Friday, November 18, 2005

Murtha: Wrong on Facts

Democratic Senator John Murtha of Pennsylvania has called for the immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq.

"This is a policy wrapped in an illusion ... our troops have become the primary target of the insurgency," Murtha said at a Capitol news conference that left him in tears. "It's time to bring them home."

On the facts, he's wrong, and an analysis of the deaths in Iraq show that to be the case.

U.S. casualty figures are flat year to year (source: Iraq Coalition Casualty Count). The majority of those killed in Iraq continue to be civilians, and most of those deaths are a result of terrorist attacks (source: Iraq Body Count). And civilian deaths at the hands of of terrorists and other criminals continue to rise.

American troops are not the primary target of the terrorists -- Iraqi civilians are. And withdrawal now would leave them at the mercy of those killers.

Case in point from Reuters today: Suicide bombers kills 77 in Iraq. They're attacking churches.

1 comment:

JBlog said...

I especially like the "military hawk" stuff the media is throwing around, like his current opinion is something new.

He's been a vocal critic of the war for over a year.