<p>Murtha was the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Defense on the Appropriations Committee, and is now the Ranking Member for the minority. Believe me when I tell you that his ties to the military hierarchy and establishment are extremely deep. When he says something, you had better believe that he has talked it over with some of the top brass. That doesn't mean they all agree with him, but he's not pulling this out of his butt and he's not just some guy who used to be in the service a long time ago. Living in Washington, I can tell you that he's long been considered one of the go-to-guys for the military. When he speaks on such issues, people would be well-advised to listen, as it's pretty likely that it's not just him that's saying it.</p>
<p>I'll let Seymour Hersh supply the more cogent explanation:</p>
<p>"SEYMOUR HERSH: Murtha is one of those oldies, in his 70s now. He's somebody like me, I always try to get to. I can talk to some of his aides. He's on the Defense -- he's one of the leading players on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. He's a very conservative military guy, who controls the budget, not only the budget we know about, but the black budget, the covert budget. He's one of those people trusted. Jerry Lewis in the Congress is another one, a House member. In the Senate, it would be Senator Inouye of Hawaii and Senator Ted Stevens, both in their 80s, of Alaska. They run the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. These are the guys that the generals talk to. And Murtha is one, in particular. He's known for his closeness to the four-stars. They come and they bleed on him.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>So Murtha's message is a message, really, from a -- you can consider it a message from a lot of generals on active duty today. This is what they think, at least a significant percentage of them, I assure you. This is, I'm not over-dramatizing this."</p>