On Murtha: As If This Were Really New

Thanks to The Corner, we have the essential context for today's Pro-Defense Democrat Calls for Immediate Troop Withdrawal. It is hard to imagine a more irresponsible proposal, but there are many on the left so don't hold me to that. What better way to guarantee a terrorist victory than announce, as Murtha proposes, an immediate cut-and-run to be completed within six months? Shame.

But I digress. Murtha's been on this road for well more than a year, something the Post's William Branign declines to mention. Statements he made May 6, 2004 were being celebrated at Democratic Underground. As the teaser at The Hill excerpted there shows:

Signaling a new, more aggressive line against the Bush administration’s policy on Iraq, Rep. John Murtha (Pa.), the House Democrats’ most visible defense hawk, will join Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) today to make public his previously private statements that the conflict is “unwinnable.”

Democrats’ new approach came as lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol grappled with how to respond to stunning photos of Iraqi prisoners being abused and braced for debate over a $25 billion additional appropriation for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pelosi’s most trusted ally on military issues and a senior defense appropriator, Murtha, a Vietnam veteran, sent a shockwave through the Caucus when he told Members at a leader’s luncheon Tuesday that under the current Bush administration course the United States cannot win the war in Iraq. Murtha’s comments — characterized as angrier and more discouraged than in the past — came on the heels of recently released photos of Iraqi prisoners posed by U.S. soldiers in degrading positions.

This just in: Democrat who called war unwinnable 18 months ago calls for immediate withdrawal.

Comments

[Crazy Politico]

I tracked this back to a post on Joe Lieberman's Nov. 15th comments on the Senate Floor, something that wasn't covered by the Post anywhere that I could find.