I announced in a diary on Thursday that Rep. Schakowsky had invited Rep. John Murtha to speak in Evanston on Sunday. He was there, and I went to hear him.
The audience was with him all the way. I think it's the first time that I've ever witnessed three standing ovations at the same meeting. Admittedly, the 9th Congressional District is more liberal than most; Kerry got 61% in '04. Still, Murtha's reception shows that the country is ahead of the Congress on this issue.
Details after the jump.
The room, a large auditorium at Northwestern University was full. There was a second room where people were sent to listen (and watch over videos?). I didn't see that room, but one of Schakowsky's aides told me that there were "more than 375" people in attendance. 375 may have been the capacity of the auditorium. They did reserve space for the press -- space that seemed to be little used. I've read both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times this morning, and neither seemed to have mentioned the speech.
When the congressmen entered together, the audience started to applaud. Soon we were standing.
Schakowski was introduced and then introduced Murtha. She mentioned that his resolution (which calls for "immediate" deploying of US troops from Iraq) now has 101 cosponsors. Readers might consider writing their congressmen to ask whehter they are among the cosponsors. Then write to thank them or ask them why not. It's also a question to ask challengers -- you are planning to support a challenger to support a Democratic challenger in some Republican-held congressional district this November, aren't you? -- before you give them your support.
Murtha' speech was full of points, and I got maybe half of them. If you get a chance, and he's going around the country right now, go hear him. Anyway, this is what I wrote down.
He quoted Teddy Roosevelt that dissenting from the president when you disagree with him is not only a right but a duty.
He pointed out that W had brought us into the war with no coallition -- unlike his father.
"The president has no power without consent."
'Staying the course' isn't a strategy.
Our credibility has been destroyed worldwide. He told the story of an envoy telling De Gaulle -- not especially a friend of the USA that: "There are missiles in Cuba, and I can show you the photographs." "You don't need to," said De Gaulle, "If the president of the United States says something, that is proof enough." Today, who would say that?
We will have spent $450 Billion on this war by the end of the fiscal year. Under present spending rate on port security, it will take us 47 years to secure our ports; it would take 3 months of war spending to secure them. It would take an additional month to secure mass transit.
He always urges people to "separate the war from teh warriors."
In addition to the 2400 killed, there have been over 8500 too badly injured to return to duty. This includes people who have lost arms, legs, and eyesight.
When the war began, the administration sent in too few troops to do the job -- they also sent in 44,000 of those without armor. Armor was reserved for the "front line" troops, but tne front lines in an occupation.
When Murtha first introduced his redeployment resolution, he received 18,000 (? I was behind in my writing at htis point) responses from the country. 80% of them were favorable.
What we want from teh election of 2006 is a majority in one house so we can get subpoena powers.
After he finished his written talk, he got another standing ovation. Then he took questions until he had to leave for his plane. He left for a third standing ovation.