Democrat says Bush war doomed

A key House Democrat said yesterday the way President Bush is pursuing the war in Iraq makes it “unwinnable,” drawing a stern rebuke from Republicans who said Democrats essentially declared victory for terrorists.

“The direction’s got to be changed or it’s unwinnable, in my estimation,” said Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a Vietnam veteran and the widely respected top Democrat on the military subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. Mr. Murtha said the United States must either commit tens of thousands more troops and spend the money to supply and retrain them, or pull out of Iraq.

“I was struggling with this for six weeks, trying to figure out something else to do. And the only conclusion I can come to is either mobilize or get out,” he said, speaking alongside House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, who invited him to her weekly press briefing. “So far, I’d prefer the mobilization side of it. Of course, that would take a lot more money and would be very difficult to accomplish.”

Yesterday was a gut-check day for Congress on Iraq as lawmakers faced a growing series of questions and charges over prisoner abuse, the Senate approved the nomination of John D. Negroponte to be the first ambassador to Iraq since the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the House voted to approve a resolution that deplores the reports of abuse but doesn’t call for a specific congressional investigation, and committees on both sides of the Capitol prepared to hear from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today.

Republicans said the day also marked a turn in the political backdrop for the war.

“In a calculated and craven political stunt, the national Democrat Party declared its surrender in the war on terror,” said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican. “But at least — or perhaps, at most — the Washington Democrats finally have taken a position on the war. And that position — that baseless, partisan, shocking position — is that American troops aren’t up to the job.”

He also said it will embolden Iraqi insurgents and terrorists: “It tells our enemies that if it’s unwinnable to us, it’s winnable to them.”

Mr. Murtha said he does not think the war in Iraq is lost, but he did not sound confident that it can be saved.

Still, he also said bringing in more international forces, something advocated by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, in particular, “can’t happen.”

“You know, talk about internationalizing this — when you don’t have security, it ain’t going to happen,” he said. “That’s all there is to it. You’re not going to get anybody coming in at all. You don’t see these countries clamoring to come in there to help us like they said they were going to, like the administration said.”

Mr. Murtha first told some House Democrats on Tuesday that he was concerned about the direction of the war, then joined Mrs. Pelosi yesterday to go public with his worries. He said he finally decided he had no recourse after months of sending letters to the Defense Department and White House and getting an inadequate response.

“That’s the way they treat Congress — with absolute arrogance, pay no attention to the suggestions that are made by Congress,” he said.

Mr. Murtha, respected on both sides of the aisle, was an early and staunch supporter of committing troops to Iraq, although he has advocated a higher level of U.S. troop commitment and financial support. That’s why his comments drew the attention of both parties.

And although he gave the stark remarks yesterday, Republicans focused on Mrs. Pelosi, saying that she gave him the forum of her weekly briefing in order to inject politics into national security.

“The real story here is there are those who see a political opportunity and are polarizing this,” said Rep. Steve Buyer, Indiana Republican and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, who said a war cannot be fought with 435 members of the House and 100 senators trying to micromanage strategy and troop levels.

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