Murtha Pushes New Troop Withdrawal Plan
WASHINGTON- A leading Democratic House Iraq war critic said Wednesday he’ll soon push legislation that would order U.S. troop withdrawals to begin in two months and predicted Republicans will swing behind it this time.
A vote on Rep. John Murtha’s proposal will come as early as next week and possibly again in September, when Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus delivers a long-anticipated assessment on the war and members of Congress weigh some $142 billion in defense spending requested by President Bush.
Under his plan, Murtha, a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said that he envisions troop withdrawals to start in November and take about a year to complete.
The House has passed similar proposals in the past, including one that Bush vetoed. But Murtha said he predicts this vote will be different because of mounting voter frustration with the war and a lack of progress in Iraq.
“This is big time,” Murtha, D-Pa., told reporters of the upcoming war debate in September. “When you get to September, this is history. This is when we’re going to have a real confrontation with the president trying to work things out.”
Bush has not given any indication he is open to a dramatic shift or a major redeployment of troops after September. He instead has talked at length about the need to remain engaged in Iraq to fight al-Qaida and has repeatedly appealed to lawmakers for more patience.
For their part, top U.S. military officers also have indicated that the troop buildup initiated this year may be needed through next summer.
Congressional Republican leaders have been willing to support Bush so far, although they concede keeping their rank-and-file in line behind the president will become considerably tougher come September.
In response to Murtha’s proposal, House Republican Leader John Boehner said Democrats were ignoring progress in Iraq.
“If they are not listening to reports from our generals today, how does anyone believe they will make an honest and objective decision in September?” Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “Our national security is not a political football, and Republicans aren’t going to treat it as such.”
Murtha counters that he thinks Bush and GOP members will have no choice. To maintain current troop levels through 2008, Murtha predicted that combat tours would have to be extended from 15 months to 18 months—a politically unsavory position to take on an already deeply unpopular war.
The Defense Department has said that extending combat tours of troops would be a last resort.
Murtha said he will propose his measure as an amendment to the $460 billion annual military funding bill, which the House will take up next week. The bill does not include the $142 billion that Bush requested for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which the House plans to consider separately this September.
Dividing military spending into two bills leaves open the possibility that Congress could withhold all or portions of the combat funds.
“We may decide in September we’re not satisfied with what Gen. Petraeus says and we may hold it up,” Murtha said.
In addition to the anti-war measure, Murtha said he also wants to add a provision to the annual funding bill that would require troops meet certain standards before being deployed and cut in half the $225 million budget for the Guantanamo Bay military prison.
Murtha’s proposals keep with the Democratic strategy of taking an all- or-nothing approach on Iraq—a tack that leaves the party’s members empty-handed for now but keeps it in lockstep with demands by anti-war groups.
Earlier this month, the House voted 223-201 to order troops out of Iraq beginning in 120 days. But the bill stalled in the Senate, where Democrats hold a thinner majority and Republicans blocked the measure from advancing.
Instead of embracing bipartisan alternatives, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dropped the Iraq debate altogether. Pelosi, D-Calif., turned her attention to other war-related Democratic bills.
The House on Wednesday voted 399-24 to pass a bill by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., that would ban permanent bases in Iraq. By week’s end, the House Armed Services Committee planned to draft legislation for a vote next week that would insist troops be given sufficient time at home in between combat tours.
Left on the cutting room floor are several bipartisan proposals that could challenge Bush on Iraq and which have attracted GOP support.
Among them is a House proposal that would require Bush to deliver within 60 days a new military strategy that would end major combat and refocuses troops on fighting terrorists. Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., this week signed on as a co-sponsor.
Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and John Warner, R-Va., support a similar proposal.
AP
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I’m still waiting for him to apologize to the Haditha Marines for his “in cold blood” hysterics. Gutless pols–vote to cut off funding! Put your money where your mouth is!
July 25th, 2007 at 1:45 pmHi,
A little of the subject of this post…but I wanted everyone to get a chance to see this. Its long…but worth the read.
