Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA), the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, is again standing up for our armed forces and our national defense:

“I will be recommending to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense that we begin extensive hearings starting on January 17, 2007 that will address accountability, military readiness, intelligence oversight and the activities of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We will be demanding substantive answers to questions that have gone unanswered for far too long.

The war in Iraq and its effect on our military and our nation’s future remains the most crucial issue facing the new Congress. I will be recommending an aggressive pursuit of action that will allow us to reduce our military presence in Iraq at the soonest practicable date.”

Murtha, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, is planning to hold wide-ranging hearings, starting January 17th, that will focus on the depleted state of our military readiness , as well as contractor corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal is to turn the spotlight on how drained the military has become, and on how any talk of a troop surge is utterly irresponsible (as well as strategically misguided). “The public,” he said repeatedly, “is already ahead of us on all this.”

He says he wants to “fence the funding,” denying the president the resources to escalate the war, instead using the money to take care of the soldiers as we bring them home from Iraq “as soon as we can.”

More than a year ago Congressman Murtha, who has enormous credibility on defense issues, said what the Pentagon generals couldn’t say for themselves in public– that there is nothing more the USA can accomplish militarily in Iraq. As you might expect Bush surrogates, few of whom ever served in the armed forces, began an immediate and sustained smear campaign questioning his patriotism and even his character. Karl Rove and RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman accused the 30-year Marine combat veteran of “cutting and running.”* Congresswoman Jean Schmidt (R-OH) called Murtha a coward during House debate (he earned a Bronze Star for valor and two Purple Hearts in Vietnam). Shameless GOP operatives even tried to swiftboat him. Congressman Murtha took the heat for criticizing the Iraq fiasco– he probably deserves another medal for political courage, if there was such a thing. Democrats were slow to rally around him, but when they did it paid off at the polls.

Also next week Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will begin nine days of hearings on the Iraq war.  He believes top officials in the Bush administration have privately concluded they have lost Iraq and are simply trying to postpone disaster.

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* Ironically, the before it acquired a pejorative connotation the phrase “cut and run” originated as a nautical term. By cutting the anchor cable, it’s possible to make sail right away and save the ship from danger.