A senior House Democrat, Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, said the prison scandal is an outgrowth of the administration's failing policy in Iraq. Murtha said that unless U.S. strategy changes, the war in Iraq isn't winnable. He said he has been writing Rumsfeld for months and meeting with him to complain that the 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq are under- trained, poorly equipped and inadequately led, but has been stonewalled. "We cannot prevail in our policy today. We either have to mobilize or get out,'' said Murtha, who called for increasing the force in Iraq to 200,000, perhaps even by reinstating the draft. "I'm going to support the troops, but I'm going to tell them (the administration) to change course,'' added Murtha, a Marine Vietnam veteran.
Republicans responded in this way:
>"In a calculated, craven political stunt, the national Democrat >Party has declared surrender in the war on terrorism,'' DeLay said. "They want to win the White House more than they want to win the war, and our enemies know it.''
Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., a veteran of 25 years in the Marines, >said, "I was furious'' with Murtha. "Because when that message gets out to our forces they won't feel love and support. They'll feel betrayal.''
The denunciation of Murtha even reached the Senate floor. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said Murtha's statement "doesn't just demoralize American troops. I fear it emboldens America's enemies.''
Now it would seem to me that these statements of Messrs. Delay, Kline and Coleman would apply even more if the President of the US were to declare that a war was un-winnable, but the hypocrites have been silent.
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