One Utah

For those who haven’t been keeping up with Marshall Thompson’s walk to advocate an end to the war in Iraq, he recently went to Washington, D.C. for the last day of his journey. Check out his journal for full details.

Although very skeptical of the hyperpartisanship on Capitol Hill, Marshall met with Senator Barbara Boxer, Rep. Chris Cannon, Senator Bob Bennett, and Rep. John Murtha.

His full account of the meetings is worth reading.

Here’s an excerpt:

I didn’t have much to say to Rep. Murtha. I knew about his call for total and immediate withdrawal and I respected him for making the statement. Although I don’t personally think that’s the best approach, I have to applaud him for being the first to bring the subject to the House floor. He was brave enough to start the discussion and has withstood the worst of the criticism ever since. I just wanted to shake his hand and tell him thanks.

When I met him, I was struck by how much of a Marine he still is. I mean this in a good way. By his residual military bearing, I could tell he was man who understood what it meant to be in combat. I told him about how we watched the debate on his bill in a chow hall in Iraq. Representative after representative stood up and said things like “this war is testing our resolve,” or “we have to be brave and continue the fight.” Finally, Murtha stood up and reminded his colleagues that their resolve wasn’t being tested. They weren’t fighting and they weren’t being brave. The men and women in Iraq were. With that, the audience in the chow hall erupted in applause.

I told him it was nice to know that somebody in D.C. knew what we were going through and gave a damn.

As we talked, we agreed on most things, but not all. He sees his responsibility to save American lives. Again, I disagree that American lives are more important than any others. Still, he is pushing toward a goal and he’s done his best to keep the war in Iraq from stagnating. Unfortunately, others have done their worst to ensure that Iraq would become the quagmire it is today.

Marshall also talked to staffers in the offices of Senators Orrin Hatch and Russ Feingold, but couldn’t get an appointment with Reps. Jim Matheson or Rob Bishop.

This entry was posted Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 at 4:02 pm and is filed under Iraq, National Politics, Peace, Republicans, This Blog. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.