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.
Rep. Sam Johnson, Texas Republican, who served 29 years in the Air Force and spent seven years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said seeing Mr. Murtha’s comments left him afraid that American politicians would abandon the troops the way they withdrew support for an American presence in Vietnam and left prisoners of war behind.
“We left them there in Cambodia and Laos, because of the quitters in the United States Congress,” he said.
Yesterday afternoon, the Senate voted 95-3 to confirm Mr. Negroponte as ambassador to Iraq, with Democratic Sens. Mark Dayton of Minnesota, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Tom Harkin of Iowa voting against him.
The House, meanwhile, passed a resolution deploring the reports of abuses, 365-50, with 49 Democrats and one Republican voting against it.
Even though most of them voted for it, Democrats objected because the resolution didn’t call for a specific congressional investigation and didn’t include rebuke for civilian contractors who are involved in interrogations and might have been involved in abuses.
House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer said a full investigation is needed to make sure those at the top of the military chain of command are examined.
“Let us be clear: The buck should not — and it must not — stop with a 20-year-old enlisted man or woman who may well have thought they were acting within the framework of a psychology that permitted them to demean and deny basic decency of treatment to detainees,” said the Maryland Democrat, who voted against the resolution.
And even Democratic supporters said it should have gone further.
“If we are worth our salt, if we are up to the powers the Constitution invested in us, we must conduct our own investigation,” said Rep. John M. Spratt Jr., South Carolina Democrat. “I support [the resolution], I’ll vote for it, but I think it should be more emphatic, more outrage.”
Mr. DeLay, though, said the resolution read exactly right, emphasizing both a rebuke and support for the rest of the troops.
“It is therefore incumbent on this body to offer the support for our troops and their mission, all the more strongly today,” Mr. DeLay said.
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