77-year-old Rep. John Murtha Dies

A spokesman says Democratic Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a retired Marine Corp officer who became an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, has died. He was 77. He was the chairman of the House of Representatives defense appropriations subcommittee who exercised enormous influence on defense issues.

He succumbed to complications from gall bladder surgery.

Murtha, who was the first combat veteran of the Vietnam War to be elected to Congress, on Saturday became Pennsylvania’s “longest-serving” member of Congress.

Murtha had a lengthy and colorful career as a legislator, and he will be missed. He served his country heroically on the battle field of war, as well as in Congress,where he led the move to get us out of the failed Iraq war that the Bush/Cheney administration got us in to.

For more information on the life of John Murtha, click on this link from Wikipedia….(John Murtha Bio)

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Sources…

Washington Post

Newsweek