Warner Calls for Pullouts By Winter
by Pamela LeaveyRepublican Senator John Warner, called on Bush on Thursday to begin drawing down U.S. troops from Iraq in time for Christmas. My first reaction to Warner’s call to start withdrawing the troops by Christmas, was John Kerry’s similar call about a year ago. My how things have changed…
Warner’s declaration — after the Virginia senator’s recent four-day trip to the Middle East — roiled the political environment ahead of a much-anticipated progress report to be delivered Sept. 11 by Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Although Warner had already broken with Bush’s strategy, this was the first time he endorsed pulling troops out by a specific date.
Warner’s comments followed the release of a new National Intelligence Estimate that provided a mixed assessment on Iraq seven months after Bush ordered more U.S. troops to the country. The report, produced by the CIA and 15 other intelligence agencies, determined that “there have been measurable but uneven improvements in Iraq’s security.” But it predicted that the Iraqi government “will become more precarious” in the next six to 12 months, with little hope of reaching accommodation among political factions.
The NIE seemed to support an emerging consensus among politicians in Washington that the troop buildup has made a difference in quelling violence in some pockets of Iraq but that the political reconciliation needed for long-term resolution appears broken. Advocates of withdrawal and supporters of the war alike quickly picked out parts of the report to bolster their arguments on future U.S. strategy in Iraq.
Democratic and Republican leadership aides said last night that Warner’s new stance, coupled with the intelligence assessment, may have stalled any political momentum Bush seemed to have been building in recent days.
Warner stopped short at embracing “more sweeping Democratic legislation on troop withdrawal,” however his “call to start a pullout makes it easier for wavering Republicans to break with the president.”
At his Capitol Hill news conference, Warner, a former Navy secretary and Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, threw Bush’s own words back at him by noting that the president has said the U.S. commitment in Iraq must not be “open-ended.” Warner said it is time for the president to come up with an “orderly and carefully planned withdrawal,” suggesting that Bush “send a sharp and clear message” to the Iraqis by announcing a pullout plan by Sept. 15 — one that would involve at least a symbolic fraction of the 160,000 troops coming home by the holidays.
“I can think of no clearer form of that than if the president were to announce on the 15th that, in consultation with our senior military commanders, he’s decided to initiate the first step in a withdrawal of armed forces,” Warner said. “I say to the president respectfully, ‘Pick whatever number you wish.’ . . . Say, 5,000 could begin to redeploy and be home to their families and loved ones no later than Christmas of this year. That’s the first step.”
BushCo “politely rejected Warner’s advice.” It’s long past time to say… Enough Is Enough.
Bring Them Home.
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The issue isn’t just how many troops but the overall strategy. Clearly, Warner is troubled by this war, but as a constituent in Virginia, I have just run out of patience from him. 5,000??? And only if Bush agrees? He specifically said no timetables, and he wouldn’t vote for the Dem plan. As far as I’m concerned, that vote is what matters. Otherwise, nothing will change. He will be getting a call from me. Warner is a WINO (Waiverer in Name Only — then he just votes with Bush, yet again).
With Warner, and Lugar, I respect their public careers, but the fact is they Chaired Armed Services and Foreign Relations during the biggest foreign blunder in US history and they didn’t do oversight. I hope history puts them in their place.
As for Kerry being ahead of his time, well, as I’ve written here before his absence from this race is a tragedy.
The Iraqi’s least likely to be militant are increasingly going into exile, either internally or externally. Those not in exile, then, are the least able to move and those wanting to stay and fight. This fact hardly argues for our continued involvement. Were people coming out of exile it might be reasonable to say that we are doing something that would be worth continuing. Now, however, the traffic is all going only in the same old direction.
There is a serious problem in Iraq with availability of water, electricity, and jobs. Staying there must be sort of like being on a camping trip gone horribly wrong. There is always that human attachment to “home”, but there is also the instinct for self preservation. Self preservation is clearly winning and is clearly taking the form of “fight or flight”.
It looks like our staying there much longer will result in a situation where virtually the only ones left other than our troops will be the most hard core killers. If that wouldn’t be a monument to the incredible wisdom of our illustrious leader, what would be?