mysteryman, you always have a hard time finding what you dont wanna find. "In his announcement, Mr. Murtha said he had weighed the risks of an overstretched military, an "out of control" deficit and the situation on the ground in Iraq, which he believes is getting worse with each day. He noted only half of the $18 billion Congress allocated for Iraq's reconstruction has been spent and that unemployment in Iraq is above 40 percent. His many visits to Iraq, he said, had convinced him that Iraqis want U.S. soldiers to leave."
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:ntFYBNOg8aEJ:www.post-gazette.com/pg/05322/608577.stm+murtha+visits+iraq&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Well, even so, even if he's been there a hundred times, that doesn't mean that Ann Coulter isn't right about him.
http://www.anncoulter.org/cgi-local/welcome.cgi
Murtha has got to go.
In 1993, he authored legislation to restore prayer in public schools. "Religion is part of America's history, part of America's strength and, for most of us, part of our daily lives," Murtha said in a statement.
Murtha says he wouldn't join military now
Murtha says he wouldn't join military now
Tue Jan 3, 2006 9:00 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Rep. John Murtha, a key Democratic voice who favors pulling U.S. troops from Iraq, said in remarks airing on Monday that he would not join the U.S. military today.
A decorated Vietnam combat veteran who retired as a colonel after 37 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, Murtha told ABC News' "Nightline" program that Iraq "absolutely" was a wrong war for President George W. Bush to have launched.
"Would you join (the military) today?," he was asked in an interview taped on Friday.
"No," replied Murtha of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees defense spending and one of his party's leading spokesmen on military issues.
"And I think you're saying the average guy out there who's considering recruitment is justified in saying 'I don't want to serve'," the interviewer continued.
"Exactly right," said Murtha, who drew White House ire in November after becoming the first ranking Democrat to push for a pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq as soon as it could be done safely.
At the time, White House spokesman Scott McClellan equated Murtha's position with surrendering to terrorists.
Since then, Bush has decried the "defeatism" of some of his political rivals. In an unusually direct appeal, he urged Americans on December 18 not to give in to despair over Iraq, insisting that "we are winning" despite a tougher-than-expected fight.
Murtha did not respond directly when asked whether a lack of combat experience might have affected the decision-making of Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and their former top deputies.
"Let me tell you, war is a nasty business. It sears the soul," he said, choking up. "And it made a difference. The shadow of those killings stay with you the rest of your life."
Asked for comment, a Defense Department spokesman, Lt. Col. John Skinner, said: "We have an all-volunteer military. People are free to choose whether they serve or not."
"Our freedom of speech in this country allows all of us the opportunity to voice an opinion. It's one of our great strengths as a nation," he added in an e-mailed reply.
The White House had no immediate comment.
Murtha Denies Causing Recruitment Woes
Murtha Denies Causing Recruitment Woes
By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jan 6, 4:02 AM ET
Rep. John Murtha says the military is blaming him for a recruitment slump instead of recognizing mistakes that have led to an enlistment shortage.
"They're trying to direct attention away from their problems," said Murtha, D-Pa., a decorated Marine Corps veteran who has become a leading voice in Congress advocating an early withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a news conference Thursday that Murtha's remarks about Iraq are damaging to troop morale and to the Army's efforts to bring up recruitment numbers. Pace, the nation's top general, was asked specifically about an ABC News interview this week in which Murtha, 73, said if he were eligible to join the military today he would not join, nor would he expect others to join.
"That's damaging to recruiting," Pace said. "It's damaging to morale of the troops who are deployed, and it's damaging to the morale of their families who believe in what they are doing to serve this country."
Military officers usually are reluctant to get drawn into political debates, but Pace said Murtha's remarks about recruiting are relevant to his responsibilities as Joint Chiefs chairman.
Pace praised the congressman's record but criticized his remarks.
"When a respected leader like Mr. Murtha, who has spent 37 extremely honorable years as a Marine, ... has served the country extremely well in the Congress of the United States ?- when a respected individual like that says what he said, and 18- and 19-year-olds look to their leadership to determine how they are expected to act, they can get the wrong message," Pace said.
In a statement released Thursday, Murtha said: "The military had no problem recruiting directly after 9/11 because everyone understood that we had been attacked. But now the military's ability to attract recruits is being hampered by the prospect of prolonged, extended and repeated deployments, inadequate equipment, shortened home stays, the lack of any connection between Iraq and the brutal attacks of 9/11, and ?- most importantly ?- the administration's constantly changing, undefined, open-ended military mission in Iraq."
Later Thursday, Murtha said he's spoken with military leaders and "they're frustrated by their mission."
Speaking before a town hall meeting on Iraq in Arlington, Va., hosted by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., Murtha said Pace called him to discuss the war.
"Peter Pace told me this last night: They know militarily they can't win this," Murtha said.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others at the Pentagon, including Pace, have said repeatedly that victory in Iraq will not be achieved by U.S. forces defeating the insurgency militarily but rather by U.S. forces providing the Iraqis the military, political and economic wherewithal to overcome the insurgency.
During the Pentagon news conference Thursday, Pace also predicted that the Saddam Hussein loyalists and other Iraqis who comprise the great bulk of the insurgency will increasingly give up, now that Iraq has approved its own constitution and held elections.
Pace said he believes the violence, which flared anew Thursday on one of the bloodiest days in Iraq in months, will abate as more Iraqis become convinced that the December elections will produce a representative government that will improve their lives.
"As they see their own government providing a way ahead that all of their citizens can understand as progress for their country, ... those who are fighting against the government right now who are Iraqis will more and more lay down their arms and decide to become part of the future of Iraq and not the past," Pace said.
---------------------------------------------
AP Military Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.
Murthra couldn't join the military now since he is senile. What some people do not know is that Murtha is a "stealth Democrat"..According to the Almanac of American Politics- 2002- P. 1327 he is:"John Murtha, A DEMOCRAT, first elected in a 1974 special election that signaled the political weakness of Richard Nixon"...Murtha is one of those old time politicians who operate best in secret, sitting in the back of the House Chamber trading gossip and votes....WITH JOHN DINGELL, HE LEADS A FACTION OF DEMOCRATS OPPOSED TO GUN CONTROL." end of quote
That explains it. Anyone who is so unbalanced that they cooperate with the doddering John Dingell who is now eighty year old and one of the cheif kooks in the House, cannot be taken seriously.