In The Wake Of The Surge
http://www.michaeltotten.com/
Best,
July 25th, 2007 at 1:51 pmDan2
http://iraqsinconvenienttruth.com
I am truly ashamed that Jack “Chicken Shit’ Murtha ever wore the name and uniform of the U.S. Marine Corps…
I never knew the guy nor met anyone that did, or would claim to have anyway, all I can say is he must have seriously lost his mind after he left the CORPS, simply because had he had this attitude while IN the CORPS, someone would have adjusted his fucking piss poor attitude…
July 25th, 2007 at 2:23 pmI hate him more than al queeeda
July 25th, 2007 at 2:29 pmNice pic by the way. This guy is the most hateful, sorry excuse for a pol, that I have ever seen. He’s a disgrace.
The chump won’t even listen to the generals, because he and the rest of his slumber party are too busy undermining GW.
Wasn’t this clown an unindicted co-conspirator in the Abscam scandle? So how is it, this criminal still has a job? Oh that’s right. It’s OK for a Punkocrat to be a thief, a liar or a child molester…or drown a kid…
These people need to be crushed and stomped on. When the revolution begins, I’m bringing the rope. I want this traitor to hang first….after he gets his evil face punched in and his fat nose broke.
July 25th, 2007 at 2:32 pm[…] Murtha Pushes New Troop Withdrawal Plan July 25th, 2007 — budsimmons Murtha Pushes New Troop Withdrawal Plan […]
July 25th, 2007 at 2:50 pmIt is another attempt to delay President Bush’s plans to invade Iran. Well “Field Marshall” “Von” Murtha you & your fellows Dem traitors can try with all your will to undermine the war effort but when the time comes, Bush will invade Iran to remove the Mullahs from power which is the only way to end the Iranian nuclear threat & to hand the Pan-Islamic Movement a major strategic defeat.
July 25th, 2007 at 2:56 pmSomeone smack murtha and remind him that he cant order shit when it comes to the military. At best he can make em forage for their own.. But can say jack about what they do.
July 25th, 2007 at 3:54 pmThey can’t cut off the funding! That’d be so cruel!
And I also wonder when he’ll apologize to the Haditha Marines.
July 25th, 2007 at 4:08 pmNice work up on a military hero. Views aside no one who has served his nation honorably like Murtha should be portrayed in such a way.
July 25th, 2007 at 4:10 pm“In September 2006 the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) listed Murtha under Five Members to Watch in its Second Annual Most Corrupt Members of Congress Report.”
That’s all anyone needs to know about Murtha.
July 25th, 2007 at 4:27 pmThis guy is a one-time-war-hero turned traitor. He’s also the most corrupt prick on capitol hill and probably on George Soro’s payroll. I can’t prove any of this, but it would explain his present anti-American tendencies. He belongs in Guantanamo with his jihad buddies. Throw Nancy and Harry in there with him. Traitors all.
July 25th, 2007 at 4:35 pmThis guy is a one-time-war-hero turned traitor. He’s also the most corrupt jerks on capitol hill and probably on George Soro’s payroll. I can’t prove any of this, but it would explain his present anti-American tendencies. He belongs in Guantanamo with his jihad buddies. Throw Nancy and Harry in there with him. Traitors all.
July 25th, 2007 at 4:36 pmShit. War hero my ass. Murtha spent two tours in Vietnam in the rear with the gear. He wasn’t shit. He was either a JAG or a PIO. Wow that’s a bigtime war hero job?
July 25th, 2007 at 5:36 pm“Nice work up on a military hero. Views aside no one who has served his nation honorably like Murtha should be portrayed in such a way.”
say that about Benedict Arnold…..Once upon a time, he had been George Washington’s best General.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:11 pmTo define Murtha as a HERO is really stretching the definition of HERO…
July 25th, 2007 at 6:25 pmKipp:
You win the lamest post of the month award. And sappiest. Let’s forget your disrespectful tossing around of the word “hero”. Murtha has committed too many crimes agaisnt the military and his nation for this picture to be inappropriate. He’s a traitor and should be shot - this picture is nothing. Besides, his own behavior paints a far worse picture of the man than this trifle of a photo.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:27 pmMurtha’s War Hero Status Called Into Question — 01/13/2006
Murtha and John F’n Kerry have a lot in common, they’re BOTH pussy’s…
July 25th, 2007 at 6:28 pmMaybe we should cutoff funding to Congress; and forward our hard-earned tax dollars to the war effort.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:58 pmI wrote Murtha a scathing email through a web site that’s supporting the Haditha Marines. I doubt he has the courage to read it or respond to it. He’s a disgrace.
