The Military Went to Murtha

by Taylor Marsh

Don't bring a knife to a gun fight.

"People have known about these things for months," said one Democratic House member who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to anger the presumed incoming speaker. "I am sure they are going to become much more important in the next few days."

Ah, yes, condition of anonymity, how quaint, especially when you're sliming and running.

Melanie Sloan of CREW talks about it being "shocking" that Murtha might be the number two person in leadership. Well, I wonder if Ms. Sloan would find it "shocking" walking in to a hospital room finding a soldier with his legs blown off and telling him that his brothers in arms had to redeploy a fifth time because Democrats didn't have the muscle in the leadership to get us out of Iraq.

The ethics issues swirling aroung the Iraq war smell like a four year old dead carcass, but I don't see anyone holding Bush or Cheney accountable or stopping them from running an undending war that went south a long time ago.

This isn't peacetime. It's war.

It's also high stakes poker and Nancy Pelosi knows it. She was ready for it, too.

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will ensure that Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) wins his race for majority leader, a key Murtha ally said Monday night. ...

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) said some members had already abandoned Hoyer for Murtha in the wake of Pelosi's endorsement, a claim the Hoyer camp vigorously denies.

"Some people have already changed," Pascrell said.

Pelosi 'will ensure' Murtha win, Murtha ally says

The real issue is that Murtha gets it. His information comes from the military and the top brass who couldn't talk to Rumsfeld. They helped change his mind on the war. He hasn't shut up since.

I want to point out that we could not have won the Majority without the voices of so many of you who spoke out ahead of me on the issue of the Iraq war.

It is the outspokenness of so many of you on Iraq that has ensured a Democratic Majority. You helped me to develop the message which was so instrumental in breaking the perceived barrier Democrats had on national security issues. The American People have put their faith in Democrats to lead the country on a change in policy on the Iraq war, which was the key issue in this election.

The war in Iraq must remain our number one priority until it is resolved. ...

Dear Democratic Colleague... - by Rep. John Murtha

When Murtha stood up on the House floor almost one year ago he was met swiftly by the swiftboaters, who mounted a campaign against him all the way into election day. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not holding Murtha up as some paragon of virtue. But he's a hero on Iraq that brought us all to victory last Tuesday. Kids are dying and there is no good road through, no good choices. Murtha knows it and he can make the case. He can also stand up to anything Bush or anyone else offers up and do so forcefully.

But there is a deeper problem. It's about Goldwater-Nichols and what happened to it under Rumsfeld's watch. It was implemented after the failed Desert One mission to get our hostages out of Iran. But Rumsfeld's arrogance and the fact that he ignored it is part of why we're in this mess today, which likely led to the military going to Murtha and why he finally spoke out. Rumsfeld silenced the military and they had nowhere else to go, which had a chilling affect down the line. Rumsfeld broke the spirit of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, if not more.

The unmistakable thrust of the Goldwater-Nichols Act was to improve interservice coordination and foster a more joint culture. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the only member of the JCS without command of a military service, became the principal uniformed advisor to the President.

A Better Way to Run a War

Rumsfeld wanted no part of it. He clipped the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs so that Meyers, then Pace, could only talk to the president through him. That's not how it's supposed to work. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is supposed to have a direct line to the president and is his primary military adviser. But Rummy didn't want anything getting to Bush that wasn't first filtered through his myopic lens. No one much talks about this, though I've been talking about it since it was written in State of Denial, by Bob Woodward. It had not been mentioned prior to his book, to my knowledge, but for the very first time on TV yesterday, former general Barry McCaffrey talked about it on "Hardball." It's the most unreported element of the Iraq war story. Goldwater-Nichols and Rumsfeld, then Bush, because the president had to know that something was wrong, because he wasn't getting direct input from the Meyers, then Pace. But Bush didn't care. This is where Senator Joe Biden should start.

The JCS has potential power and influence, as a go-between and adviser, but he was not in the chain of command.

"What precisely are your duties?" Rumsfeld asked Shelton. Since his first time as defense secretary in the Ford administration, the Goldwater-Nichols reform legislation of 1986 had enhanced the chairman's role, at least on paper.

"I'm the principal military adviser to the president, you and the National Security Council," General Shelton answered, citing his authority from the 15-year-old Goldwater-Nichols law in Title X of the U.S. Code.

(skip forward...)

Sheldon was growing dispondent. Rumsfeld as suggesting that Shelton should give his military advice to the president through Rumsfeld. Shelton reiterated that since Title X made him the "principal military adviser" to the president, he didn't see how that could work. He had to give his advice directly.

"You are not providing added value," Rumsfeld said once during a visit to the Tank, the Joint Chiefs' conference room. ... ..."

State of Denial, by Bob Woodward (pgs. 18, 38)

It's not by accident that Murtha ended up with information nobody else had but him. The military men and women who spoke to Murtha did so because he was likely the only one listening that they trusted. We got lucky that Murtha also had the spine to take their information and do something about it.

The numbers in the senate are tight, with McCain and Lieberman ready to escalate.

Meanwhile, the war rages on.

When Democrats meet the Republicans and talk about the Iraq war and what to do next, there is one man you most assuredly want in the room, someone who also has the military's ear. His name is John Murtha.

- Taylor Marsh