Empty Israeli-Like Rhetoric: Murtha Wouldn't Cut Off Iraq Funds

Rep. John Murth (D-Pa.): I can only measure progress by what I see and the things that I can actually measure,…. …We put $2.1 billion into water production. They're short of water all over the country. And they have only spent…$581 million. …This is electricity overview. This is the demand. The yellow line is the demand. The red line is the prewar level. And you can see that occasionally you got up to prewar level. That's the way I measure progress.

…Incidents have increased fivefold in the period of time that…. …at Abu Ghraib, we had people untrained that were taking care of prisoners. And you see the result of that.

… You heard the president talk today about terrorism. Every other word was “terrorism.” Let me separate terrorism from insurgency. … Iraq is an insurgency. …If you remember in Jordan, the bomber said that the reason she became a bomber was because two of her relatives were killed in Fallujah.

… what did President Bush say when he ran for office the first time? “We are not into nation-building. And we're not into nation-building because of the way our military has to operate.” It's that simple. We've got to go in and level the place, destroy a place. And when we destroy a place, we lose the very thing that's absolutely essential to winning the insurgency.… We think that foreign fighters are about 7 percent…. Very small proportion of the people that are involved in the insurgency are terrorists or how I would interpret them as terrorists.

… Eighty percent of the people, according to a British poll reported by the Washington Times, says we want the United States out; 77 percent of the people in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt say there's a better chance of democracy if the United States is not there because we're considered occupiers; 45 percent of the people in Iraq think that it's justified to kill Americans. They even had an official communique that says it's justified to attack Americans.

… The biggest vulnerability we have in Iraq is the convoys. Every convoy is attacked.

… When I said we can't win a military victory, it's because the Iraqis have turned against us. … I am convinced, and everything that I've read, the conclusion I've reached is there will be less terrorism, there will be less danger to the United States and it'll be less insurgency once we're out. … Al Qaida's only 7 percent of the people in Iraq and doing this fighting. … We're caught in between a civil war right now.

…. I'll tell you this, my staff heard some vitriolic opposition in the 20 percent that called against me. … The only thing probably worse is when I was in boot camp in the Marine Corps. I probably heard worse words. But some of those folks working with me had never heard words like they heard before in the 20 percent that called in.

… Twenty years it's going to take to settle this thing. The American people is not going to put up with it; can't afford it. We have spent $277 billion. That's what's been appropriated for this operation. We have $50 billion sitting on the table right now in our supplemental, or bridge fund we call it, in the Appropriations Committee. They're going to ask for another $100 billion next year. …I visited four bases, or three bases earlier this year -- Fort Bragg, Hood, and Stewart. The commanders told me the troops going to Iraq, because of lack of ground equipment, were the lowest level of readiness.

[The President] said there was [an] Al Qaida connection. He said there was a connection with nuclear weapons. He said there's biological, chemical weapons there. He said there's progress now. I'm showing you that I don't see the kind of progress he sees. …I've seen damn little things that they have said was true turned out to be true.

…Q: Would you support a resolution that said unless the administration redeploys, the funding will be cut off on June 1st, 2006?

JM: I'd never support a resolution that cuts -- undercuts the troops when they're out in the field and fighting a war.

…: $8 billion in requests for equipment they need today. Our equipment is absolutely run out. We're running our Bradleys a thousand miles a month, where it used to be a thousand miles a year. …We are stretched thin. Some of these folks have been deployed three and four and five times. And it's unfair that such a small proportion -- you know, a lot of people say they support the war, but don't send my child. I was for the draft. I said we ought to have more troops there early on. And I was for the draft. Do you know how many people voted for the draft? Two.

…One senator, I said -- you know, they're all running for president -- but to one senator I said, “This is a watershed event for you, Senator. You'd better get off the middle ground, because what your position is is in between and it's nothing.”

And that senator did not like what I said.

Q: Was he a Democrat or was he...

JM: Well, he was obviously a Democrat.

“Rep. Murtha Holds a News Conference to Respond to President Bush's Speech,” Washington Post/FDCH Media, 12/07/05.