December 5, 2005 - On November 17 th Rep. John Murtha (D. PA) introduced House Joint Resolution 73 which provided:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That:

SECTION 1. The deployment of United States forces in Iraq, by direction of Congress, is hereby terminated and the forces involved are to be redeployed at the earliest practicable date.

SEC. 2. A quick-reaction U.S. force and an over-the-horizon presence of U.S. Marines shall be deployed in the region.

SEC. 3. The United States of America shall pursue security and stability in Iraq through diplomacy. (emphasis supplied) http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.J.RES.73:

The Resolution was referred to committee and Representative Murtha announced it in a news conference the following day. The Republican reaction was swift, uncoordinated, and like most Republican reactions shifting ground as the operatives gauged public reaction.

The first ploy was the November 18 th “leak” by an unnamed Pentagon official that the US commander in the field had laid a plan on Donald Rumsfeld’s desk that called for withdrawal of American forces by brigades starting after the December 15 th elections in Iraq. That seemed to satisfy Murtha’s call for withdrawal at the earliest “practicable date”. The Pentagon official’s description of General Casey’s plan did not include a redeployment of forces as a quick reaction force or as an over-the-horizon presence – key elements of the plan outlined in Mr. Murtha’s resolution.

The second round featured a quickly packaged resolution – HR-571 – introduced by Duncan Hunter (R-CA). It was so quickly packaged that while the Murtha Resolution was printed and delivered to the Library of Congress for posting on its Thomas website on the 18 th It still has not been released for publication today. According to the synopsis the Hunter resolution calls for immediate termination of American troops deployment to Iraq. Miraculously it came immediately to the floor for a vote and was defeated 403 to 3 with 6 congressmen answering present at the roll call. During the short debate the Republicans tried out a swift-boat attack, calling Lt. Col. John Murtha (USMR-Ret) a coward and calling his resolution “cut and run”. The President started to adopt that tactic but when it landed with a thud he started calling critic of his war policies sincere but wrong. His supporters have not quite gotten the message.

The Murtha resolution did not call for disengagement. It called for a continued commitment to Iraqi security and stability along with a change in the tactical use of US forces to achieve that end. It was the Hunter resolution did indeed call for the US to cut and run. Jack Murtha recognized what the Nixonian fossils in the Administration cannot that the tactic of search and destroy is not going to work any better in Iraq than it did in Vietnam. His call was not for unilateral surrender as the chickenhawk brigade would have it. It was for redeployment and success. Swiftboating the war just isn’t going to work again.