“The public is already ahead of us on all thisâ€
You may recognize the quote above. It’s what Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) has said in practically every interview for the last 15 months, whenever he talks about his plan for redeployment of U.S. forces out of Iraq. By implication, he is chiding his congressional colleagues and the news media for being too slow to adjust their preconceptions and having a propensity to ignore the will of the people.
Now that Murtha is moving to attach restrictions to funding the Bush administration’s escalation policy, he has forced the issue to the point where the Washington Post/ABC News poll has finally asked the question (item #9 on the poll):
Would you support or oppose Congress trying to block Bush’s plan by creating new rules on troop training and rest time that would limit the number of troops available for duty in Iraq?
Support: 58 percent
Oppose: 39 percent
Unknown: 4 percent
The public may be ahead, but the media still lags behind. Think Progress, under the heading “Braindead Media,” points out that the Washington Post didn’t include the results shown above in their own article about their own poll.
Who else is lagging behind? Our very own Rep. Jim Matheson says: “If this is going to be legislation that’s crafted in such a way that holds back resources from our troops, that is a non-starter, an absolute non-starter.” Where does he get his talking points? Fox News?
The new website MoveCongress.org has a video briefing from Rep. Murtha, in case Matheson or his staff want to familiarize themselves with this proposal, which is merely intended to stop the Bush administration from deploying units to Iraq until they are combat-ready.
In my fantasy, my congressional representative says “that is a non-starter, an absolute non-starter,” only he says it in October 2002 when Bush wants authorization to invade Iraq!
UPDATE #1: Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to abandon Murtha, adding substance to the media’s theme of Democrats in disarray. Pelosi said she supports holding the administration to training and readiness targets, but added: “I don’t see them as conditions to our funding. Let me be very clear: Congress will fund our troops.”
UPDATE #2: Meanwhile, due to political pressures to get more units to Iraq ASAP, two Army brigades will have to skip normally-required desert combat training at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California.
UPDATE #3: Tom Andrews, the head of Win Without War, has some friendly advice for the Democrats: stop being wimps and tell everyone who’s to blame for the sorry state of our ground forces. “The Republicans should be on their heels,” Andrews says. “They have put the troops in these conditions — and they’re the ones on the offensive!”
UPDATE #4: There’s a new poll from Fox News (!) that shows the public split evenly on defunding the occupation of Iraq.
If you were a member of Congress, would you vote for continued funding of the Iraq war or would you vote against funding the war altogether to try to force a withdrawal?
For Against (Don’t know) Total 45% 46% 9% Democrats 19% 72% 9% Republicans 82% 15% 3% Independents 44% 40% 16%
February 26th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Why does a majority of the American people hate America?!? How can so many of them agree with the rest of the world? Further proof that they must all be wrong!
February 26th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Listen Bukko, do you live here? Have you grown up here? If you haven’t then you do not know what has already been lost.
Tell me how old you are, that will give me some context for further discussion. Our rights and freedoms are being eroded. If you are from the dominion of england then you have had that boot up your ass so long, you might not realize what freedoms we Americans used to have, and want back, and will have again.
February 27th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Richard,
Very interesting. I didn’t do my homework on this one. When the issue has to do with troop training and rest, I becoming totally in favor of it. I was deployed twice, but only once overseas. I met some Marines who were on their 3rd (7-month) tour. It gets to be a burden on people’s families after a while that is hard to take.
The conspiracy theorist in me wonders whether Bush and his string-pullers are trying to decimate the US military. But then again, it was supposed to be EASY, right? ;-)
February 27th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Frank, you know what they say– nothing is impossible for the man who doesn’t have to do it himself. President Bush, Dick Cheney, and the neocons were unaware of the enormous problems of fighting two wars on the other side of the planet (I wonder if they even get it now, after years of bad decisions). Our armed forces do their jobs so well they may make it look easy, but it ain’t easy as you know!
March 8th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
[…] the Democrats on Capitol Hill have ditched the popular plan offered by Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and have gone to their own Plan B at the insistence of “Blue Dog” Dems like Rep. […]