Anti-War Dem

Just after passing a milestone to become the longest-serving member of Congress from Pennsylvania, John Murtha, a retired Marine who called for the United States to pull out of the Iraq war, has died following complications from gallbladder surgery.

His views on the war shaped the latter part of his life and a controversial FBI investigation a generation ago sometimes dogged the Democrat -- even as his obituaries are being written.

In 2002, Murtha voted to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, but three years later said he supported taking U.S. forces out, saying that the war had been conducted poorly. In subsequent years, and up to his death, he stayed true to the view that wars come with hidden costs and even called on his fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama, to come to grips with the toll on Americans. Last November, Murtha and several Democrats sought to end the practice of paying for the war in Afghanistan with borrowed money by imposing a war surtax beginning in 2011 -- a move critics said was aimed at ending the war without thinking through strategy.

“For the last year, as we’ve struggled to pass healthcare reform, we’ve been told that we have to pay for the bill – and the cost over the next decade will be about a trillion dollars," Murtha said at the time in a statement with other representatives. "Now the President is being asked to consider an enlarged counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan, which proponents tell us will take at least a decade and would also cost about a trillion dollars.  But unlike the healthcare bill, that would not be paid for.  We believe that’s wrong. Regardless of whether one favors the war or not, if it is to be fought, it ought to be paid for. The only people who’ve paid any price for our military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan are our military families. We believe that if this war is to be fought, it’s only fair that everyone share the burden. That’s why we are offering legislation to impose a graduated surtax so that the cost of the war is not borrowed.”

Earlier in his career, Murtha's name came up in the ABSCAM scandal, a 1980 FBI investigation in which agents offered bribes to members of Congress. Murtha turned down a bribe, saying he wasn't interested, but drew fire for decades for adding the caveat, "at this point." Murtha was never charged.

Murtha was 77.

 

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