Murtha Says Iraq Is Now a 'Civil War'

[kpete]

Murtha Says Iraq Is Now a 'Civil War' Fri Jan 27, 9:42 AM ET


PITTSBURGH - U.S. troops will leave Iraq by the end of the year due to political pressure in a Congressional election year, Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record) predicted.

Murtha, a decorated Vietnam veteran from Johnstown, created a firestorm in November when he called for troops to be pulled out of Iraq. On Thursday, he told editors and reporters from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the war in Iraq is a civil war and the U.S. should disengage.

"Our troops are the target," Murtha told the newspaper. "We're not fighting terrorism in Iraq. We're fighting a civil war in Iraq. We've got to give them an incentive. We fought our Civil War. Let them fight their civil war."

Murtha, the senior Democrat on the House appropriations defense panel, said many Iraqis think "it's all right to kill Americans" and that most Iraqis want U.S. troops out of the country.

"There is no reason in the world we couldn't do what we're doing (in Iraq) from the periphery," Murtha said. "I've just come to the conclusion it's going to happen and it's just a matter of time."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060127/ap_on_go_co/congress_iraq_1

[gratuitous]

1. Where's Jean Schmidt?

Is she going to rush out and call Murtha a coward again? Or has she milked that horse for all it's worth, and she's on to something else, now?