the American Spirit Honor Medal, awarded to fewer than one in 10,000 recruits. He rose through the ranks to become a drill instructor at Parris Island and was selected for Officer Candidate School at Quantico, Virginia. He then was assigned to the Second Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. In 1959, Captain Murtha took command of the 34th Special Infantry Company, Marine Corps Reserves, in Johnstown. He remained in the Reserves after his discharge from active duty until he volunteered for Vietnam in 1966-67, receiving the Bronze Star with Combat “V”, two Purple Hearts and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. He remained in the Reserves until his retirement. This first-hand knowledge of military and defense issues has made him a trusted adviser to presidents of both parties and one of the most effective advocates for the national defense in Washington. At the request of Presidents and Speakers of the House, he served as chairman of delegations monitoring elections in the Philippines, El Salvador, Panama and Bosnia.

He was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal by the Marine Corps Commandant when he retired from the Marines.

It is indeed baffling that someone with this kind of record would take the french John Kerry white flag position rather than encourage taking the fight and keeping the fight in the faces of the foreign terrorists over there.

It is precisely what the terrorists are counting on–that the anti-war movement at home would win and we’d have “another Vietnam”.

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