Murtha calls for Iraq surrender...but he did last year, too!

From NewsMax:

The press is pretending that Rep. John Murtha had been a longtime, staunch supporter of the Iraq war right up until yesterday's "shocking reversal," when the Pennsylvania Democrat abruptly called for an immediate U.S. pull out.

In fact, Murtha began advocating a cut-and-run strategy way back in May 2004 - after U.S. forces had been in Iraq just a little more than a year.

Standing at the time next to San Francisco-based House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi - who was last seen defending her city's decision to ban military recruiters from public school property - the allegedly pro-war Murtha proclaimed that the Iraq war was "unwinnable."

"We have to either mobilize or get out [and] I don't know that we have the will to mobilize," he declared 18 months ago.

If, by "we", he means "Democrats", I'm inclined to believe him. Continuing:

Peacenik Pelosi was delighted at the time - showing off her new catch as if Murtha was a prize-winning poodle.
"He is one of the most recognized experts on defense in the country," she boasted. "And no one has worked harder to meet the needs of our troops."

Of course, one of the troops' most compelling needs is support of their mission on the home front.

And Murtha very publicly yanked his support a long time ago.

Yes, but the press has been salivating like Pavlov's dog over his recent and more public calls for surrender to al Qaeda in Iraq.

Besides, just because a field commander in Iraq says the mission is incomplete, who's to say that simply by being there that he's more knowledgeable than an elected bureaucrat in DC?