Take a look at the army we have, Mr. Rumsfeld

And the war you wanted.

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The Defense Department's repair bill for dilapidated and destroyed equipment, weapons and vehicle is expected to exceed $100 billion this year. But if it settles the behemoth bill, the military may place in peril its plans to increase the size of the nation's armed forces.

Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the House panel that oversees defense spending, blamed the rush to upgrade the military's equipment and facilities to the failure of Pentagon to plan for a long and costly Iraq war. The Defense Department wants to bolster the size of the military with 92,000 new soldiers and Marines.

To pay the $100 billion plus military repair bill, Pentagon has no choice except to cut on its personnel budget, Murtha said.

The Bush administration's war of choice. Their quagmire. Their blunder. Bush's legacy.

I've found John McCain's campaign song!!

Murtha agrees with me.

Murtha gets to the root of the problem

It's Georgie. Murtha:

In short, our military has been forced to do too much with too little. Our military readiness has deteriorated to levels not seen since Vietnam and our ability to fight future threats is severely compromised. Yet the president refuses to address this most vital issue.

In reaction to the disastrous manner in which the president has run the war, Congress passed the Iraq Accountability Act in both houses. This bill provides resources to address the readiness problem, puts the onus on the Iraqi Government to internally solve its own civil war and provides the beginnings of a safe and responsible return of our United States forces from Iraq.

The Constitution expressly places the power 'to raise and support Armies,' and 'to provide and maintain a Navy' with Congress. It is, therefore, Congress' responsibility to raise the revenues for our military and to determine in what manner and by what means they shall be spent.

For four years, the president has been waging a war without end and without accountability. The Iraq Accountability Act expresses the sentiment of the Congress and the majority of the American people who say it's time for a plan to safely and responsibly end the war.

No wonder Preznit Pretzels is pouting. He's not been held accountable for anything his entire life. Why on earth should he start now?

I mean, really! What on earth does the Congress think it's doing?

Pelosi to Cheney: Up Yours!

Think Progress:

Pelosi beats back Cheney smear.
Vice President Cheney today on Iraq redeployment: “I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we’ll do is validate the al Qaeda strategy.” Pelosi responds: “Vice President Cheney continues to question the patriotism of those of us in Congress who challenge the Bush Administration’s misguided policies in Iraq, but his latest attack is beneath the office of the Vice President, especially at a time of war.”

Murtha's plan:

Give the money for troops but limit the extentions:

...Democratic leaders have rallied around a strategy that would fully fund the president's $100 billion request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but would limit his ability to use the money.

Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense, will formally outline the Democrats' plan today to antiwar groups agitating for binding action against the war. Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a subcommittee member who helped arrange the Internet event, said the plan is aimed at tamping down calls from the Democrats' liberal wing for Congress to simply end funding for the war.

The Murtha plan, based on existing military guidelines, includes a stipulation that Army troops who have already served in Iraq must be granted two years at home before an additional deployment, Marines must be given 14 months at home, and any troops sent to Iraq must be those deemed fully trained and equipped under existing military standards. The idea is to slowly choke off the war by stopping the deployment of troops from units that have been badly degraded by four years of combat.

"They won't be able to deploy troops unless they extend troops overseas. And if we limit the extension, then it'll be very difficult for them to continue this surge, which the American people are against and the Iraqis don't want," Murtha said yesterday on National Public Radio.

Pelosi and Murtha in Iraq

Holy cow! Is there no stopping this woman? Cleaning up Congress in 100 hours and now she's over in Iraq!

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. John Murtha, both vocal war critics, were in the Iraqi capital Friday at the head of a delegation of House members on a fact-finding mission as the White House and Congress dueled over the expansion of U.S. forces in Iraq.

The Pelosi delegation visited the heavily fortified Green Zone, site of the American Embassy, and met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"We come out of the meeting with a greater understanding of the others' point of view," Pelosi, D-Calif., said, in brief remarks after the meeting.

Pelosi has been a sharp critic of the Bush administration's conduct of the war and has led a drive in Congress against sending 21,500 more troops as part of a new security crackdown in Baghdad.

In Washington on Friday, President Bush challenged skeptical lawmakers not to prematurely condemn his buildup, saying "I'm the decision-maker."

Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat and Vietnam veteran, has been a longtime critic of the war.

Bush can't listen to Congress

until they get him to get his fingers out of his ears and stop singing. Murtha speaks plainly, but I'd keep an eye on his right hook if I were you, Georgie-boy.

Nobody says no to the boy king's Big Surge!

Nobody!


Damn it! I said Nobody!.... that means you, Pelosi and Murtha!

(Pic hijacked from First Draft.)

Murtha: Standing up for the troops

and facing down Bush:
"As always with Murtha, the first thing he wants to talk about is the state of our troops -- both in Iraq and when they return home wounded (and all-too-often neglected). He's particularly distressed about the way the last Congress cut funding for the treatment of traumatic brain injuries, which have been dubbed "the signature injury of the Iraq war." Murtha is a regular visitor to Washington's Walter Reed hospital, headquarters for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, and has seen first-hand the devastation wrought by these kinds of injuries.

When we asked about the likelihood of the president sending additional troops to Iraq, Murtha was adamant. "The only way you can have a troop surge," he told us, "is to extend the tours of people whose tours have already been extended, or to send back people who have just gotten back home." He explained at length how our military forces are already stretched to the breaking point, with our strategic reserve so depleted we are unprepared to face any additional threats to the country. So does that mean there will be no surge? Murtha offered us a "with Bush anything is possible" look, then said: "Money is the only way we can stop it for sure."

To this end, Murtha, the incoming Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, is planning to hold wide-ranging hearings, starting January 17th, that will focus on the depleted state of our military readiness , as well as contractor corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal is to turn the spotlight on how drained the military has become, and on how any talk of a troop surge is utterly irresponsible (as well as strategically misguided). "The public," he said repeatedly, "is already ahead of us on all this.

He says he wants to "fence the funding," denying the president the resources to escalate the war, instead using the money to take care of the soldiers as we bring them home from Iraq "as soon as we can."

Murtha's passion for our troops and the families they've left behind is palpable, and has left him energized and ready to, once again, lead the charge on Iraq."

The Big Surge will bring more Hadithas

We can't tell our soldiers to hate the Iraqis, the evil-doers, the Islamofascists, the ragheads, and all the other distancing descriptions to make the 'other' seem less human; then misuse and abuse the soldiers with endless tours of duty, no exit strategy, no noble cause without triggering a 'berserker' mode where frightened soldiers go on a murderous campaign.

Blue Texan at Unclaimed Territory:
"The warbloggers shrieked and screamed at Murtha (Powerline later called him "disgusting" and Michelle Malkin accused him of "hanging the Marines"), and of course propped up the Great Leader. But in their frantic demonizing of Murtha and the media they never bothered to ask this critical question about Haditha: why were the Marines there? Why were Marines getting blown up by IEDs and knocking down civilian doors in Anbar, almost three years after “Mission Accomplished”?

We should remember that the cretins (as Chris Matthews called them earlier this week) who put those guys in that terrible situation are just as responsible for Haditha as the men on the ground. If you put overstressed combat soldiers in an untenable situation, bad things happen. John Murtha, who was a Marine for 37 years, understood that. The warbloggers like Mobius Dick, who'’ve never served, still don'’t."