According to this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, John Murtha is now declaring defeat in Iraq:

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.

I’d be worried about Murtha’s predictions if he was as proficient at predictions as he is with earmarks. The good news is that Murtha doesn’t have a clue about the final outcome. Republicans can’t afford to sign onto Murtha’s defeatist plans because they’d cut their throats in terms of campaign contributions. That’s what the Victory Caucus is about.

Furthermore, Murtha is acting like Gen. Petraeus’ testimony in September will send mixed messages on the surge’s results. That won’t be the case. Each day, more positive stories make their way into the LA Times, the Washington Post and NY Times. Furthermore, websites like BlackAnthem.com provide a steady flow of news stories, ranging from the discovery of weapons caches to reconciliation meetings happening to killing AQI terrorists.

People like John Murtha haven’t noticed that the day has passed where the NY Times was the undeniable “newspaper of record”. A page has turned and a paradigm shift is happening. These are just some of the reasons why Murtha’s optimism is more like delusion. Here’s something from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article that will provide a little reality to the discussion:

Mr. Bush on Tuesday didn’t seem ready to compromise. “The merger between al-Qaida and its Iraqi affiliate is an alliance of killers, and that is why the finest military in the world is on their trail,” he told troops at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., rebutting critics who say the fighting in Iraq is primarily sectarian.

Some military commanders have said current troop levels will need to remain in place at least until next summer to improve security, according to recent published reports.

“The president has called on Congress to give our troops time to carry out our new strategy in Iraq,” said White House spokesman Alex Conant. “The president believes withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region and for the United States.”

Though Rep. Murtha wants to eliminate President Bush from the equation, he can’t. It’s foolish that he’s even trying. It’s especially foolish in wartime. Chalk Murtha’s attempt to marginalize President Bush to chutzpah and elitism.

At the end of the discussion, this is still President Bush’s issue and he’ll dictate the terms of our military involvement with Iraq.

Technorati Tags: John Murtha, Surrender, Troop Withdrawal, Defeatocrats, President Bush, David Petraeus, Surge, Victory Caucus, BlackAnthem.com

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog