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| Member of "bipartisan ISG" delivers Democrat Radio Response |
| 2006-12-17 |
| HT to Drudge Former Clinton Defense Secretary William Perry, a member of the Iraq Study Group, said Saturday that Iraq could turn into a "quagmire" if the Bush administration fails to change strategy. Perry, who led the Pentagon under President Clinton, delivered the Democratic Party's weekly radio address. Referring to the Vietnam War, Perry said: "The term 'quagmire' recalls one of the saddest periods in American history, which we do not want to relive. But I believe that is likely to happen if we 'stay the course' in Iraq." unlike Somalia, or the Balkans or.... Perry reiterated the recommendations of last week's report from the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton. Baker's group is a sellout. Ignore them "We need to accelerate the training of Iraqi army and police forces," Perry said. "We need to begin to pull out U.S. combat brigades, with the goal of having all except rapid-reaction forces out by first quarter of 2008. ... We need to push friendly regional powers to assist. We need to put pressure on unfriendly regional powers to stop arming militias and fomenting violence. And finally, we need to invigorate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process." President Bush has been meeting over the last week with current and former military leaders -- as well as advisers from other parts of the government -- to assess possible new strategies for the Iraq war. But he has made it clear he will not map out a new war strategy until his new defense secretary, Robert Gates, has taken over and offered his counsel. The Iraq Study Group report was critical of just about every aspect of the administration's war policies. Bush welcomed some of its recommendations but dismissed others, particularly the call for withdrawing a substantial number of U.S. troops over the next year. Perry said he believed the report "will frame the debate in our country this coming year. And it will demonstrate that it is possible, even in the poisonous political climate that now exists, to address important national problems in a truly bipartisan manner." "as long as you do everything we say" |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #1 I have no problem with the left prposing change in strategy as ling as they are honest about it. But the fact is after almost four years of leaks and lies, and now this proposal to surrender you have to wonder if they even have a plan at all to win the war. We know they have a plan, they always have a plan, to surrender/retreat, but can they step up under center and take a snap? This last four year and I have yet to hear someone from the left use the term "win" in regards to a war. They know what is at stake. If Bush does somehow, despite all the leaks and lies perpetrated by the left to undermine presidential and national authority to conduct war, manage to establsh security and democray in Iraq, it will damage the left's ability to interfere with warmaking policy for a generation. That ultimately is what is at stake and the stakes have never been higher. It is critical Dubya puts a 'W' in the win column for America. |
| Posted by: badanov 2006-12-17 11:22 |