Joe Wilson apologized. When will John Murtha?

There has been a great deal of consternation on the left after last week’s outburst by Re. Joe Wilson (R-SC), during Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress. Wilson shouted “You lie!” after Obama once again claimed that illegal aliens will not be covered by his healthcare scheme.

While the facts, along with the Congressional Research Service seem to backup Wilson’s claim, the North Carolina Congressman immediately apologized for his emotional outburst which Obama reportedly, readily accepted. In addition to sending a personal apology to the president, Wilson also went on many talk shows and repeated his regret.

However, while the White House was satisfied with Wilson’s apology and is ready to move on, many of those on the left side of the aisle are not. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is threatening to bring Congressman Wilson to the well of the House and censure him, as if he was an insolent school boy.

While the left quite accomplished at demanding remorse and retribution from conservatives, they are not so adept at taking responsibility for their own distasteful and even treasonous actions.

Though the left-leaning John F. Kennedy Library Foundation gave Congressman John Murtha (D-PA) their Profile In Courage Award, there is little doubt that the former president whose name adorns the award was spinning in his grave when the seditious John Murtha was named as a 2006 recipient. Murtha, who has been giving encouragement to the insurgents in Iraq since his call for U.S. withdrawal in November 2005, chose the side of our enemy when he so famously characterized U.S. Marines as murderers.

In 2006, Congressman Murtha began to hold news conferences and make the talk show circuit in order to slander our Marines. In an appearance on MSNBC's Hardball, Murtha told host Chris Matthews: "Well, I'll tell you exactly what happened. One Marine was killed and the Marines just said we're going to take care -- we don't know who the enemy is, the pressure was too much on them, so they went into houses and they actually killed civilians." Murtha went on to liken the supposed Haditha incident to the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

The Haditha incident was first reported by TIME magazine. Reporter Tim McGirk based his article on hearsay from local Iraqis, and in particular from someone TIME characterized as a "budding journalist," who was nothing of the sort. While we have come to expect aid and comfort to be given to our enemies by leftist organizations such as TIME magazine...We do not expect it nor should we accept it from U.S. Congressmen.

Congressman Murtha went even further than TIME did by saying: "It's much worse than was reported by TIME magazine. There was no firefight. There was no [bomb] that killed those people. Murtha claimed that there were "about twice as many" Iraqi civilians killed than as previously reported.

Amid a firestorm of bad publicity for the Marine Corps, eight Marines were charged with murder in the Haditha incident. All eight have since been exonerated. Two of the Marines have lawsuits pending against Murtha.

Despite obviously making a rush to judgment, and being completely wrong about what happened that day in Haditha, Congressman Murtha has never offered an apology to those Marines he so viciously slandered.

The effects of Murtha's daily heckling of our troops, along with his constant call for U.S. surrender have been twofold. His words, no doubt contributed to lower morale amongst U.S. forces serving in Iraq, and the Muslim insurgents were emboldened by the anti-U.S. rhetoric Murtha continued to spew until a Democratic president began directing the war. Guerilla attacks on U.S. troops greatly increased shortly after Murtha made the comments about our Marines. Within a month of his attack, two U.S. Army privates were kidnapped, tortured, and beheaded in Iraq.

While the enemy we face in Iraq is barbaric, they are certainly not unsophisticated nor unintelligent. The Islamic terrorists have studied the lessons of Vietnam and know that the American people have little taste for war. They also read American newspapers and pay close attention to U.S. public opinion. The enemy believes that if they can keep the insurgency alive long enough, political pressures will eventually dictate the complete withdrawal of American forces before the job is finished. Congressman John Murtha is no doubt seen by the insurgency as a gift from Allah!

Murtha constantly holds up his service as a Vietnam veteran as a license to say anything against our troops, no matter how treasonous. He immediately dismisses all arguments for staying the course in Iraq if the words do not emanate from a combat veteran. He attacked President Bush and Vice President Cheney by saying: "I like guys who've never been there, who criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and sent people to war and then don't like to hear suggestions that may need to be done."

Murtha touts the fact that he has won two Purple Hearts and for many election seasons, subjected the voters of his Pennsylvania district to tales of his own heroism. However, Murtha's own accounts of the injuries he received in Vietnam contradict the U.S. Marines' versions.

The official Marine Corps casualty reports show that near Danang, Vietnam on March 22, 1967 and again on May 7, 1967 Murtha was injured. The report reads: "In the first incident, his right cheek was lacerated, and in the second, he was lacerated above his left eye. Neither injury required evacuation." However, in 1994 Murtha told the Herald-Standard: "I was wounded in the arm with shrapnel from a bullet that hit the motor mount of a helicopter. In the other, my knee was banged up and my arm was banged up when a helicopter was shot down from a very few feet." Still another version of the events were reported in 1967 by the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, which were taken from a letter Murtha wrote to his wife.

Former Congressman Don Bailey (D-PA) has said many times that Murtha admitted to him in the 1980's that he did not really deserve his two Purple Hearts. In January, Bailey told Cybercast News Service: "[Murtha] is putting himself forward as some combat veteran with serious wounds and he's using that and it's dishonest and it's wrong." Bailey is a Vietnam veteran who served in the Army's 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. He was awarded three Bronze Stars and one Silver Star.

Congressman Murtha just as Sen. John Kerry has refused to sign form 180, which would release his military medical records. Apparently, Murtha has something to hide which may be the ultimate motivation behind his attack on American Marines in Iraq. Perhaps, in his persecution of current combat soldiers he is exorcising his own demons.

Whether the motivations behind Murtha's treasonous actions were political (At the time, he was angling for the post of Majority Leader.) or personal...His actions were treasonous nonetheless, and unlike Rep. Joe Wilson, he has never apologized.

John Murtha has never apologized to the Marines he betrayed nor to the soldiers he put in greater danger with his seditious words.