Posted on 03/28/2006 6:07:17 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats promise to "eliminate" Osama bin Laden and ensure a "responsible redeployment of U.S. forces" from Iraq in 2006 in an election-year national security policy statement.
In the position paper to be announced Wednesday, Democrats say they will double the number of special forces and add more spies, which they suggest will increase the chances of finding al-Qaida's elusive leader. They do not set a deadline for when all of the 132,000 American troops now in Iraq should be withdrawn.
"We're uniting behind a national security agenda that is tough and smart and will provide the real security George Bush has promised but failed to deliver," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday.
His counterpart in the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., said the Democrats are offering a new direction — "one that is strong and smart, which understands the challenges America faces in a post 9/11 world, and one that demonstrates that Democrats are the party of real national security."
The latest in a series of party policy statements for 2006, the Democrats' national security platform comes seven months before voters decide who will control the House and Senate and as Democrats seek to cut into the public perception that the Republicans are stronger on national security.
Bush's job approval ratings are in the mid- to high-30s, and Democrats consistently have about a 10-point lead over Republicans when people are asked who they want to see in control of Congress.
With the public skeptical of the Iraq war and Republicans and Democrats alike questioning Bush's war policies, Democrats aim to force Republicans to distance themselves from Bush on Iraq and national security or rubber-stamp what Democrats contend is a failed policy.
"The Democrats are going to take back the security issue," said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Republicans have vowed not to let that happen. They characterized the Democrats' platform as tough election-year talk that isn't backed up by the party's record.
"This is more of the same from the party that opposes this president's effort to keep our country safe," said Tracey Schmitt, a Republican National Committee spokeswoman. "The bottom line is while this president campaigns against the terrorists, Democrats remain focused on campaigning against this president."
Overall, the Democratic position paper attempts to make the case that the Bush administration's "inadequate planning and incompetent policies have failed to make Americas as safe as we should be."
It covers party policy positions on homeland security, the war on terror, the military, Iraq and energy security, but it contains many of the same proposals Democrats have offered over the past year.
The platform also lacks specific details of how Democrats plan to capture bin Laden, the al-Qaida mastermind who has evaded U.S. forces in the more than four years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
For months, House and Senate Democrats have tried to craft a comprehensive position on national security, but they have splintered, primarily over Iraq.
Republicans have sought to use that division to their own political advantage, claiming that Democrats simply attack the president and his fellow Republicans without presenting proposals of their own.
They sure changed their tune.
Lord help us all. They wanna turn Iraq over to Terrorists.
sure, the Dems are going to invade Pakistan to get OBL. right.
So does that mean they are planning to invade Iran?
So Howard Dean has been sitting on Osama all this time!!
They wouldn't change a thing.
They will micro-manage the war just like LBJ and the results will be the same.
No, the article clearly states the dems' plan:
The platform also lacks specific details of how Democrats plan to capture bin Laden...
;^)
So let's hear the Dim's whine that goes "if we didn't outsource our offense when we had Osama pinned down at Tora Bora..."
Once that's done I'm sure just about anybody will be able to catch Osama.
I'd be kind of curious to know how they'd proceed if, say, we got intel that Osama was in Iran. Negotiate? Beg? Capitulate? The latter is, after all, what they did the last time the Dems were presented with an Iranian crisis, and they had control of both Houses at the time IIRC.
This is nothing but gas.
Somebody tell those wahoos they are no longer in charge!
Bull....Clinton had his chance BEFORE 911. Kiss my @$$.
Uh, how do they propose this? I thought they wanted to bring all the US troops home by next Wednesday.
WHAT A LOAD.
First, I smashed my face into his fist,
then I slammed my groin into his knee.
Boy, that really taught him a thing or two.
At every turn it is the Democrats (with a few weak-kneed GOPers) that are trying to hurt the GWOT efforts being led by our current CIC.
