A Sea of Red Ink in Iraq

Posted on December 7, 2005

Today, decorated war hero and congressman John P. Murtha (D - Pennsylvania), the ranking member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, responded to President Bush about the war in Iraq:

MURTHA: Twenty years it�s going to take to settle this thing. The American people is not going to put up with it; can�t afford it. We have spent $277 billion. That�s what�s been appropriated for this operation. We have $50 billion sitting on the table right now in our supplemental, or bridge fund we call it, in the Appropriations Committee. They�re going to ask for another $100 billion next year.
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QUESTION: Can we come back to the $100 billion? You said that you expect the military to ask for $100 billion. Where are you getting that figure?
MURTHA: Where I get all my figures: the military. Let me tell you -- they didn't ask for this $50 billion. We put it in. We talked to them about where it ought to be. When I visited the three bases that I talk about, which were down south, I came back and I said to the military: Go to Iraq and tell me what shortage you have there. They sent the Marine Corps over, the highest level people in the Army over, they came back with -- what was it, $8 billion?
STAFF: Yes, sir.
MURTHA: $8 billion in requests for equipment they need today. Our equipment is absolutely run out. We're running our Bradleys a thousand miles a month, where it used to be a thousand miles a year. So there's substantial rehabilitation that has to be done.

Another $100 billion? This is becoming increasingly unpalatable to fiscal conservatives, whether they are Republican, Democrat, or Independent. A simple cost benefit analysis shows us going deeper and deeper into the hole to continue a war in which we are viewed as occupiers, not liberators, according to numerous polls of the Iraqi people. The oil fields of Iraq are not pumping the oil they should be because of the insurgency. This war is not paying for itself by any stretch of the imagination. This is a disgraceful situation for a so-called Republican president to be in.