On Wednesday, in a desperate attempt to shore up support for his failed "surge" strategy, President Bush compared a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq to America's withdrawal at the end of the Vietnam War. The president is wrong. We don't need anymore troop surges, we need a diplomatic surge.
We must get all our troops out of Iraq as soon as possible.
In 1968, Richard Nixon ran on a platform of ending the war with honor. It took 7 years to get the last American soldier out of Vietnam. In the meantime, tens of thousands more Americans died. Countless civilians died in Vietnam, in Cambodia and the killing fields, and millions more ultimately had to flee their homes.
Dragging out the process of withdrawal will be tragically worse in terms of U.S. lives lost and in terms of the instability we will create by staying longer.
We have now been in Iraq longer than it took to win World War II. My plan for Iraq ends the war with the fewest possible U.S. casualties and it moves the Iraqis' reconciliation process forward. My position has been consistent and unwavering.
Some say that all of the Democratic presidential candidates have the same position on Iraq. I strongly disagree.
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards have all proposed leaving residual troops in Iraq indefinitely, which will only drag out the process to the detriment of all involved.
I would pull ALL of our troops out -- they have become targets, and only a complete withdrawal makes sense.
That means no airbases, no embedded soldiers training Iraqi forces, no troops in the Green Zone. Zero troops. I would leave the customary marine contingent at our Embassy, but if that became unsafe, then I'd bring them home too. Only then can the diplomatic process of reconciliation and reconstruction truly begin, and the US must lead the way in making it happen.
On Sunday, at the ABC debate in Iowa, I asked the other candidates directly: how many troops would you leave behind? 25,000? 50,000? 75,000? For how long?
I am still waiting for an answer.
He would pull out of Iraq and not try to turn it into a U.S. puppet, as the neoconservatives want. Good. Then what? What about the 4,000,000 Arab, Muslim Palestinians under Israeli military occupation -- deprived of the vote, deprived of civil liberties, jailed, tortured, humiliated -- for 40 years? Republicans, and American Zionists, claim that this situation has nothing to do with terrorism. Terrorists, they say, are crazy people who drop from the sky for no reason at all. I ask all candidates, what is your theory about the causes of terrorism, and will you continue to subsidize Israel? I have yet to hear a response from any candidate.
http://www.planforiraq.com/
IRAQ OIL THEFT MOTIVE:
http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2006/09/iraq-oil-war-resources.html
If these guys were serious about fighting terror, our news would be all about Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, not Iraq and Iran.
Terror is the excuse, not the reason.
Thanks for yet another honest statement that separates you from the front runners who are incapable of taking this clear stand. Those who think we should be in Iraq are the same who will let the MIC lead US into a conflict with Iran.
Start by consistently and continually showing the American public the daily effects of it on the Iraqi population.
Without censure.
Show the blown-up bodies.
Show the dead and wounded children.
Show the grieving families of the dead and wounded.
Anyone who criticizes this as blatantly indecent, should question the decency of what America has forced upon the Iraqi civilians.
I recently went to the Dominican Republic on vacation and was shocked to see 2-3 minutes of news footage of up-close dead bodies from a car accident. This is routine there. It is done to try and make people drive better by showing them the consequences of bad driving.
If the American public was truly exposed to the realities of what their government and politicians subject the peoples of other nations to, they would not be so quick to send their sons and daughters off to war, and they would think twice about the decency of their own morals and "Christian values".
The American mass media is party to this illegal, cruel and unjust war. Shame, shame, shame on them.
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What we have lost is the peace.
How many more US Troops killed? 10,000?
How many more US Troops wounded? 50,000?
How many more ISF killed? 30,0000?
How any more ISF Wounded? 150,000?
How many more Iraqi Civilians killed? 250,000?
How many more Iraqi Civilians wounded? 1.5 Million?
How many more Iraqi's will be displayed from their homes? 50,000/month? 6 Million?
Will there be any Iraqi's left to GOVERN or be GOVERNED when we "WIN" and establish a DEMOCRATIC IRAQ?
Oh ya, then ask what the impact will be if we withdraw 100,000 troops by the end of 2008?
There is no "nation of Iraq." There is a collection of disparate ethnic and religious groups that have been hating and killing each other for a thousand years. You cannot make a nation out of people who do not want to be a nation.
Iraqi Killed Saving U.S. Troops
An Iraqi man saved the lives of four U.S. Soldiers and eight civilians when he intercepted a suicide bomber during a Concerned Citizens meeting in the town of al-Arafia Aug. 18.
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,146880,00.html
I resent the fact that media has chosen a couple of candidates and is telling us to pick one. And like you said, why isn't Nevada being covered?