To attack someone in the way that several lawmakers like Schmidt have done to Murtha amounts to nothing more than McCarthyism.

When an attack is made on someone regarding their patriotism, you can usually count on it being because they disagree with a particular ideology.

Take, for example, John Murtha, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. A couple weeks ago, Murtha switched his hawkish view of the war in Iraq to one that called for immediate withdrawal.

Murtha called for an immediate — in his mind, within six months — withdrawal of American troops in Iraq because he felt that the people of this country wanted it. And he’s right: nearly two-thirds of Americans want our troops to begin coming home.

Because of Murtha’s call for withdrawal, many conservative lawmakers felt he was being unpatriotic. In fact, on the House floor, Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) read a letter from a Marine that stated that “cowards cut and run: Marines never do.”

She directed this letter to Murtha, although the person who sent her that message never mentioned Murtha by name. This was immediately followed with boos and jeers from several members of Congress.

Schmidt’s attacks on Murtha are uncalled for. Murtha has served his country in two wars — Korea and Vietnam — and has been awarded many medals, including the Purple Heart.

Clearly, her criticism of Murtha is due to his disagreement of what is best for our troops. Instead of defending why she disagrees with him, she instead chooses to attack Murtha’s credibility, challenging his patriotism despite his outstanding record of service to his country as well as being a hawkish Democrat.

Is this the best we can expect from our Republican leaders in Washington? No longer are they stating their case and justifying their reasoning with facts; instead, they attack their opponent’s credibility.

It troubles me to have to bring this up, because the idea causes many Republicans to go on the defensive, but to attack someone in the way that several lawmakers like Schmidt have done to Murtha amounts to nothing more than McCarthyism — which, you may remember from your history classes, was Joseph McCarthy’s method of using bullying and fear as tactics to justify his search for communist spies within the nation.

We cannot sit idly by and allow this to take place. We as Americans must encourage an open and serious discussion of troop reduction in Iraq. We owe it to our soldiers to see if we can begin to bring them home.

If nothing else, this discussion will become a healthy exercise in the great experiment called democracy.

> Comments