Jack Murtha. A Soldier's Declaration And A Small Deception

A Soldier's Statement

"I AM making this statement * because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it.

I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defense and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow-soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.,

I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust.

I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.

On behalf of those who are suffering now I make this protest against the deception which is being practiced on them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize."

* as an act of willful defiance of military authority,

Siegfried L. Sassoon...July 1917

Forgive me but it is I that practice the deception, but reading Sassoon's statement that he issued reflecting the concern he felt for his men to every other point he brings to the fore, I cannot but help make the comparison between the message of Jack Murtha and Sassoon.

And it is EVERY last point that Sassoon makes, from beginning to ending:

also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize."

Some ninety years on.

It’s Time to Bring the Troops Home

For 2 ½ years I have been concerned about the U.S. policy and the plan in Iraq. I have addressed my concerns with the Administration and the Pentagon and have spoken out in public about my concerns. The main reason for going to war has been discredited.

Our military has been fighting a war in Iraq for over two and a half years. Our military has accomplished its mission and done its duty.

I said over a year ago, and now the military and the Administration agrees, Iraq can not be won “militarily.”

But to highlight a few, the similarities are frightening, but this:

A panel of army doctors quickly decreed that Siegfried Sassoon was 'suffering from a nervous breakdown and not responsible for his actions', and sent him off to a hospital for shell-shocked soldiers (Craiglockhart War Hospital in Scotland).

But the publicity the army feared wasn't entirely suppressed. A pacifist Member of Parliament read Sassoon's 'Statement' aloud in the House of Commons. There was an uproar.

Now nobody has carted Murtha off to the big house in the country, but the right wing smear machine did it's best, how many times did we listen/read "Sit down and shut up Murtha, you crazy old man."

The point of all this, when Sassoon recognised that the war could never be resolved by any other means than political discourse, which history has proved him correct, and no matter how many more bodies were thrown into the conflict to die needlessly, he stood up to be counted, and by virtue of making his statement his message was crystal clear, enough! it's time to end it.

I could go on but I think the point is made, other than to ask how many more millions died needlessly from that time on until the conflict ended and how many more are yet to die in this?

And now if you are feeling comfortable and nodding in agreement I would like to make my feelings known.
This talk of "Heroes" both British and American, well I am afraid they are not. That America has taken over the role that once was ours, the role of Warrior Nation, you have become so inured that it borders delusional.
The stark reality is WE are an invading force in an illegal war of aggression and are an army of occupation. Heroes only to ourselves, but don't include me.

Suicide in the Trenches

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

Siegfried Sassoon
1918