Russert: But first, Iraq.
Joining us now is Democratic Congressman
John Murtha. Welcome back to Meet
the Press.
Murtha: Nice to be back
here.
Russert: The President says,
"Stay the course"; that within the next
six months, Iraq will be secure under
the direction of the new Prime Minister;
and to anything less now would be
irresponsible.
Murtha: Well, stay the course is
stay and pay. And this is the thing
that has worried me right along. We're
spending $8 billion a month, $300
million a day. And to give you some
perspective of what that means, Gates
said, "I'm going to quite the
corporation," or "I'm going to..." --
less time in the corporation. [He
would] give away $30 billion. That's
four months of this...cost of this war.
This port security -- if you want to
spend more money, it'd take 47 years the
way we're spending it. Education -- the
No Child Left Behind -- a couple months
of the war would pay for that. Who's
gonna...who's gonna pay for this down
the road? I'll children and
grandchildren are paying for this war.
And then you have the...the...the
emotional strain, the...the...the people
who are being hurt.
On
the floor the other day -- you may have
heard this -- one fella says, uh, "We're
fighting this war." We're not fighting
this war. One percent of the American
people, these young men and women, are
fighting this war with heavy packs, with
seventy pounds of equipment, with
helmets on in...in 130 degrees. That's
who's fighting this war. And they stay,
"Stay the course."
There's no plan! You open up this plan
for victory. There's no plan there.
It's just, "Stay the course." That
doesn't solve any problem. It's worse
today than it was six months ago when I
spoke out initially. When I spoke out,
uh, the garbage wasn't being collected,
oil production below pre-War level --
all those things indicated to me we
weren't winning this, and...and it's the
same today, if not worse.
Anbar province, there's not one project
but one in Anbar province. Two million
people live there. They have no water
at all, no oil production. They have no
electricity at all in that province
where is...is the heartland of the
defense. The first six months we went
in there, no...there...not a shot was
fired. So it shows you how it's
changed. It's getting worse. That's
why I feel so strongly.
All of us know how important it is
internationally to win this war. We
know how important. We import 20
million barrels of oil a day. We use 20
million barrels of oil. We know how
important...international community.
But we're doing it all ourself [sic],
and there's no plan that makes sense.
We need to have more international
cooperation, we need to redeploy our
troops, the periphery.
What happened with Zarqawi could have
been done, uh, from the outside...it was
done from the outside. Our planes went
in from the outside. So there's no
reason in the world that they can't
redeploy the troops. They've become
targets; they're caught in civil war.
And I feel very strongly about it.
Russert: You sure do,
Congressman. But so does the White
House. Karl Rove, the principal
political advisor to the President, went
to New Hampshire on Monday, and he
talked about Democrats who voted for the
war, and who have now changed their
opinion. Here's what he had to say, and
I'll give you a chance to respond.
Video clip:
Karl Rove: Like too many
Democrats, it strikes me they are ready
to give the green light to go to war,
but when it gets tough and when it gets
difficult, they fall back on that
Party's old pattern of cutting and
running. They may be with you at the
first shots, but they're not going to be
there for the last, tough battles. They
are wrong and profoundly wrong in their
approach.
[End
of video clip.]
Russert: Cutting and running.
Murtha: He's...he's in New
Hampshire. He's making a political
speech. He's sitting in his
air-conditioned office with a big, fat
backside saying, uh, "Stay the course."
That's not a plan. I mean, this guy...
I don't know what his military
experience is, but that's a political
statement. This is a policy difference
between me and the White House. I
disagree completely with what he's
saying.
Now, let's...let's...give you...give you
an example. When we went to Beirut, uh,
I...I said, "President Reagan, get
out." Now, the other day, we were doing
debate and they said, "Well, Beirut was
a different situation. We cut and
run." We didn't cut and run. President
Reagan made a decision to change
direction 'cause he knew he couldn't win
it. Even in Somalia, President Clinton
made a decision: we have...we have to
change direction.
Even with tax cuts -- when we had a tax
cut under Reagan, we then had a tax
increase because he changed direction.
We need to change direction. We can't
win a war like this. This guy sitting
back there criticizing...political
criticism, getting paid by the...by the
public taxpayer, and he's saying to us,
uh, we're...we're...we're winning this
war, and they're running -- we've gotta
change direction; that's what we have to
do. You can't...you can't sit there in
the air-conditioned office and tell
these troops that are carrying seventy
pounds on their back inside these
armored vessels and hit with IED's every
day, seeing their friends blown up,
their buddies blown up, and he says,
"Stay the course"? Yeah, it's easy to
say that from Washington, D.C." |
