John Murtha

But I think in light of the recession and the economic difficulties we are facing it is not a good idea to pass legislation driving American industrial production back to the levels of 1920 at a time of potentially an economic depression.

The Iraqi leaders are not stepping up to unit and rebuild the country.

I think that is a perfect example of the way things work. When we see something that we think is not as valuable as something else is, we change it.

Let me just mention to the gentleman, 85 of the 90 members of the RSC receive, RSC which you just mentioned, receive earmarks in this total of this $436 million.

In this particular case we are looking for is sensors to protect against the type of thing that happened in Yemen with the USS Cole. We have a lot of people working on this, and we hope that we will be able to develop a system that will…

Let me tell you, we have added, we have added all kinds of money for body armor, for paint, for the gentleman from Ohio, predecessors, one of your predecessors was always looking for new ways, new developments. Small business has been the…

Every one of these earmarks are competitively granted under the regulations of the Defense Department. We depend on them to competitively check them over, and they do.

I don't represent Sherwin-Williams. I don't know what paint company you represent, but we know they are a very qualified contractor.

Let me mention to the gentleman, we have a $459 billion bill. We look at every one. We ask the Members to vet them. Our staff vets them. We go over every single earmark. We don't apologize for them because we think the Members know as much…

This is a very worthwhile project. Let me say to the gentleman, you see the number of hearings we have had, and the number of earmarks. Our staff went over every one of these earmarks very carefully. It's not on our highest priority list…

You can see the hearings we've had on this issue. We felt that the missile defense cuts we made were because of schedule more than anything else, and I appreciate your determination to put it in. We'll take another look at conference, but…

Let me say, I see the Vice President has gone to Iraq to urge the Iraqis not to take a 2-month vacation. I mean, we have got to put some pressure on them. It hasn't been working. I mean, I see the Vice President also said, he said they…

Let me just say that the Revolutionary War, my great- great-grandfather fought in it. We fought our own war. In the Civil War, I have my great-grandfather's hat in my office. He fought against the South in the Civil War. We fought our own…

The gentleman has to realize, we put it in. They didn't ask for much of this. I found the 44,000 shortage of body armor. I found the shortage of Humvees. We came back, and we put it in. Bill Young, Jerry Lewis and I put it in. The Armed…

In Kosovo we had 30,000 sorties. We never lost one person to combat in Kosovo. Let me read the figures for you in 2001. All active duty Army divisions were rated highest readiness level. Do you know what they are today? Almost all are…

One of the Members said, how many less Iraqis have been killed? I don't know how many less Iraqis we killed. I know 62 individual American soldiers or marines have been killed this last month. I want to say about equipment, I have got a…

Well, that's exactly what I said a year ago. And I said, we couldn't win it militarily. And I've said, they -- they have been mischaracterizing and misstating this war for the last two years.

The president kept talking about the last election being a mandate for him to go forward in Iraq. Well, this election was the opposite. This election was for -- to re -- redeploy the troops and my plan, which is the opposite of his plan…

Absolutely. All the polls that I see, credibility has gone down to well below 50 percent. We have lost credibility in all the periphery. We've lost credibility in Europe. Everybody I talk to, every poll that I see shows the United States…

Winning is not a strategy. Victory's not a strategy. Democracy's not a strategy. That's a goal.

I think the military leaders have lost complete confidence in this secretary. He didn't listen to people. He didn't ask for suggestions. He went to war when we didn't have a national security threat.

The policy, of course, comes from the White House. It doesn't come from the secretary of defense. So just changing the secretary of defense doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to get a change in direction.

The voters have made a difference. There's no question in my mind. I've been on 140-some shows in the last year talking about a number of things in Iraq -- mismanagement, mischaracterization, overly rosy picture.

Let me take back the time. I agree with that. I agree. And I think there are sufficient safeguards in the program already. We are in a bad situation here, Mr. Chairman. I don't know that I can say any more.