Congressman Murtha Calls For Retreat

The Associated Press Pennsylvania's Democratic Congressman John Murtha has called for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq:

Our military is suffering, the future of our country is at risk. We cannot continue on the present course. It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interests of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf region.

Murtha is a former Marine and decorated Vietnam veteran. His speech is available here.

According to the Associated Press, Congressman Kay Granger, a Texas Republican, said Murtha’s call for withdrawal was “reprehensible and irresponsible.”

“It shows the Democratic Party has chosen a policy of retreat and defeatism which will only encourage the terrorists and threaten the stability of Iraq,” Granger said.

at The Corner on National Review Online, Rod Dreher saw part of Murtha's speech and posts that it was "very angry, very moving." Dreher also posts that if guys like Murtha are willing to go this far, then the president is in big trouble. I think Dreher got that part wrong. We are all in trouble.

It doesn't matter if no one else seconds Murtha's call for immediate withdrawal. The damage has been done. Bin Laden and Zarqawi and their followers can only be encouraged now that some of America's so-called leaders want to call it quits. From the evil doers' perspective, all they have to do is fight on a little longer, kill more Americans, and we will leave. As President Bush said in his "Never Back Down, Never Give In" speech:

Al Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden, has called on Muslims to dedicate, quote, their "resources, sons and money to driving the infidels out of their lands." Their tactic to meet this goal has been consistent for a quarter-century: They hit us, and expect us to run. They want us to repeat the sad history of Beirut in 1983, and Mogadishu in 1993 -- only this time on a larger scale, with greater consequences.

I don't see how Murtha's call for withdrawal, no matter how heartfelt, can be taken as anything but a retreat, unless it is a surrender.

UPDATE: At Outside The Beltway, James Joyner has an nice analysis of Murtha's entire statement. James disagrees with my contention that Murtha's call for an immediate withdrawal encourages the enemy. I think he mistook what I said to be a condemnation of any dissent about how the war is conducted. I did not mean that, but I admit I am at a loss on how to ensure such a debate would not encourage the evil doers.