| Submit your comments on this article | ||
| Iraq | ||
| Panetta clashes with senators over Iraq | ||
| 2011-11-16 | ||
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta rejected accusations at a heated Senate hearing on Tuesday that U.S. politics helped drive the decision to completely withdraw from Iraq this year without leaving any troops behind as trainers. The October 21 drawdown announcement by President Barack Obama followed
In a particularly heated exchange, Senator John McCain flatly told Panetta he did not believe his version of events. He suggested that the Obama administration failed to provide Iraq the facts and figures it needed to make a decision. "The truth is that this administration was committed to the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. And they made it happen," said McCain. Panetta responded forcefully: "Senator McCain, that's just simply not true. I guess you can believe that ... but that's not true." General Martin Dempsey, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the top U.S. military officer, said he and others at the highest level of the Pentagon had been encouraged by Panetta and Panetta's predecessor, Robert Gates, to lobby Iraqi military leaders to accept some sort of training mission. "We were all asked to engage our counterparts, encourage them to accept some small permanent footprint," Dempsey said. The Iraq withdrawal announcement followed a June decision by Obama to bring a third of American troops home from Afghanistan by the end of next summer - a faster pace than the U.S. military had recommended. During both announcements, Obama assured Americans that, after a decade of constant conflict, the tide of war was receding. The two decisions have fueled criticism by Republicans that Obama is ignoring battleground realities in order to bring the two costly, bloody wars to a conclusion. "I think it's no accident that the troops are coming home (from Afghanistan) two months before his (2012) election," said Senator Lindsey Graham. "And if you believe that to be true, as I do, I don't think it's an accident that we got to zero (in Iraq)." Asked by Graham whether questions about fallout from Obama's Democratic base ever came up in discussions on Iraq, Panetta replied: "Not in any discussions that I participated (in)."
| ||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 Agree wid #2 - my read of MSM-Net Artics as per the IGA's intentions says that they = Iraq consider any post-2014 US Milfors, includ Mil-Civilian Advisors, staying behind in Iraq as wholly subject to new + separate bilateral agreement from "withdrawal/pullout". ---------- ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US GOVERNMENT [Super-Committee] MAY CANCEL ITS F-35 JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER PROGRAM, unless Congress comes up wid a "credible deficit reduction" plan. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-11-16 20:45 |
| #2 So, let me read this right. Panetta said the goal of the administration was not the complete withdrawl, but it has happened anyways? IIUC, and correct me if I'm wrong, but all troops must withdraw, and any trainers must be invited and re-introduced? |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2011-11-16 16:16 |
| #1 I thought the 2011 EoY drawdown was a Bush initiative? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2011-11-16 00:27 |