Here we have one of the most widely derided Presidents in the history of the United States and a war abhorred by a majority of Americans, and the Democrats have near zero traction as a credible party of opposition. The sequence of events after Representative Jack Murtha's great speech tells the story. Listen to Murtha and you are hearing how the US commanders in Iraq really see the situation: "Many say the Army is broken. Some of our troops are on a third deployment. Recruitment is down even as the military has lowered its standards. They expect to take 20 percent category 4, which is the lowest category, which they said they'd never take.... Much of our ground equipment is worn out." On Iraq's condition: "Oil production and energy production are below prewar level. You remember they said that was going to pay for the war, and it's below prewar level. Our reconstruction efforts have been crippled by the security situation.... Unemployment is 60 percent.... Clean water is scarce, and they only spent $500 million of the $2.2 billion appropriated for water projects." "And, most importantly--this is the most important point--incidents have increased from 150 a week to over 700 in the last year."

Then, amid his tears, came Murtha's sketches of war's consequences in today's America: "Now, let me personalize this thing for you.... I have a young fellow in my district who was blinded, and he lost his foot. And they did everything they could for him at Walter Reed, then they sent him home. His father was in jail; he had nobody at home. Imagine this: Young kid that age--22, 23 years old--goes home to nobody. VA did everything they could do to help him. He was reaching out, so they sent him--to make sure that he was blind, they sent him to Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins started to send him bills. Then the collection agency started sending bills.... Imagine, a young person being blinded, without a foot, and he's getting bills from a collection agency."

Murtha's call for rapid pullout of US troops from Iraq was capped by one of the most amazing expressions of political reality ever uttered on Capitol Hill: "I believe we need to turn Iraq over to the Iraqis. I believe before the Iraqi elections, scheduled for mid-December, the Iraqi people and the emerging government must be put on notice: The United States will immediately redeploy--immediately redeploy.... All of Iraq must know that Iraq is free, free from a United States occupation. And I believe this will send a signal to the Sunnis to join the political process."

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