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reclaiming my time, I just worry when we do something like this prospectively, we might affect what is going on in the field. None of us want to stop a contract for services to the troops in the field right now, and I think you agree with…
Our military has done everything that has been asked of them. The U.S. cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. It's time to bring the troops home.
The words ``torture,'' ``cruelty'' and ``abuse'' elicit images of draconian and brutal dictatorship. These words are reserved for the worst of human rights offenders. It should never include the United States of America. The United States…
We can't force a democracy on them. They're for democracy, they're against occupation.
We have spent $277 billion in this deployment. We have $50 billion sitting on the table. They're going ask for another $100 billion next year.
77 percent of the people in the surrounding countries, that is Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, say there is more chance of democracy if the United States gets out.
I'm saying they won't kill Americans, Heidi. And I'm saying that they'll be less terrorism, less instability, in Iraq.
I'll tell you what I say, Heidi, to an answer to that, the president confuses terrorism with insurgency. Terrorism is what we have in Afghanistan. Terrorism is what we had in The Towers, in London, in Spain. This is an insurgency.
We can't sustain the deployment we have. If something happens in Korea, if something happens in Iran, we -- we couldn't deploy and stay over there for any length of time, because we don't have the troops.
I haven't seen the progress President Bush talks about and I want the troops out as soon as possible.
We didn't get up to pre-war level in oil production. Today, they say we're making progress. I mean, I can only measure progress by what I see in the things that I can actually measure.
The politicians in Washington, the president of the United States, has to make a decision here. And his plan is not a plan. It is all rhetoric.
Murtha, a Vietnam vet and Democrat, says the troops should leave Iraq within six months.
This is his resolution. The first encounter with the casualties in this war, I had two young widows come to my office. They wanted to go to Walter Reed because they had lost their husband and they wanted to talk to the soldiers and tell…
Let me read another letter. ``In 2004, my youngest son graduated from college and was already enrolled in the Marines. He was ready to help our country and others in whatever was asked of him. It was with great distress that we have…
I will tell you what hurts the morale of the troops in the field is when they go to field with inadequate number of troops, when they go to field with inadequate equipment, when they go into the field unprepared.
I think that the military, once we pull out, we no longer unify them against us.
What -- I have come to the conclusion, after being in Iraq two months ago, listening to the commanders who say we don't have adequate forces to carry out our mission.
Reducing the size and visibility of the coalition forces in Iraq is part of our counterinsurgency strategy.
We're not winning. We can't win with the number of troops we have. So, the alternative is, we should get out of there, because we are becoming the target. We're making the situation worse.
He had an exit strategy. President Bush I said, I am not going to go into Iraq, because I don't want to occupy it and I don't want to reconstruct it. President Bush II said, I have no exit strategy. Victory. Winning. That's not a strategy.
It's evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interests of the United States of America, the Iraqi people, or the Persian Gulf region.
All of Iraq must know that Iraq is free, free from the United States' occupation. I believe this will send a signal to the Sunnis to join the political process for a good and free Iraq.
Our military is suffering. The future of our country is at risk. We cannot continue on the present course.
Politicians like John Murtha
