Posted on 06/18/2006 5:09:56 PM PDT by wagglebee
Commenting on Karl Rove's remarks in a speech in New Hampshire where he charged that Democrats are "wrong, profoundly wrong" in wanting to cut and run in Iraq, an increasingly rabid anti-war Congressman John Murtha resorted to a personal attack on Rove on Sunday.
"He's in New Hampshire, he's making a political speech. He's sitting in his air-conditioned office on his big fat backside saying, 'Stay the course,'" said Murtha, D-Pa., in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Obviously rattled by criticism from Rove, Murtha said: "I disagree completely with what he's saying. We need to change direction. We can't win a war like this. This guy's sitting back ... getting paid by the public taxpayer and he's saying to us that we're winning this war ... we've got to change direction. You can't sit there in the air-conditioned office and tell the troops fighting in Iraq that we have to stay the course.
Despite recent gains in Iraq, Murtha insisted the U.S. is losing the war in Iraq. When told by "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert that Rove had told the New Hampshire audience that "if Murtha had his way, American troops would have been gone by the end of April" and American forces wouldn't have killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Murtha downplayed the importance of killing the top terrorist in Iraq, saying dismissively: "They built Zarqawi up, they have a thousand foreign fighters" -- that the intelligence "came from the outside" and that all the U.S. did was bomb his hideout and kill him.
Turning to his own plan for cutting and running, Murtha became increasing irrational, suggesting that U.S. troops there be redeployed outside of Iraq yet close enough to be ready to go back in if the situation required it. When pressed by Russert to say where the troops could be deployed if neighboring countries refuse to accept their presence, as Rove had has said, he suggested they could be set to Okinawa, Japan, which is 5,000 miles from Baghdad.
"We don't have to be right there, Murtha said. "We can go to Okinawa. We could redeploy there instantly."
that's a "chicken or the egg?" question ;o)
Being an Army retiree and not living in Murtha's district, I would have no occasion to try to contact him. I would like to see all current and former service members refuse to acknowledge Murtha's existence and ignore his calls, letters and any other forms of communication. In my estimation, he should be dropped from the rolls and all of his service records destroyed.
Obviously old addled brain is confusing Okinawa and Diego Garcia.
I'm sure DG would love to be home to 150K troops.
Yes, it's absolutely idiotic to talk about a vast infusion of forces into Okinawa, even if all the logistical, transportation, training, and other issues could magically be resolved - not to mention that Okinawa is NOT "next door" to the Persian Gulf but close to 8,000 miles when we have to fly and sail around Asia, not through it. If we announced even one or two new brigades were going to show up in Okinawa, never mind several entire DIVISIONS, we would have a political meltdown crisis of major proportions between local Okinawan officials, their national government in Tokyo, and our people who have been trying to resolve existing tensions over our bases there. The fact that Murtha doesn not understand that his idea is a complete non-starter on every level shows just what kind of an 'expert' he really is.........
Muthra still reliving Viet Nam, when we did withdraw our forces to Okinawa.
ROTFL!!
Sounds to me like Mousie Murtha doesn't have a plan. He needs a plan! You just can't surrender without a plan.
Bingo. Okinawa to Baghdad....and this guy thinks he is a military expert? He's an idiot.
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