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Jack Murtha: Don't Join the Military
Democratic Party "defense hawk" Rep. John Murtha is racheting up his criticism of the war in Iraq, by urging young men and women not to join the military - a position apparently shared by his close congressional ally, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Asked during an interview broadcast Monday night if he would "join the military today," the decorated Vietnam combat veteran told "ABC's Nightline" - "No." Murtha kept his answers brief, allowing "Nightline" interviewer John Donovan to spin his comments. "I think you're saying the average guy out there who's considering recruitment is justified in saying 'I don't want to serve'," Donovan offered.
Story Continues Below "Exactly right," Murtha shot back. Murtha's position is apparently shared by San Francisco Democrat Pelosi, whose constituents voted last November to have the city ban military recruiters from public high schools. Pelosi defended the vote a few days later, explaining to Fox News host Neil Cavuto: "What the city of San Francisco was talking about was honesty and recruitment in terms of what these young people are promised and what they are told in that recruiting and that there should be some daylight shed on that." After Murtha caused a stir later the same month with his call for an "immediate redeployment" of U.S. troops out of Iraq, Newsweek reported that he and Pelosi had stage managed the entire episode: "[Pelosi] was anxious to open a second axis of attack on Iraq - and was aware of [Murtha's] growing antagonism toward the war," the magazine's Howard Fineman revealed. "The two met and agreed that he would make his case in private to the party conference. After that, on his own, he would introduce a resolution calling for withdrawal of troops from Iraq 'at the earliest practicable date.'" The scheme, Fineman said, called for "Pelosi and the other liberals [to] keep their distance, while their own Marine charged up the Hill." By December, however, Pelosi could no longer contain her enthusiasm for Murtha's anti-war offensive, announcing in a press release: "We should follow the lead of Congressman John Murtha, who has put forth a plan to make American safer, to make our military stronger and to make Iraq more stable."
Editor's note:
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