(2006-06-02) — Congressman John Murtha today offered to give “core values training” to al Qaeda fighters and other members of the Iraqi insurgency to complement a similar Pentagon initiative for U.S. troops.
The Pennsylvania Democrat, a former Marine, said he is concerned that without proper values training the pressure of the illegal American occupation of Iraq might cause otherwise stable insurgents to ‘blow up’, possibly killing innocent civilians.
“I
can teach an insurgent how to keep his head about him, when everyone
else is losing theirs,” said Rep. Murtha, who served in the Marine
Corps.
The former Marine, a Democrat, noted that most insurgents already understand the value of family.
“In
the U.S. we have only one annual ‘take your child to work day’, but in
Iraq, the children often accompany their freedom-fighting fathers to
the job site,” the retired Marine said, “It’s inspiring to see how an
Iraqi man treats his home as a refuge and his family as a shield, while
our Marines neglect their families so they can run around with their
buddies in a foreign country.”
