策劃、編譯■成怡夏

摘要

美國總統布希在重申維持美軍在伊拉克「一貫立場與方針」後，立即遭受民主黨與軍方有緊密關係的重量級鷹派人士，即國會議員、前美國海軍軍官、眾議院國防預算小組委員會資深民主黨人約翰．穆沙的抨擊，他要求華府方面立即將美軍自伊拉克撤退，並在上週四宣稱他將盡速推動修法，要求美國陸上部隊離開伊拉克，並立即遣送一批「可迅速反應」的部隊進到該地區以防備恐怖份子陣營攻擊。

他說：「伊拉克的戰爭並不像美國所宣傳的那樣；這是一個以虛幻包裹著的瑕疵政策。很明顯，在伊拉克持續的軍事行動並不符合美國、伊拉克以及波斯灣地區的最佳利益。」另外，他在多次前往伊拉克出差的過程中也發現：「美軍已經成為暴動的箭靶，美軍駐守在該地等於是暴力的催化劑。」

做為民主黨長期鷹派人士以及對軍人堅定支持的穆沙，原先支持出兵伊拉克，如今也高聲疾呼撤軍一事，此舉預料將會有助於他的民主黨同志，以及某些反對布希伊拉克政策的共和黨員的反戰立場。

事實上在穆沙發表宣言前，共和黨內部就已醞釀反對聲浪，上週二大部分的共和黨員投票通過，要求政府呈交明年前撤軍進度的詳細報告，屆時將以伊拉克軍隊取代美軍，紐約時報將這場表決形容為「對伊拉克戰爭的不信任票」。

穆沙的表態讓過去因為伊拉克戰爭立場嚴重分歧的民主黨員重新採取同一戰線，趁著揣測布希正在操弄媒體準備再度開戰的謠言甚囂塵上之際，民主黨近來在政治上採取愈來愈多的攻勢。

儘管布希政府反批民主黨這麼做是為了誤導視聽，並深刻傷害了目前正在伊拉克的15萬軍隊，但是效果相當有限。再加上上個月，一項針對副總統錢尼的前幕僚長做偽證的指控，其中牽涉到中情局官員，更讓大眾相信情報局有隱藏事實的嫌疑。

對布希政府更具殺傷力的是，上週一名受勳的越戰老兵海格爾警告大家，伊拉克戰爭過去兩年的發展，顯然有重蹈越戰覆轍的可能性，他提醒國會應當提早提醒大家才是。

過去兩週，包括參議員約翰•柯瑞和他2004年競選總統的搭檔前參議員約翰•愛德華都公開承認，他們對於自己在2002年10月投票授權給布希開戰的決定後悔，他們表示支持立法規範撤軍時程表的作法。前美國總統柯林頓上週也發表言論，表示攻打伊拉克的決定是錯誤的，他的公開表態勢必會讓其他的民主黨員，特別是直到現在還反對撤軍的參議員妻子希拉蕊重新思考其主張。

原文

In a major new blow to President George W Bush's determination to stay the course in Iraq, an influential Democratic hawk with close ties to the military has called for Washington to begin withdrawing US troops immediately.

In an emotional news conference Thursday morning, Representative John Murtha, a former officer in the Marines and the ranking Democrat on the Defense Appro-priations Sub-committee of the House of Representatives, an-nounced he would soon introduce legislation requiring US ground troops to be redeploy[ed] out of Iraq and to send a quick-reac-tion force into the region for possible use against terrorist camps in their place.

The war in Iraq is not going as advertised, he said. It is a flawed pol-icy wrapped in an illusion ... It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interest of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf region.

As a long-time Democratic hawk and staunch supporter of the mili-tary, Murtha, who originally supported the Iraq war, will make it much easier for fellow Democrats and some Republicans to challenge the Bush administration's continuing calls to stay the course in Iraq.

Even before his statement, Republican lawmakers were voicing grow-ing fears that Iraq threatened their hold on both houses of Congress in next November's mid-term Congressional elections. In a major setback to Bush and an indication of his party's rising anxiety, a majority of Re-publicans voted on Tuesday to require the administration to submit de-tailed reports about progress toward withdrawing US troops over the next year and replacing them with Iraqi forces.

The New York Times called the resolution a vote of no confidence on the war in Iraq, while its sponsor, Senate Armed Forces Committee chairman John Warner, described his amendment as a blunt warning to I-raqis that Washington had done [its] part and was fast running out of patience. Democrats, who until recently had been deeply divided about what to do in Iraq, have increasingly taken the political offensive over growing public sentiment (57%, according to one poll last week) that the adminis-tration manipulated the intelligence in order to rally the country to war, a charge that Murtha endorsed on Thursday.

Led by Bush, the administration has tried to mount a counter-offensive by calling Democratic charges that it deliberately misled the country into war irresponsible and deeply damaging to the morale of the some 150,000 troops currently in Iraq.

But its efforts so far have appeared largely ineffective in changing public opinion, in part because last month's indictment in connection with the outing of a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer on perjury charges of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I Lewis Scooter Libby, has added weight to charges that intelligence was indeed manipulated.

Added to this are the widely publicized claims by former secretary of state Colin Powell's chief of staff, retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, that Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld led a cabal that circumvented normal bureaucratic and intelligence channels in order to take the country to war.

Nor did it help that a prominent moderate Republican and likely 2008 presidential candidate, Senator Chuck Hagel, criticized the White House's counter-offensive for dividing the country. In a particularly damaging comment in a major policy address this week, Hagel, a deco-rated Vietnam veteran who has voiced alarm over developments in Iraq over the past two years, noted that Congress should have speak out ear-lier during the Vietnam War.

While the administration has appeared flummoxed and on the defen-sive over the charges that it manipulated intelligence before the war, Democrats have appeared increasingly unified behind proposals to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq after the December 15 elections there ac-cording to a timetable that would see most of them leave by the end of next year.

In the past two weeks, both Senator John Kerry and his 2004 vice pres-idential running-mate, former senator John Edwards, have publicly ad-mitted that they now regret their votes in October 2002 to give Bush the authority to go to war, and offered support for legislation that would at least establish benchmarks for withdrawing troops.

In yet another important step in the Democrats' evolution, former pres-ident Bill Clinton declared for the first time this week that the decision to go to war in Iraq was wrong, thus presumably preparing the ground for other Democrats, particularly his senator-wife, Hillary, who has until now opposed withdrawal, to move in a new direction.

It is in this context that Murtha's remarks will add to the momentum in favor of withdrawal. Indeed, Murtha has historically been so close to the military that many political observers will conclude that he is speaking for senior officers who have grown increasingly convinced that the war has been a major strategic mistake.

Warning that the future of our military is at risk, Murtha said he had concluded after numerous trips to Iraq that our troops have become the primary target of the insurgency and that we have become a catalyst for violence.

I believe we need to turn Iraq over to the Iraqis, he said. I believe that before the Iraqi elections, the Iraqi people and the emerging govern-ment must be put on notice that the United States will immediately rede-ploy. That redeployment, which partly echoes a more comprehensive plan put forward by the Center for American Progress, a think tank consisting mainly of former senior Clinton administration officials, in late Septem-ber, calls for creating a quick-reaction force to be deployed in the region for intervention against terrorist camps.

It also seeks an over-the-horizon Marine presence that could be de-ployed quickly, presumably to prevent incursions by foreign forces into Iraq in the event of a widening civil conflict. Murtha also called for inten-sified diplomatic and political efforts to help stabilize Iraq.

Our military has done everything that has been asked of them, he said. The US cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. It is time to bring them home.（資料來源�IPS）

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