Posted on 09/11/2007 7:10:20 AM PDT by tobyhill
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Tuesday -- on the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks -- that the Bush administration's troop "surge" in Iraq is at best a "stopgap" measure.
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, told Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker at the start of a hearing on their reports that the time to start troop drawdowns is now, and that a "diplomatic surge" is imperative.
He said a federally decentralized Iraq with a limited central government is the "last best hope" for Iraq.
Biden said he found little reason to believe that sectarian violence will end in Iraq.
"Are we any closer to a lasting political settlement? If we continue to surge, is there any evidence Sunnis, Shias and Kurds will stop killing?" Biden asked.
"The answer to both those questions is 'No,' " Biden said.
Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee said "the surge must not be an excuse" for failing to prepare for the next phase of U.S. involvement in Iraq -- whether that is a "partial withdrawal, a gradual redeployment or some other option."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
They do NOT have the balls to vote to cut the funding. They are spineless lost souls drifting on the political winds. Hypocrits at best with no real agenda. Crap and bark at the moon Biden. I saw Biden at the train station in Wash., D.C. and he has really bad hair plugs.
This Clown is in the top 3 of the dumbest Senators that ever served. However, he thinks he is brilliant and loves blowing smoke up the skirts of the Sunday show hosts. They never challenge him and they let him get away with his ignorant ideas and invented words. TERM LIMITS
The DBM/DNC never forgets an 'old reliable'...
“He said a federally decentralized Iraq with a limited central government is the “last best hope” for Iraq....
I do like the sound of that part, heck we should try it over here.
Senator Lugar ends his political career on a low note.
It is funny to see what happens in politics when the bill comes due and a party is unable to pay it (especially when it never had the means to pay for it in the first place). The democrats ran on nothing but “Iraq is a mess, trust us to fix it.” They had no plan, no agenda, no anything to solve the problems they campaigned on. Wonder how their supporters feel right about now seeing that the dems are unwilling to vote to cut funding.
They (Democrats/Socialists/Liberals) espouse what's good for Iraq, but completely follow their own socialist agenda here in our own country, grabbing more and more centralized control in Washington, while trampling peopes' rights that were to be PROTECTED by the Constitution.
What an asshat!
Please don't encourage a repetition of the disastrous mistake that the Truman administration made in Korea in 1949.
Truman's calamitous decision, to withdraw our troops from S. Korea, led directly to the loss of 30,000 American lives in Korea in the last 30 months of his presidency.
The lesson to be learned: Relying on redeployment can be a mistake of the highest kind.
In case you are unfamiliar with the the Korean Conflict, America's "Forgotten War," here is some background.
In its early years of freedom, the politically and socially unstable S. Korea was wracked with Civil War ( -- as an example, see information about the 1948 Cheju Uprising)
In 1949, President Truman removed our troops from S. Korea, only 4 years after we had freed that country from decades of oppression under the Japanese. The South Korean government was young, and S. Koreans had only recently begun to learn how to manage their own country's infrastructure, which had been managed by the Japanese for many decades. Their army was not strong enough to resist invasion.
As was foreseen by many thoughtful people, S. Korea was invaded and almost totally occupied within a year of Truman's troop withdrawal.
Truman must have been shaken with the realization that he had made an error of the greatest magnitude, even though he told the press he was merely sending US troops to S. Korea to fight a "police action" against "bandits."
Redeployment of US troops from Japan was not easy. US troops were undermanned, undersupplied (Truman had slashed the military budget) and underprepared for what they faced. The first troops sent from Japan were the closest but were the least ready to fight. (Please tell Mr. Murtha that it is a mistake to decide to rely on redeployment.) Landings in Korea were difficult and had to be diverted because of bad weather. Initially, American planes had no airbase in Korea and had to fly to Japan to refuel. (The S. Korean airbase had been taken over by the N. Koreans)
By the time the Korean War ended
1. 33,000+ Americans had died (at an average rate of 1,000 US deaths per month in Korea under Truman You can view a table comparing US deaths in Iraq and in Korea)
2. the military draft was in full swing, drawing in young men who had never been interested in joining the military
3. the severest wartime censorship in memory was imposed on the press (please read the about shocking censorship rules at the link)
4. millions of Koreans were killed, displaced, starving or homeless (read a sample story at Tragedy, Starvation and Incessant Plodding is Lot of Korean Refugee)
Our party is run by RINO's... that's why.
Someone tell Biden that it's up to the Iraqis to figure out the "federalism" balance they wish to achieve.
The Democrats can't seem to control themselves.
They need to tell everyone what's good for them.
I couldn,t agree more
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