July 25th, 2007 at 7:04 pm-”The House has passed similar proposals in the past, including one that Bush vetoed. But Murtha said he predicts this vote will be different because of mounting voter frustration with the war and a lack of progress in Iraq.”
I would venture to say the mounting voter frustraton is with the cesspool overflowing in the streets of DC.
I think congressional funding should be on a yearly referendum. The American people should decide whether or not this jackasses draw a paycheck. Holding American GI’s hostage over political ambitions is bullshit.
I’ll steal a line I’ve seen floating around the net, “If you can’t stand behind the troops, feel free to stand in front of them”
July 25th, 2007 at 8:51 pmTexas Fred, over the years I’ve always wondered why some won’t just simply release the orders for all to see. Murtha was the S or G2 officer. I always wondered what they were doing back in the TOC. Sometimes we were so far from the TOC the Bn RTO would have to hook his radio up with the longer antenna. May as well put a neon sign on him, “Aim Here”. Sometimes he’d get caught in the trees. For five months I carried a radio for the Platoon LT and could at least tuck the antenna away, for us company types we were just ‘chatting amongst ourselves’. My second year I was the company clerk for a Hq Co of an infantry battalion, never heard a shot fired in anger, never left a three square mile base camp and we were eleven miles from North Vietnam, town called Quang Tri. Across the street was the Bn TOC, inside was the S2’s desk. I never had reason to go in there so I was never inside. I learned all about TOCs when I joined the Guard. The Bn RTO with the long antenna would call in, the clerk at his desk would take a message and hand it off the the S2 Officer at his desk. Even when we’d play with our jump TOC we’d set up our desks inside the trailers. We put a lot of work in those jump TOCs. I put three coats of paint on the insides, sanding between each of the first two coats so it would reduce the possibility of getting a splinter off of anything. I could tell by looking the Quang Tri TOC that a lot of it was below ground with tons of sand bags built up around and on top of it. Sometimes they’d have to step out for a bit because the generator would go down and that meant the air conditioner(s) would go off. Since I was the company clerk one of my duties was to keep track of everyone’s rotation date. Three months prior to DEROS I would submit the paperwork for the request for orders for the Bronze Stars for meritorious service that everyone was awarded. By going, and if you didn’t get into trouble, everyone got a Bronze Star. When I was getting ready to go home I didn’t put my name on the list because I already had one for valor I got my first year back in ‘68. I was no where near a typewriter. So, it’s difficult for one veteran to call another veteran on his medals for valor and murtha has a Silver Star and I think the article you linked said one of his Bronze Stars was for valor. My point is anyone having been near paperwork knows all about the procedures for making awards. Veterans can bullshit civilians but veterans can’t bullshit other veterans because the veteran will say, “Show me your orders”. Begs the question, why doesn’t he show his paperwork? Had a wonderful time here in Philadelphia yesterday. Fifteen or twenty of us Vietnam veterans showed up at the anti-Cindy Sheehag show she did across from Independence Hall. The usual liberal claptrap, go all the way back to Adam and Eve, list every negetive thing done by every civilization blaming them all on the US and finish with halfway through a dinner at the White House this evening Bush will lie. I was surprized for a pack a day smoker I at least have a set of lungs. Without benefit of microphone I was able to be heard by all two-hundred that showed up. It’s all in the timing, everytime she’d take a breath I’d yell “you’re whoring out your son”. I kept it up for at least five minutes. The looks from the kids in their Che Guevera t-shirts. Someone in a faded red or pink t-shirt came over and stuck out his tongue. I’m not sure what that was all about. We were in the sun so I went over in the shade to have a cigarette and then went back at it for another five minutes. After it was all over I walked back to 11th Street to that micro-brew pub had a few then went downstairs to catch the train. 43s in town today. Gotta’ go back downtown today. He’s going to talk to some evil Republicans. He might have to beyatch slap some up side the head.
July 25th, 2007 at 10:07 pm