Murtha sees showdown with Bush on Iraq this fall

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pennsylvania's Rep. John Murtha yesterday predicted that thousands of combat troops would start withdrawing from Iraq as soon as this fall, when President Bush delivers a progress report on the war and Congress considers billions of dollars in emergency military spending.

"When you get to September, this is history. This is when we're going to have a real confrontation with the president," Mr. Murtha, D-Johnstown, told reporters after a meeting of the House Appropriations Committee. "I see signals that things are getting worked out."

In recent weeks, an expanding group of Republican senators has started expressing strong misgivings about the course of the war. Yet only three joined Democrats on July 18 in voting to set a withdrawal timeline, leaving the Senate eight votes short of the 60 needed to end debate on the proposal.

Mr. Murtha, chairman of the House panel on defense spending, said defections among Republicans would grow when Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, gives an update on the president's "surge" strategy, which added 21,500 combat troops there. "If we get an honest appraisal from the field, and they start to accept reality, that will be the directional change," he said.





Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07207/804587-176.stm