Ex-Iraq commander says bring troops home
By ANNE FLAHERTY
Associated Press
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top commander in Iraq shortly after the fall of Baghdad, said this week he supports Democratic legislation that calls for most troops to come home within a year.
His comments come as welcomed ammunition for the Democratic-controlled Congress in its standoff with the White House on war spending. This month, the House passed a $50 billion bill that would pay for combat operations but sets the goal that combat end by Dec. 15, 2008. The White House threatened to veto the measure, and Senate Republicans blocked it from passing.
The Pentagon on Tuesday said that as many as 200,000 civilian employees and contractors will begin receiving layoff warnings by Christmas unless Congress approves a war spending bill that President Bush will sign.
"The improvements in security produced by the courage and blood of our troops have not been matched by a willingness on the part of Iraqi leaders to make the hard choices necessary to bring peace to their country," Sanchez said in remarks to be aired Saturday for the weekly Democratic radio address.
"There is no evidence that the Iraqis will choose to do so in the near future or that we have an ability to force that result," he said.
Sanchez added that the House bill "makes the proper preparation of our deploying troops a priority and requires the type of shift in their mission that will allow their numbers to be reduced substantially."
(Continued here.)
Associated Press
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top commander in Iraq shortly after the fall of Baghdad, said this week he supports Democratic legislation that calls for most troops to come home within a year.
His comments come as welcomed ammunition for the Democratic-controlled Congress in its standoff with the White House on war spending. This month, the House passed a $50 billion bill that would pay for combat operations but sets the goal that combat end by Dec. 15, 2008. The White House threatened to veto the measure, and Senate Republicans blocked it from passing.
The Pentagon on Tuesday said that as many as 200,000 civilian employees and contractors will begin receiving layoff warnings by Christmas unless Congress approves a war spending bill that President Bush will sign.
"The improvements in security produced by the courage and blood of our troops have not been matched by a willingness on the part of Iraqi leaders to make the hard choices necessary to bring peace to their country," Sanchez said in remarks to be aired Saturday for the weekly Democratic radio address.
"There is no evidence that the Iraqis will choose to do so in the near future or that we have an ability to force that result," he said.
Sanchez added that the House bill "makes the proper preparation of our deploying troops a priority and requires the type of shift in their mission that will allow their numbers to be reduced substantially."
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
Is the Iraq occupation going to come to an end without achieving any of Bush’s goals ?
First, US troop occupation levels are being reduced. The military does not want to maintain the force levels due to stress on the troops by requiring deployments without adequate out-of-theatre time.
Second, the UN mandate that provides reason for the occupation will expire in December and will have to be renewed. Iraqi officials have said the extension of the mandate through the end of 2008 will be the last.
Third, The International Herald Tribune reports : Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who heads the Supreme Islamic Iraq Council(SIIC), said the government will link discussions on the next extension of the U.N. mandate of the U.S.-led multinational force to an agreement that Iraq will gain full sovereignty and "full control over all of its resources and issues." Further, he would issue a"declaration of intent" that would raise "issues on organizing the presence of the multinational forces and ending their presence on Iraqi land."
NOTE : SIIC was founded in Iran and its armed wing, the Badr Brigade, was widely accused by Sunni Arabs of operating death squads in the aftermath of the American invasion of Iraq. Hakim is a fierce rival of Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shiite cleric, and there have been frequent clashes between the two militias. Hakim in his speech stated that the US needs more proof of allegations Iran is fomenting violence in Iraq. { Remember earlier this week the report
of foreign fighters in Iraq were Saudis, Libyans, Algerians, etc … but NO Iranians.}
Fourth, as Sanchez points out there is no evidence that the current Iraqi parliament is interested in resolving the issues that Bush laid out as justification for the surge.
So come January 2009, a new President will be sworn in and have to devise a plan to maintain a presence in the Middle East when Saudi Arabia already kicked us out in 2002 and Iraq will want to stand on its own. And as a backdrop, Iraq is scheduled to have its next set of elections in 2009.
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