Murtha: Bush Is “Delusional”

Think Progress has transcript and video of Jack Murtha's appearance on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, whereon he discussed Bush's claims of "progress" in Iraq, and "chaos" if U.S. troops were to withdraw. BLITZER: All right, what do you say to the president? MURTHA: Well, it’s delusional, to say the least. As I said earlier, and you heard me say, it’s a failed policy wrapped in illusion. Nothing has gotten better. Incidents have increased. We’ve had more Americans killed in the last four months than any other period during the war. More Iraqis have been killed. Incidents are up. Unemployment is still 40 percent to 60 percent. Oil production is below prewar level. And this — this rhetoric about the constitution and the changes — they say, well, they’re making changes. There’s no changes that have been made. They haven’t done the thing that’s necessary in order to satisfy the Sunnis. (…) BLITZER: Well, the president says if you do that, if the U.S. were to simply withdraw, as bad as the situation is now, it would be a whole lot worse, not only for the Iraqis, but for the entire region. And he also raises the specter of Al Qaeda having a base there from which to attack America. MURTHA: Well, first of all, let me say there’s more Al Qaeda because we’re in Iraq. That’s the incentive for the Iraqis — for the al Qaeda. They see us as occupiers and they fire up the Sunnis and Shias. As soon as we leave, the Shias and the Sunnis will get rid of Al Qaeda, because they’re such a small group. They actually incentivize them. So, because the president and the White House says that we’re going to have chaos, it doesn’t mean we’re going to. Heaven’s sakes, the Iraqis want us out of there. They think we’re occupiers. And they said there’s weapons of mass destruction. They said there’s an al Qaeda connection. They continue to say for four -and-a-half years there’s progress. So why would I believe that there’s going to be chaos just because they say it?