'Charlie Wilson's War' and Murtha's war stories

by Frank James

You've heard of "Charlie Wilson's War." How about "John Murtha's War Stories?"

Hollywood producers looking for another Capitol Hill lawmaker to base a movie on can find some cinematic material in the tales told by Rep. Murtha, the crusty Democrat and leading Iraq War opponent, who looks like central casting's idea of an old-style politico.

Murtha, in his second stint as chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, spoke recently at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies where he discussed the costs of the Iraq War on the U.S. military's readiness. (Here's a transcript.)

Some of the best parts of his presentation, however, were the anecdotes he drew from his 34-year congressional career. The former Marine has a seemingly unending supply of "war" stories.

Indeed, a couple of them featured Wilson, the legendary lawmaker who secretly funneled U.S. support to the Afghan fighters after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Murtha was making the point that the Afghans produce some very effective and smart warriors, which bodes well for the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

He told a story about how Wilson, who retired from Congress in 1996, called him in the early 1990s to get Murtha to buy back Stinger missiles the U.S. had given the Afghan fighters to shoot down Soviet helicopters.

The other thing that I find, that they told me over there – and this is troops – this is ordinary troops that served in Afghanistan and Iraq – the Afghans will fight. You send them out there, you don’t have to worry about them leaving; they’ll fight. Well, my experience with the mujahideen, in being the chairman, with Charlie Wilson was pushing the mujahideen is that they will fight, and they’re very shrewd.

As a matter of fact, Charlie called me after he was out (sic) and said 'You’ve got to buy some of the stingers back.' I said, 'What the hell are you talking about, Charlie Wilson? We gave those damn stingers to the Afghans.'

He says, 'Yeah, but they want to sell them back.'

I said, 'How much do they want?'

'A hundred thousand.'

I said, 'No damn way. They only cost 20,000.'

So (Brent) Scowcroft (then National Security Director) called me. I said, 'I’m not going to do that.'

He says, 'Well, if one of our (air) liners are shot down, we’re going to blame you.'

I said 'Buy them back.' (Laughter.) So the Afghans know how to work things.

Nex he recalled a trip he took to Pakistan in 1988 to attend the funeral of then Pakistan strongman Mohammaed Zia ul Haq who was killed in a plane crash. Murtha was again making a point about Afghan grit.

"As a matter of fact, another story about Charlie – I went to the funeral of Zia (ph). And when Zia was killed, we thought at first it was a bomb. Well, it turned out to be a problem with the plane. At least that’s the story we got.

So my mission was to tell the Afghans, the mujahideen, look, folks, let the Russians out of the country. We’re going to keep the money going. The money came through our committee through Pakistan, then went on to Afghanistan.

So I get up after the funeral is over. And the funeral was – we sat in our canopy with fans on. All of these other people were fainting and so forth in the heat. But anyway, I go into this room with these mujahideen – bandoliers, rifles, knives – the oldest looking guys ever I’ve ever seen. I mean, how in the hell – they weren’t that old, but they were grisly looking. I mean, they were really tough looking – dirty.

I says, 'Fellas, you did a hell of a job. You chased the Russians out there – retreating. They’re leaving the country and we’re going to keep the money going, but quit killing them; let them out of the country.'

The guy got up, a spokesman for them. Held his rifle up in the air. He said, 'I want you to know we’re going to kill every Russian in the country. We’re not going to let them leave with bands playing and flags flying. I told (Secretary of State George) Schultz who had asked me to go over there – 'Well, I failed; they’re going to kill every Russian in the country.'

And they had done that with the British in the past. They killed – out of a group of about 5,000, they killed all but one. So the Afghans are tougher than hell. They can handle this if we just give them a little help."

When his discussion turned to the problems maintaining military aircraft and vessels, Murtha had plenty of personal stories to call on there too.

For instance, the current problems with deferred maintanence reminded him of trips he took over the Atlantic in a C-5 cargo aircraft and under the North Pole in a submarine.

And I can remember years ago when we had C-5s that the wings were cracking, and we put some money into fixing them – some over the Atlantic – we were refueling.

And these wings on a C-5, they flip like this. And the C-135 came close and closer. And I could see the eyeballs of that guy with the refueling thing. And I says – the chief pilot – 'I saw these wings flipping up and down. Has this been re-winged?'

He said 'It’s the next one to be re-winged.' (Laughter.) So you can see, I get concerned.

And I went to Groton, Connecticut, on the Ohio. A guy named Moon Mullins took me up there. He was with General Dynamics at the time, and a good friend of mine, an Air Force general. And they had 5,000 bad welds. Well, I was under the North Pole in a submarine, and I kept thinking about those 5,000 bad welds in that submarine. I mean, you know, this is tough business.I mean, you better be damn sure that this stuff is right.

There's got to a screenplay in here somewhere.