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Tie Up

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WASHINGTON – A leading Iraq war opponent threatened Thursday to try prohibiting any U.S. military action against Iran without congressional sanction as House Republicans used military veterans within their ranks to oppose a resolution renouncing President Bush’s Iraq troop buildup.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said he would seek to tie future deployments in Iraq to troops meeting high standards of training and getting enough rest between combat tours. Murtha said he believes the Army may have no units that can meet those standards, meaning that Bush’s attempt to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq would be effectively thwarted.

Murtha, who has been among Congress’s foremost opponents of Iraq war policy, also said he is considering attaching a provision to a looming war spending bill that would bar U.S. military action against Iran without congressional approval.

We don’t have the capability of sustaining a war in Iran,” Murtha, chairman of the House panel that oversees military spending, said in a videotaped online interview.