Democratic Representative Murtha put the Republicans on their heels, seeking to introduce the following resolution:
Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That:
Section 1. The deployment of United States forces in Iraq, by direction of Congress, is hereby terminated and the forces involved are to be redeployed at the earliest practicable date.
Section 2. A quick-reaction U.S. force and an over-the-horizon presence of U.S Marines shall be deployed in the region.
Section 3 The United States of America shall pursue security and stability in Iraq through diplomacy.
The Republicans were scared to debate and vote the resolution. Instead, all they could do was turn the resolution into a strawman. They forced amendments to the resolution so that it called for:
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately.
They removed the provision of practicality and pursuing the goal through other means, instead they had courage enough only to face a cartoonish version of the original resolution.
In short, the House Republicans were unwilling and afraid to discuss the War in Iraq seriously. Instead, you had character slurs from the likes of Republican Representative Jean Schmidt:
[A marine] asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message, that cowards cut and run, Marines never do.
Representative Schmidt is not fit to polish Representative Murtha’s combat boot, and she has the nerve to call him a coward. But not, apparently, the nerve to stand by her words. When a Congressman from Arkansas demanded that her words be taken down, she put her tail between her legs:
Mr. Speaker, my remarks were not directed at any member of the House and I did not intend to suggest that they applied to any member. Most especially the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania. I therefore ask for unanimous consent that my words be withdrawn.
Inexcusable. This isn’t some damned game. Our soldiers are dying. Our treasury is looted. We are no safer. Whatever this has or hasn’t done for Iraqis, it hasn’t done a single thing to improve the lives of Americans who are sacrificing their blood and treasure. And the House Republicans, except apparently for 6 of them who refused to play along with their colleagues, just want to play word games with the issue.
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