Murtha on lawsuit: 'I don't blame [Marine] for lashing out'

RAW STORY
Published: Wednesday August 2, 2006

Congressman Jack Murtha (D-PA) has responded to a defamation suit from a US Marine by saying he doesn't blame the man "for lashing out," RAW STORY has learned.

Staff sergeant Frank D. Wuterich brought suit against Murtha earlier today, charging that the Congressman's public statements that Marines had "killed innocent civilians in cold blood" defamed the Marine.

The Associated Press this morning reported that evidence collected by the Pentagon “supports accusations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot” 24 civilians, including unarmed women and children, in Haditha, Iraq last November--the incident Murtha was referring to.

"I don’t blame the staff sergeant for lashing out," Murtha said in a statement today. "When I spoke up about Haditha, my intention was to draw attention to the horrendous pressure put on our troops in Iraq and to the cover-up of the incident."

The Representative once again used the occasion to call for a withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.

“Our troops are caught in the middle of a tragic dilemma," Murtha went on to explain. "The military trains them to fight a conventional war and use overwhelming force to protect U.S. lives. I agree with that policy, but when we use force, we often kill civilians. What are the consequences?"

An excerpt from Murtha's statement follows:

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“Three years ago, there were fewer than 500 foreign fighters in Iraq. They were called ‘dead enders.’ Then there were 5,000, and they were called ‘terrorists.’ Now there are 20,000, and the administration calls this ‘sectarian violence.’

“All this time, we’ve had at least 130,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq. In the last year, incidents have increased from 49 per day to 100 per day. About 14,000 Iraqis were killed in the last year, mostly in the last six months. Oil and electricity production are below pre-war level, and unemployment is 60 percent throughout most of the country. Our troops are in 120-degree temperatures with 70 pounds of equipment on their back, and they don’t know who the enemy is.

“This conflict cannot be won militarily. Our troops are caught in the middle of a civil war. It’s well beyond the time to redeploy from Iraq.”