Battle lines form over withdrawing troops - (MSNBC)

Battle lines form over withdrawing troops
Kerry vows to defend Murtha; commander says ‘job is not done’

Updated: 2:09 p.m. ET Nov. 18, 2005
WASHINGTON - A U.S. field commander in Iraq countered calls by a usually pro-military congressman for withdrawal of Americans fighting there Friday, while Democrats defended Rep. John Murtha as a patriot even as they declined to back his view.

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The withdrawal demand by Murtha, a veteran Pennsylvania Democrat, lent more intensity to the increasingly hot Iraq debate. Some members of the House and Senate, looking ahead to off-year elections next November, are publicly worrying about a quagmire there.

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Kerry comes to defense
“I won’t stand for the swift-boating of Jack Murtha,” Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, responded Friday. Also a Vietnam veteran, Kerry was dogged during the campaign by a group called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that challenged his war record.

“There is no sterner stuff than the backbone and courage that defines Jack Murtha’s character and conscience,” Kerry said.

For his part, Kerry has proposed a phased exit from Iraq, starting with the withdrawal of 20,000 troops after December elections in Iraq. A Kerry spokesman said “he has his own plan” when asked if Kerry agreed with immediate withdrawal.

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With a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts, Murtha retired from the Marine Corps reserves as a colonel in 1990 after 37 years as a Marine, only a few years longer than he’s been in Congress. Elected in 1974, Murtha has become known as an authority on national security whose advice was sought out by Republican and Democratic administrations alike.

Murtha’s shift from an early war backer to a critic advocating withdrawal reflects plummeting public support for a war that has cost more than $200 billion and led to the deaths of more than 2,000 U.S. troops.