He wants to redeploy the IDF to Poland.
No, what he really wants is to negotiate from a position of maximum weakness:
Referring to the Bush administration’s position, he said: “You know, they say, ‘Well, we want a long-term cease-fire.’ It seems to me you start with a cease-fire, and then you try to work out the details long term. If you don’t, and you continue to have heavy-handed military action — and I support heavy-handed military action because it saves your own troops — but it creates enemies, and that’s the problem we have.”
Mr. Murtha said the fighting risked hardening against Israel the “hearts and minds” of Lebanese civilians within the general population, beyond Israel’s entrenched enemies in the Shiite militia.
[Read on.]
Now Murtha Wants To Surrender For Other Nations
Ed Morrissey
Rep. John Murtha has demanded an immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq for months. Now he's demanding another stand-down, but this time he's telling Israel to declare defeat and go home:
Pennsylvania's Rep. John Murtha said yesterday that he favored an immediate cease-fire in the fighting in Lebanon. ...
Mr. Murtha, speaking yesterday at a Post-Gazette editorial board meeting, was asked if he favored a cease-fire in the campaign north of Israel's border.
"I think so," he said. "I think it would be very difficult to justify continuing on."
[...]
John Murtha has made himself into the paragon of Democratic tenacity in wartime, only now he wants Israel to follow his example -- after Hezbollah attacked them. He trots out the same old "hearts and minds" line that we have heard since Viet Nam, only he fails to realize that for Israel, surrender will not endear it to their neighbors. Israel withdrew from Lebanon six years ago, and Hezbollah has lobbed missiles and conducted border raids ever since. Surrender has not worked for the Israelis; Islamists hate them just the same, and only get emboldened by their efforts to act peacefully.
[Read the whole thing here.]
