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Murtha Award Sparks Vet Outrage

By Colin Clark Friday, March 27th, 2009 11:11 am
Posted in Policy

Rep. Jack Murtha is one of Capitol Hill’s toughest and most powerful defense lawmakers. He has also become a lightning rod for criticism in the last few years; the last few days have seen him become even more highly charged. My colleague Christian Lowe has posted a story at our sister web site, Military.com, about outrage among veterans groups because the Navy awarded Murtha the service’s top civilian award.

While this certainly won’t bring down the Pennsylvania congressman, the long-term political impact will be very interesting to watch. Will vets groups mobilize to oppose some of Murtha’s spending decisions over the next few months? And in the longer term, how will this affect Murtha when he runs for reelection. Buzz readers will remember he shot his mouth off during the campaign and appeared to be in the race of his life because of it. Of course, Murtha did end up winning with 58 percent of the vote in November, proving yet again the powers of incumbency and the sweet smell of money for the district…

Here is Christian“s story:

In one of his last moves before leaving office March 13, then-Navy Secretary Donald Winter quietly awarded 19-term Democratic congressman John Murtha (Pa.) with the service’s highest civilian honor.

Citing Murtha’s “courageous leadership, vision, and loyalty to the men and women of the Department of the Navy,” Winter presented the influential chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel with the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award, an honor bestowed in “those extraordinary cases where individuals have demonstrated exceptionally outstanding service of substantial and long term benefit to the Navy, Marine Corps, or the Department of the Navy as a whole,” a Murtha release stated.

The award generated little publicity when it was given to Murtha in early March, but as news of the honor trickled out, some veterans groups ignited a firestorm of protest.

The primary reason for their ire stems from the congressman’s statements in May, 2006, that a squad of Marines who responded to an IED ambush and short firefight in Haditha, Iraq, rampaged through the village, murdering civilians “in cold blood.”

Murtha made those comments in the heat of the 2006 congressional mid-term election campaign, in a move some political analysts saw as an attempt to stoke the anti-war vote for a Democratic takeover of the House. The former Marine and distinguished Vietnam veteran continued his accusations in follow-up media appearances before an official Pentagon and Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation had been completed.

When the dust settled more than two years later, six of the eight Marines and Sailors accused of crimes in the Haditha incident had their cases dismissed, one was found not guilty and the last has been continued indefinitely.

The Navy did not respond to a request for comment on the award or the backlash from veterans groups by post time.

Murtha has refused to recant his accusations or apologize to the Marines he accused of war crimes. When asked by Military.com in late 2007 whether he regretted his initial statements and owed the exonerated Marines and Sailor an apology, Murtha refused to comment, saying the cases were still being adjudicated.

Murtha spokesman Matthew Mazonkey did not respond to a request from Military.com for a comment on the award, or the controversy surrounding it among some vet groups.

In a release shortly after the award, Murtha gushed over the prestigious honor.

“I’m proud of the service and sacrifices our troops are making, and I’m honored to receive this distinguished award from the Navy,” commented Murtha. “We have an obligation to ensure that our men and women in uniform have the most modern equipment, effective training, first-class medical care, and family advocacy resources.”

But one influential veterans group has reacted strongly against the award, crafting a petition to lobby the Navy to rescind it.

Vets for Freedom, a group that generally supports the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, called Murtha’s award “appalling” and his accusations against the Haditha Marines “vile and despicable.”

“Congressman John Murtha should apologize for slandering the Marines of [3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment], and for undermining the efforts of those servicemen and women who fought in Iraq,” the online petition states. “If he does not, the Secretary of the Navy should rescind this award as a sign of his unwavering support for those who served in combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

So far more than 35,000 supporters have signed the online petition.

“It shows a lack of foresight from the Navy to not understand the long term effect of making Marines look like war criminals,” said Vets for Freedom president Pete Hegseth, whose organization embraced the petition effort started by VFF Senior Fellow and former Marine Iraq vet Gabe Ledeen.

“I’d be surprised if the Navy stepped back and rescinded the award,” Hegseth told Military.com. “But there’s a chance they could conduct an internal review to see how it was awarded and why.“

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	Aurora March 27th, 2009 at 12:17 pm Applying the term “outrage” to this award is only the beginning of understatement.
	DensityDuck March 27th, 2009 at 3:05 pm What do you mean, “how it was awarded and why”? He’s a Congressman. The Navy brass has far, far more contact with Congressmen than it has with a bunch of jarheads out in some godforsaken desert. If you make a Marine mad at you then, well, there’s a Marine who’s mad at you. If you make a Congressman mad at you, then you’re done working forever.
	Mark S. March 29th, 2009 at 12:00 pm I cannot understand why this fool gets re-elected time after time. Says a lot about his district one could suppose.
	POTR March 30th, 2009 at 11:22 am The only reason that the petition has only “35,000 supporters” so far is that it requires the public display of the names (understandable for validity) and asks for military affiliation. This has scared off most serving military personnel from signing it due to the apolitical nature of the armed forces. Otherwise there would be a few hundred thousand signatures protesting this insult to our service men and women.
	DC2 Jennings March 30th, 2009 at 12:47 pm You guys kill me. Everyone has a right to be pissed off at this guy for the false accusations he made. But get pissed off that this guy (or the Navy) for receiving a civilian medal? Give me a break. What about giving the nation’s highest civilian award to the dumbest of the dumb. Muhammad Ali, Bill Cosby, George Tenet, Rummy. Accept these medals for what they are: shiny jewelry. DC2
	MacMan March 30th, 2009 at 1:27 pm There’s no fool like an old fool and he’s certainly an old fool, medal or no medal!
	moveonrussell March 31st, 2009 at 8:29 am John Murtha was also honored by the Medal of Honor Society for the work he has done for all the American troops and their families. As for Haditha, somebody killed those innocent adults and children. Their bodies are in the grave. Who apologized for their tragic deaths?? Because of the incident at Haditha there have been no mass killings of civilians by any branch of our armed forces. The troops tactics toward civilians was changed.
	Steve April 2nd, 2009 at 1:52 am Sign It and become a staple in his district!! He can hate the military out of office!!
	Wolfman April 2nd, 2009 at 9:51 am I tried to remember the person John Murtha reminded me of. I remembered. Jane Fonda!
	Irv T. April 2nd, 2009 at 10:10 am Giving this old washed up clown an award of any kind is like renewing Ted Kennedy’s driver’s license for ten more years or entering Roseann Barr into the American Idol contest. They are all a waste of time that will do nothing more than anger some folks. Murtha, Kerry, Kennedy, Reid, Pelosi, and of course lovely Barney Franke all need to go without award to them. When we get rid of them, it will be the American people that have received the award. Murtha is no more than a power-hungry politico who bought his way into office and continues to do so every four years. He is a scumbag that could care less about our troops.
	Aj April 2nd, 2009 at 11:04 am This clown needs to go period. He is living proof of how messed up our political system can be.
	Woodey April 2nd, 2009 at 11:29 am Murtha could have called for an expidited investigation or even a Congressional investigation. He didn’t because it was more use to him as a campaign ploy. Now he won’t appologize for it or say why his judgment supercedes the military court. He may have been an outstanding marine in his day but now he is a polititian who uses men in the field risking their lives for his own political ends. That is why he is dispicable.
	TCB April 2nd, 2009 at 3:14 pm You all want some cheese with that whining! Just because a case is dismissed those not mean you have been exonerated! It just means they did not have enough evidence to proceed with the case. The women and children did not shoot themselves. Murtha has a right to is opinion and last time I checked this is the USA and you have that right to speak your mind. If everyone was so outraged about him he would have been voted by the people! He is still a combat veteran and deserves the respect every veteran should have. So what if that is what he believes. We need to quit worrying about personal opinions and work together for what is best for our country and our veterans. Wake up and quit getting divided and conquered by the conservative and liberal labels and start working together like when we go to war. Dose it matter to you when your are fighting for your country whether the guy next to you is a democrat or republican? NO! We always work together to defeat the enemy! You all sound like a bunch of whining a***s. We are our own worse enemy when we divide this country by red and blue. My opinion like it or not!
	Answerman April 2nd, 2009 at 4:41 pm In my father’s Navy they would throw scum like him over board. The Marine’ might do something to make sure he did not do it again. The honorable(?) gentleman needs to get back on his meds.
	JIM April 2nd, 2009 at 5:17 pm I wonder how maney of our men the poor lady and children kill before our men reacted– That’s why a quite investigation should have been done before you let your mouth boilled over. You should know better being n exjarhead.