U.S. Rep. Murtha touts way to choke off Iraq war
By Richard Cowan and David Alexander
WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - U.S. Rep. John Murtha, a leading congressional opponent of the war in Iraq, on Thursday said his plans for placing conditions on how President George W. Bush can spend $93.4 billion in new combat funds would effectively stop an American troop buildup.
"They won't be able to continue. They won't be able to do the deployment. They won't have the equipment, they don't have the training and they won't be able to do the work. There's no question in my mind," the Pennsylvania Democrat said.
Murtha, an ex-Marine in his 18th term, made his remarks in a webcast on movecongress.org, which hopes to influence Congress to stop the war in Iraq.
As the chairman of a House of Representatives panel that oversees military spending, Murtha plans to advance legislation next month attaching strings to the additional war funds Bush requested on Feb. 5…
Murtha hopes to choke off the 4-year-old war in Iraq by placing four conditions on combat funds through Sept. 30:
The Pentagon would have to certify that troops being sent to Iraq are "fully combat ready" with training and equipment; troops must have at least one year at home between combat deployments; combat assignments could not be extended beyond one year; a "stop-loss" program forcing soldiers to extend their enlistment periods would be prohibited.
"We're trying to force a redeployment not by taking money away, by redirecting money," Murtha said, adding he wants U.S. funds to be slanted more toward diplomacy and Iraq reconstruction…
When you think about it, this must be quite a sacrifice on John Murtha's part.
Any cut in Defense spending probably takes money out of his and his defense lobbyist brother's pocket.
Still, by now Mr. Murtha must have found other sources of largess, such as MoveOn and George Soros.
Hey, maybe there are even some Arabs involved, like in the good old days. |
