Murtha in better position to oppose Iraq war policies

A few days after President Bush announced his plans to send 21,500 extra troops to Iraq, U.S. Rep. John Murtha picked up a copy of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War." It was his third time reading the book, a required text in military academies.

"It says you don't go to war unless you're threatened, unless you think you can win, and you make sure you have your troops prepared when they go," Mr. Murtha, a Vietnam War veteran, said yesterday in a half-hour interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The U.S. war in Iraq, he argues, has violated all of those prerequisites, set centuries ago by the ancient Chinese military tactician, even though the president, in his prime-time address to the nation last week, described Iraq as a central front in the wider global campaign against terrorism.