The GOP / RNC needs to get on their A-game. Make the 2006 elections about National Security and lets see what happens. But this means the GOP needs to grow a spine and come out forcefully backing CIC GWB and the war in Iraq.
The GOP wins hands down in NOV if they stand firm regarding Iraq & WOT, unashamedly touting the need to GO AFTER terrorists by all means ...and then throw in the little discussed fact about our 4 year + expanding, job creating economic boom!
It is ridiculous that the GOP is playing defense on these issues.
Why not? I'm sure Jay Rockerfeller knows exactly where he is.
bttt
This is frightening. If they get MORE votes, instead of less, because they say something this STUPID, this country is in deep trouble.
More spies. That's the ticket!
Bull....Clinton had his chance BEFORE 911. Kiss my @$$.
Thinking that jihad will end once bin Laden is captured/killed is an utterly foolish and potentially very dangerous mistake.
It's too bad President Bush already announced Andy Card's resignation. If only he held it for another day he could have stepped all over their story.
If this had any chance of working president Bush would have aleady done it.
They really do take the American public for fools, and what is frightnening is that the Dem half are.
I hate to say it but they will gain traction with this. Even conservatives such as myself have grown weary of the elusive OBL and his crazy cronies on the most wanted list.
It doesn't sway me in the least but it does piss me off to think this lanky bastard is still roaming the Pakistani mountainside.
No, they want to turn Chicago over to the terrorists.
Its sounds like they have finally joined up with the WOT -- our troops have been hunting OBL since day one. Finally the dems are going to support the mission! About damn time.
Whoa, Osama must be petrified with fear about what those Democrats might do, eh?
Nope.
Osama openly supported Democrat John Kerry when in early November, 2004 when he said (in a long and rambling statement) Your security is in your own hands. And every state that doesn't play with our security has automatically guaranteed its own security.
Translation: "red" states better watch out.
So, if Osama himself supports the Dems, why would we believe they would be more effective at capturing him?
.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., walks along the U.S.-Mexico border fence as he arrives for a news conference at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego, Wednesday, March, 22, 2006. Reid was scheduled to speak to tout Democratic proposals for border security. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
I'm not a military strategist, but this doesn't sound like any kind of "plan" to improve our national security. Well, at least they admit we have enemies. That's a start.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks at a news conference about port security on Capitol Hill in Washington March 15, 2006. Pelosi said that the Democrats would introduce legislation calling for the scanning of all shipping containers bound for the U.S. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
This change is step 3 of 4 parts of the overall rat strategy for the last 1.5 years. The war is going well and they know that Bush will get all the congrats when the war is over in a couple years.
1) First fabricate stories of how *Everything* is going badly in Iraq.
2) Pin all the blame Bush for how things are going in Iraq and blame his incompetance.
3) Come out with a pledge to fix all of Bush's mistakes.
4) Take credit where none is due.
It would be like taking the torch from the leader while he's out of sight behind some trees during the last 1/2 mile of a Marathon and claiming the victory for the full race.
As for the domestic enemies and their enablers, WE THE PEOPLE are coming after YOU.
And more special forces.
How on earth could Rumsfeld and President Bush not figure out it is just like playing Stratego.
I'm sold now, more spies, more special forces. I'm voting (D) for dumba$$es.
/sarc off
Nancy Pelosi is personally going to lead a Special Forces team into the Pakistani tribal areas to get him out.
...God help us if they win in Nov..
Osama is not the only problem. We cannot live safely in a World that has a movement like Al Qaeda in it. We have to destroy them, like we destroyed Naziism.
the way things are going, we'll give OBL amnesty and citizenship then pay him to go to Yale.
Exactly! They won't have a commander in chief in place in 2006 and with any luck at all not for years to come.
They don't believe in monitoring phone calls to people in the U.S. They don't believe in invading the privacy of sovereign nations.They don't believe in much of the Patriot Act.
What in the H*11 will they do?
There plan is to win in Nov..impeach Bush and Cheney and put Pelosi in as Prez.....LOL
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