Injured congressman: U.S. should stay in Iraq

? Rep. Tim Murphy, one of two members of Congress treated at a military hospital after a weekend accident in Iraq, said Monday that wounded soldiers had told him the United States should remain in Iraq.

“Every soldier I talked to said, ‘Don’t pull out. Do not make it so those who have been wounded and those who have died have done so in vain. We know we can take care of this cause. We got to finish this,'” said Murphy, R-Pa., at a Capitol Hill news conference.

Murphy appeared at the news conference in hiking boots and sporting a small bandage on a cut above his right eye.

Murphy, 53, said he was traveling Saturday night on a back road to the Baghdad airport with Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., and Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., when an oncoming vehicle sideswiped the small armored bus in which they were traveling.

A spokesman for Skelton said he was doing well, and tests in Germany showed no injuries to the 73-year-old congressman. Marshall was not injured.

The delegation had traveled to Afghanistan for Thanksgiving with the troops before heading to Baghdad.