John Murtha: This Administration has again given the American people a false choice.

I do not agree with some of John Murtha's positions on social issues or the environment, but regarding his disdain for Shrub's Iraq war policies - I think he is 100% right on! The full text of the speech he gave yesterday to the National Press Club is well worth the read. Kudos to Congressman Murtha for consistently having the guts, smarts, and experience to tell the BushCo regime exactly what arrogant fools they have been executing a reckless and immoral war.

:kick:

* * * * * * *

Murtha’s Remarks to the National Press Club
September 17, 2007

<snip>

A week ago on a Sunday talk show, a reporter expounded on a personal moment with the President in the White House when she asked him, “Mr. President, how do you continue to press forward when the war is so unpopular and things seem to be going so wrong in Iraq?” The President responded, “Because I am right.”

Right about what Mr. President?

Right about weapons of mass destruction?

Right about Saddam’s involvement in 9-11?

Right about mission accomplished?

Right about thinking he could fight this war on the cheap?

Right at the ease at which Iraq could be transformed into a pillar of democracy?

We’ve heard the rhetoric, now let me talk about the facts.

To date, there have been more than 3,700 Americans killed in Iraq. For every American soldier that dies, 9 are wounded, many with catastrophic trauma with long term effects. This translates into an additional expenditure of $350 to $700 billion in medical and disability costs to veterans, not to mention the suffering of countless thousands of American families for years to come.

We on the appropriations committee required the Defense Department to submit status reports on Iraq beginning in the fall of 2003. From these reports, I have seen no progress. At least 70,000 Iraqi civilians have died since the beginning of the war, with many believing the numbers are actually in the hundreds of thousands. Two million Sunni Arabs have left the country, mostly to Jordan and Syria and many of them members of the educated middle-class. An additional two million have been internally displaced in what I believe is ethnic cleansing.


full text of speech here:

http://www.house.gov/list/press/pa12_murtha/npcremarks.html

when he got stepped on by Squeaker in his attempt to be elected Speaker of the House. We wouldn't be arguing about impeachment "off the table."

:patriot: