Tuesday - November 14, 2006

Handwriting On The Wall

_{Tab - The Calgary Sun}

Leading Democrats Announce Their Plan For Iraq
_{WASHINGTON (ABC NEWS) - Nov. 13, 2006}

Democrats who turned voter frustration with President Bush and the war in Iraq into majorities in both houses of Congress welcomed their new colleagues to Capitol Hill orientation today and said they would respond to the voter discontent. Leading Senate Democrats revived a plan for the “phased redeployment” of American troops out of Iraq, even though the plan did not get unanimous support among Democrats when it was first introduced in June.

What phased withdrawal would mean, according to Sen. Carl Levin, who after January will be the powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is that the president would tell the Iraqi government that U.S. troops would start slowly redeploying out of Iraq, into an advisory role while they are in-country, and with a lot fewer of them there.

“Most Democrats share the view that we should pressure the White House to commence the phased redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq in four to six months — to begin that phased redeployment, and thereby to make it clear to the Iraqis that our presence is not open-ended and that they must take and make the necessary political compromises to preserve Iraq as a nation,” Levin said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “We cannot save the Iraqis from themselves.

“They, and they alone, are going to decide whether they’re going to have a nation or whether they’re going to have an all-out civil war,” he said. “We have given them the opportunity, at huge cost of blood and treasure, to have a nation, should they choose it. But it is up to them, not us, not our brave and valiant troops — it’s up to the Iraqi leadership: Do they want a civil war or do they want a nation?”

Asked what would happen if phased redeployment is enacted, American troops leave Iraq and the country descends into civil war, Levin said there would be no real difference from what is happening with current U.S. policy, since civil war is the current trajectory. Levin said Democrats would wait to hear the suggestions of the Iraq Study Group as well as what he called “scrubbing” of options in Iraq currently underway by ranking military officials.

For his part, Bush implied that Democratic majorities in the House and Senate mean that Democrats have won themselves ownership of a piece of the credit and blame in Iraq. “What’s interesting is they’re beginning to understand that with victory comes responsibility, and I’m looking forward to working with the Democrats to achieve common objectives,” Bush said after his own photo op — this one with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the Oval Office.

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/14/2006 at 02:38 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Iraq •  
• Comments (11) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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