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November 18, 2005--In a surprise move today, the Republicans moved a grossly amended version of Rep. Murtha's (D-PA) Resolution on Iraq out of committee and onto the floor of the House for a vote in an attempt to trick Democrats into supporting a 'cut and run' position on withdrawing U.S. troops. The attempt backfired. Instead, the move simply demonstrated the Republicans' continued unwillingness to allow reasoned bipartisan debate on bringing an end to the Iraq war debacle.
In Murtha's original resolution (H. J. Res. 73), he called for terminating the deployment of U.S. forces in Iraq, with the forces currently there "to be redeployed at the earliest practicable date" (emphasis ours). He also called for additional measures to ameliorate the effects of troop withdrawal on the country of Iraq, including pursuing security and stability for the region through diplomacy. Finally, he spelled out reasons why he felt withdrawal was an appropriate strategy to begin at this time. This resolution was a courageous step for the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee who has, until now, supported continuance of the war.
The Republican substitute for the Murtha Resolution (H. Res. 571, the Hunter resolution) dramatically changed both the meaning and intent of the document, literally keeping only the call for immediate termination of U.S. troop deployment in Iraq with no ameliorating measures--in short, proposing a 'cut and run' exit. Everything making the Murtha resolution reasonable and responsible was removed.
Members of Congress, PDA and other advocacy groups were caught off guard. No one expected this kind of underhanded tactic, especially on such short notice. PDA immediately sent an email to its base reversing its original lobbying recommendation, and urging activists to call their Congressmembers saying vote "NO" on this gutted resolution. Thank you for taking quick action!
The Democrats waged a dignified and admirable response to the clumsy Republican effort, and the amended resolution was soundly defeated. Republicans will try to spin this, charging that Democrats have been clamoring for withdrawing troops from Iraq but were unwilling to vote for it when they were finally given the opportunity. We can see that propaganda for what it is. Today's amended bill was nothing but an irresponsible caricature of the sensible Democratic position put forth by Congressman Murtha.
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