Say Anything Blog

Apparently Rep. John Murtha doesn't think we should learn from our mistakes. Here's what he had to say about the House resolution on Iraq on CNN's Situation Room (video at the link):

MURTHA: The thing that disturbed me and worries me about this whole thing is we can't get them to change direction. And I said over and over in debate, if you listen to any of it, in Beirut President Reagan changed direction, in Somalia President Clinton changed direction, and yet here, with the troops out there every day, suffering from these explosive devices, and being looked at as occupiers — 80 percent of the people want us out of there — and yet they continue to say, "We're fighting this thing." We're not fighting this. The troops are fighting this thing. That's who's doing the fighting.

That's right. President Clinton changed direction in Somalia And what happened then? Our retreat from Somalia convinced Osama bin Laden that America was a "paper tiger."

From an interview done with bin Laden in 1998:

Describe the situation when your men took down the American forces in Somalia.

After our victory in Afghanistan and the defeat of the oppressors who had killed millions of Muslims, the legend about the invincibility of the superpowers vanished. Our boys no longer viewed America as a superpower. So, when they left Afghanistan, they went to Somalia and prepared themselves carefully for a long war. They had thought that the Americans were like the Russians, so they trained and prepared. They were stunned when they discovered how low was the morale of the American soldier. America had entered with 30,000 soldiers in addition to thousands of soldiers from different countries in the world. ... As I said, our boys were shocked by the low morale of the American soldier and they realized that the American soldier was just a paper tiger. He was unable to endure the strikes that were dealt to his army, so he fled, and America had to stop all its bragging and all that noise it was making in the press after the Gulf War in which it destroyed the infrastructure and the milk and dairy industry that was vital for the infants and the children and the civilians and blew up dams which were necessary for the crops people grew to feed their families. Proud of this destruction, America assumed the titles of world leader and master of the new world order. After a few blows, it forgot all about those titles and rushed out of Somalia in shame and disgrace, dragging the bodies of its soldiers. America stopped calling itself world leader and master of the new world order, and its politicians realized that those titles were too big for them and that they were unworthy of them. I was in Sudan when this happened. I was very happy to learn of that great defeat that America suffered, so was every Muslim. ...

Clinton was wrong to pull our troops from Somalia, and Murtha is wrong about pulling our troops from Iraq. When we engage an enemy militarily it is in our national interest to obtain decisive victory. Anything short of that leaves us looking weak in the eyes of our enemies and invites more attacks.

Stephen Spruiell adds:

The comparison was especially ill-timed, given that Islamic extremists are in the process of taking over the country and some are warning that it could become a new safe haven for al Qaeda.

Of course, this probably wouldn't be happening had Clinton finished the job back in the 1990's. And it won't happen in Iraq as long as we finish the job there.