Murtha says he wouldn't join military
now
Reuters
January 3, 2006
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rep. John Murtha, a key Democratic voice who favors
pulling U.S. troops from Iraq, said in remarks airing on Monday that he would
not join the U.S. military today.
A decorated Vietnam combat veteran who retired as a colonel after 37 years
in the U.S. Marine Corps, Murtha told ABC News' "Nightline" program that Iraq
"absolutely" was a wrong war for President George W. Bush to have launched.
"Would you join (the military) today?," he was asked in an interview taped
on Friday.
"No," replied Murtha of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House of
Representatives subcommittee that oversees defense spending and one of his
party's leading spokesmen on military issues.
"And I think you're saying the average guy out there who's considering
recruitment is justified in saying 'I don't want to serve'," the interviewer
continued.
"Exactly right," said Murtha, who drew White House ire in November after
becoming the first ranking Democrat to push for a pullout of U.S. forces from
Iraq as soon as it could be done safely.
At the time, White House spokesman Scott McClellan equated Murtha's position
with surrendering to terrorists.
Since then, Bush has decried the "defeatism" of some of his political
rivals. In an unusually direct appeal, he urged Americans on December 18 not to
give in to despair over Iraq, insisting that "we are winning" despite a
tougher-than-expected fight.
Murtha did not respond directly when asked whether a lack of combat
experience might have affected the decision-making of Bush, Vice President Dick
Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and their former top deputies.
"Let me tell you, war is a nasty business. It sears the soul," he said,
choking up. "And it made a difference. The shadow of those killings stay with
you the rest of your life."
Asked for comment, a Defense Department spokesman, Lt. Col. John Skinner,
said: "We have an all-volunteer military. People are free to choose whether
they serve or not."
"Our freedom of speech in this country allows all of us the opportunity to
voice an opinion. It's one of our great strengths as a nation," he added in an
e-mailed reply.
The White House had no immediate comment.
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