Posted on 06/12/2005 10:42:33 PM PDT by Pikamax
Republican lawmakers urge shift in Iraq plans Sun Jun 12, 2005 11:58 PM ET
By Vicki Allen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican congressman called for a deadline to pull U.S. troops from Iraq, while some other members of President Bush's party urged on Sunday that his administration come to grips with a persistent insurgency and revamp Iraq policy.
Rep. Walter Jones, a North Carolina conservative, said on ABC's "This Week" that he would offer legislation this week setting a timetable for the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
"I voted for the resolution to commit the troops, and I feel that we've done about as much as we can do," said Jones, who coined the phrase "freedom fries" to lash out at the French for opposing the Iraq invasion.
Other Republicans on television talk shows joined Democrats in criticizing the administration for playing down the insurgency, while overestimating the ability of Iraq's fledgling forces to fight without U.S. soldiers in the lead and failing to plan for the post-invasion occupation.
"The insurgency is alive and well. We underestimated the viability of the insurgency," Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said on CBS' Face the Nation. He said the administration has "been slow to adjust when it comes to troop strength and supporting our troops."
Graham said the Army is contending with a serious shortfall in recruiting "because this war is going sour in terms of word of mouth from parents and grandparents." He said "if we don't adjust, public opinion is going to keep slipping away."
Jones, a member of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said "primarily the neoconservatives" in the administration were to blame for flawed war planning.
"The reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that's all been proven that it was never there," he said.
Jones joins some of Congress' most liberal Democrats in demanding a deadline to withdraw troops from a conflict they said has been too costly in U.S. lives and money.
According to a new Gallup Poll, nearly six in 10 Americans say the United States should withdraw some or all of its troops from Iraq, up from 49 percent who held that view in February, USA Today reported in its Monday edition.
The Bush administration contends that setting a withdrawal date would fuel an insurgency that Vice President Dick Cheney recently said was in "the last throes."
Graham opposed setting a date. "If the insurgents drive us out ... we've lost a big battle in the war on terror," he said.
Jones said he was pushing the legislation because his "heart aches" at the nearly 1,700 U.S. soldiers killed and 12,000 seriously wounded in Iraq. He said Iraqis should defend themselves once their forces are trained.
Rep. Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who just returned from Iraq, joined several Democrats saying the administration must be more candid and acknowledge that it could take about two years to train Iraqi forces to replace U.S. soldiers and allow a significant pullout.
"We can't come back to America and have our people being convinced that the Iraqi troops are prepared to take over, when they're not," he said on NBC's Meet the Press.
Weldon also said the administration must "come to grips" with a rising insurgency, boosted by fighters from Syria and Iran, "which for some reason our intelligence community does not want to acknowledge or deal with."
Weldon said he heard "a common theme" in Iraq that the largest number of foreign insurgents may be coming from Syria, but that "Iran overwhelmingly has the quality behind the insurgency."
Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, said on CNN's Late Edition, that "many of us warned this administration before we ever put a boot on the ground" that it would face a long-term conflict. "We didn't have plans for it. And we are now where we are," he said.
Congressmen are such whiners.
Everyone needs to take a deep breathe and assess the overall situation. If we need to do anything, what we need to do is widen the war and take out Iran and Syria.
Why doesn't these media maggots ask our Military leaders their opinions if we need to retreat, or back off, on the plan known as "Victory"
The only thing these "Lawmakers" are primarily concerned with is being reelected to their cushy position of being pampered by every Lobbyist on Capital Hill, and this is the direct result of "Popular Polling" or what I prefer to call "Push Polling" conducted by the same NEWS organizations who are bombarding the average American with their front page stories that focus only on what, they consider, will further their left wing agenda.
Lets see here..... The Washington Post publishes articles that trash George W. Bush and the Iraq War 24/7 and then they conduct what they call an "Unbiased Poll" of their subscribers who claim the Nation is heading in the wrong direction, the support of the war in Iraq is diminishing, and George W. Bush's popularity is tanking...... Well! no Shi'ite Sherlock. When you control what is digested by your readers, it's easy to get the desired "Poll" results that support your agenda
Their needs to be change in Iraq, bring in the B52's and show whos boss. Bush keeps giving the same "were staying the course..." speeches and the insurgents keep killing are troops. I say show them whos boss, should have happened the first time an american was beheaded.
And bomb whom with those B-52's?
This is an insurgency. They go on for a while. There's little we can do to change that, save counter it and wait it out. They're not winning over the Iraqi people.
Now, we should go into Iran and Syria as necessary.
The terrorist campaign in Iraq can only succeed if the Sunnis back it. The problem is not infiltration from Syria and Iran. Without Sunni support they would be quickly rounded up.
The answer is to bring Kurdish and Shiite trained forces into the Sunni triangle (which is now taking place), provide US fire power(tanks/choppers/etc) and basically give the minority Sunnis population an ultimatum - stop supporting the bad guys and join the government or we'll let the Shiites and Kurds do whatever the hell they want and back them all the way. Being out numbered 4 to 1, with limited military options - car bombs and IEDs - they would not last very long.
As for Weldon, I think he's being snookered by this Ali source into getting us to go into Iran. He has no training in vetting informants, double agents or anyone else for that matter.
Oh Great.
Now we have GOP sidewalk superintendents too?
Our troops and the guys running the show have no need for "help" from the legions of slack-jawed droolers in the back of the line.
The timeline we'll be watching is how short a time it will be before he's flippin' burgers again.
Send this guy to the Kerry campaign HQ.
Thank him for his loyalty to his Commander-in-Chief.
The Iraqis have a unique way of dealing with captured insurgents, particularly the foreigners; when they're done extracting information from them they take them out to the desert and shoot them.
Open your ears .. He has said it would take time
Good Grief .. was Congress this bad after WWII ???
A sizeable portion of Sunnis, if not a majority support the TNA and the government building process. They're just slower at coming around; which is understandable considering their former status under Saddam. They're starting to look towards the future; perhaps they now realize that without much oil in central Iraq a national government is all they can hope for.
Lindsay and Hagel...the usual suspects.
Conservative, my *ss.
RINOs are a threat to the national security of the United States, just like their liberal brethren in the Democratic Party. They are the last protective ring around socialism in this country.
The sooner conservatives realize it, the sooner we can solve the problem.
Reuters.
*spit*
Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican
Hagel is a total sellout to the Republican party. This guy actually has aspirations for POTUS but every time he opens his mouth he puts more distance between those hopes.
, said on CNN's Late Edition, that "many of us warned this administration before we ever put a boot on the ground" that it would face a long-term conflict. "We didn't have plans for it. And we are now where we are," he said.
I'll do it better if you just give me the Presidency. What a bag of hot air.
And yet the media continues to act like they speak for ALL of the Republicans in congress
What the good Sen. Lindsey Graham fails to understand is that the enemies of Iraqis are our enemies too. We aren't fighting for them. We are fighting OUR war. Where does he think the terrorists want to control? Baghdad...Kandahar? Yes. But they will enter the US and attack DC...Seattle...Chicago...LA just as they are able. And we are enabling them.
Weldon also said the administration must "come to grips" with a rising insurgency, boosted by fighters from Syria and Iran, "which for some reason our intelligence community does not want to acknowledge or deal with."
I hate to agre with a Dimocrat, but this guy is right. The border should have been sealed of immediately after we went into Iraq. We has done little to keep these so-called insurgents from coming across. Recently, we have taken some steps to control the access, but I don't think it has been enough. ALL traffic should be stopped until things stabilize
Don't beat yourself up about agreeing with a Dem. Weldon's a Republican.
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