Murtha Seeks to Cripple the Military's Ability to Deploy

John Murtha is bordering on derangement in his efforts to stop the troop surge in Iraq. The legislation he intends to introduce would severely hamstring our efforts, not only in Iraq, but anywhere else we needed to deploy troops:

A powerful Democrat and Iraq war foe said he intends to introduce legislation in the coming weeks that would effectively end President Bush's plans to send 21,500 more troops into Iraq by setting limits on which troops can be sent.

Using an unusual medium — a recorded interview posted on the Internet — Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said his bill would prevent troops from being sent back to Iraq too soon or too poorly equipped. Troops being sent back to Iraq for another tour would have to stay in the United States at least one year before being redeployed. The bill would also end "stop-loss" policies by preventing the president from retaining troops in Iraq after their enlistments expire.

Murtha, who is chairman of the defense subcommittee to the House Appropriations Committee, said he is formulating legislation with teeth because he doesn't think Bush's plan to send more troops to Baghdad and al Anbar province would accomplish the goals of bringing peace to the country or returning troops home sooner.

The Bush administration "won't be able to continue. They won't be able to do the deployment. They won't have the equipment. They don't have the training and they won't be able to do the work," Murtha said in the post on the Democrat-friendly Web site MoveCongress.org. "This vote will limit the options of the president and should stop this surge."

The website on which Murtha made his announcement had this to say earlier today (before they cleaned it up):

Chairman Murtha will describe his strategy for not only limiting the deployment of troops to Iraq but undermining other aspects of the president’s foreign and national security policy.

They've since pulled that statement down, but the intent is clear. These people seek to undermine the president at the expense of our troops and the people of Iraq.