Time to Bring Troops Home 

GEOFF ELLIOTT / The Australian 18nov05

Washington - THE debate over the Iraq war escalated in the US yesterday when, for the first time, a congressman in Washington called for the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

John Murtha — a war veteran and Democrat leader in the House of Representatives for defence policy, who strongly supported the decision to go to war — said the presence of US troops was inflaming the insurgency and heightening the terror threat. "The US cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. It is time to bring them home," Mr Murtha said. "Our troops have become the primary target of the insurgency. We have become a catalyst for violence."

He estimated that a withdrawal would take about six months.

Mr Murtha, who sits on a house subcommittee that oversees defence spending, is one of his party's leading commentators on military issues. His comments follow weeks of intensifying debate in the US over Iraq amid increasing partisan mud-slinging and signs of division within the Republican Party, too.

The White House has launched a campaign to try to wrest back the agenda on Iraq in an extraordinary week in which Republicans in Congress started to assert authority over the Bush administration on the war.

While not calling for a timeline for withdrawal, Republicans in the Senate voted for a resolution that 2006 be a year of "significant transition" for the transfer of authority to Iraqi forces.

The move is being seen as providing some political cover for an increasingly unpopular war ahead of mid-term congressional elections in November next year.

Mr. Murtha's call did not win any endorsements from leading Democrats yesterday.

John Kerry, last year's presidential contender, who voted in favour of the war but who has since admitted that was a mistake, said rather than an immediate withdrawal, a timetable for successful handover was required.

"You set out a timetable not for withdrawal, but for success that allows you to withdraw," he said. "And I believe if you do the right things, and I've laid out what they are, we can bring the bulk of our combat troops home over the course of next year."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan compared Mr. Murtha to Michael Moore, the producer of the anti Iraq war film Fahrenheit 9/11. Mr McClellan said that Mr Murtha was a respected veteran and politician, "so it is baffling he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic Party".

"The eve of a historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists. After seeing his statement, we remain baffled. Nowhere does he explain how retreating from Iraq makes America safer," he said.

Mr. Murtha, referring to polls suggesting that more than 60per cent of Americans think the Iraq war a mistake, said: "The American public is way ahead of the members of Congress".

In Congress since 1974, Mr. Murtha also sarcastically referred to the so-called draft deferments that helped keep Vice-President Dick Cheney out of Vietnam.

"I like guys who got five deferments and (have) never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done," Mr. Murtha said.

Mr. Cheney came out swinging this week on Democrat criticism that they had been misled on the intelligence ahead of the Iraq war, saying Democrats in Congress had had access to the same intelligence the administration had when the decision was made.

"The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone, but we're not going to let them rewrite history," Mr Cheney said. "The suggestion that's been made by some US senators — that the President or any member of this administration purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence — is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city."

source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,17290549,00.html 18nov2005