Hero of the Year

Congressman John Murtha (D-PA), a former Marine, Vietnam veteran, foreign policy hawk and ranking member on the Defense Appropriations subcommittee, introduced legislation today to start withdrawing troops from Iraq.

From Roll Call (subscription required):

An emotional Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), one of the House Democrats go-to Members on defense policy, announced Thursday that the war in Iraq must end immediately and that troops must come home as quickly as possible.

Murtha called it "a flawed policy wrapped in illusion" and said the war "cannot be won militarily."

"We can not continue on the present course," Murtha said. "It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interest of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf Region."

He said U.S. troops have become part of the problem, not the solution, calling them "the target" and "the enemy" to Iraqi insurgents. He said Iraq must be put on notice before the mid-December elections that U.S. involvement there is coming to an end.

"Our military has done everything that has been asked of them, the U.S. cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily," Murtha said. "It is time to bring them home." Murtha called six months from now "a reasonable time to get them out of there."