Putting them in their place

Thursday's televised Arlington, VA town hall meeting, featuring nouveau antiwar hero John Murtha as well as Virginia congressman James Moran and promoted by MoveOn.org and assorted other antiwar websites, was the source of some priceless moments.

Murtha clarified his own vision for Iraq with this breathtaking statement: "I worry about a slow withdrawal which makes it look like there's a victory when I think it should be a redeployment as quickly as possible and let the Iraqis handle the whole thing." Yes, you read that correctly - Murtha fears that the US will come out of Iraq looking good! Critics from the right charging that Democrats are rooting against the US usually draw fire, and in some cases deservedly so, for suggesting such a thing. In the case of Murtha, however, it is clearly appropriate to do so.

But the highlight of the night came from Sergeant Mark Seavey, just back from Afghanistan, who issued this takedown of the congressmen:

"Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sgt Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you...(applause).

"Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn't have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause) The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan.

"And Congressman Moran, 200 of your constituents just returned from Afghanistan. We never got a letter from you; we never got a visit from you. You didn't come to our homecoming. The only thing we got from any of our elected officials was one letter from the governor of this state thanking us for our service in Iraq, when we were in Afghanistan. That's reprehensible. I don't know who you two are talking to but the morale of the troops is very high."

Courtesy of Michelle Malkin, video of that passage is here. Another must-watch clip is here. Nice to see some people pushing back against the screeching anti-Americanism of some of our elected offcials.