Posted on 07/05/2007 3:56:37 PM PDT by leadpenny
3:23 PM
Sen. Pete Domenici (N.M.), a 36-year Republican veteran of the Senate, abandoned President Bush's Iraq war policy today by publicly endorsing legislation designed to withdraw nearly all U.S. troops from Iraq by March 2008.
Domenici, a member of the defense appropriations subcommittee, is the fourth senior Senate Republican to sharply criticize Bush's war strategy in the past two weeks. He announced during a press conference in Albuquerque that he was co-sponsoring legislation that would embrace the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which called for a major redeployment that would leave only a limited number of troops in Iraq to focus on counter-terror operations and securing the border.
"I have carefully studied the Iraq situation, and believe we cannot continue asking our troops to sacrifice indefinitely while the Iraqi government is not making measurable progress to move its country forward," Domenici said. "I do not support an immediate withdrawal from Iraq or a reduction in funding for our troops. But I do support a new strategy that will move our troops out of combat operations and on the path to coming home."
Domenici's defection is the latest from a growing number of senior Senate Republicans who have decided to oppose the White House's preferred plan of waiting for a mid-September progress report on the effectiveness of Bush's "surge" plan of boosting the U.S. deployment in Iraq this year by tens of thousands of troops.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Another spineless RINO... who is up for reelection. Screw him.
Good Lord, thank you for NOT having these "men" in charge of our war effort during World War II.
For whatever his faults, Lord, thanks for the guts of Harry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt, who decided the defeat of totalitarians in Germany and Japan and Italy was the MISSION of our nation, and that unless we beat them--even if we had to temporarily make nice with other bad guys like the Soviets--the world their grandchildren of the 21st century would be a much darker one!
THINK ABOUT IT, FOLKS!
If we didn't have grandpas and grandmas with GUTS and DETERMINATION, the world we'd have now could likely be one ruled by a protege/successor of Hiter....
When I think of the PANSIES we have in government now, it makes me SICK to think of the world we'll give our grandchildren: one where if terrorists KEEP FIGHTING US FOR A LONG LONG TIME, we pull out and give up.
Hell, by that time we may not HAVE a nation to defend....the kids will be required to go down and watch the beheadings and the "re-educated" go through their drills down at the local soccer pitch.
Oh, and please don’t ask me what victory is. If you don’t know, you don’t belong in the game.
I will donate heavily to any Conservative that can mount a challenge to him in the primary.
LLS
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070705/pl_nm/iraq_usa_dc
Another senior Republican breaks with Bush on Iraq
By Susan Cornwell
59 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush’s Iraq war policy continued to hemorrhage support in the U.S. Senate as another senior Republican called on Thursday for a new strategy that would start to bring troops home.
A day after Bush appealed to Americans to be more patient with the unpopular war, six-term New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici, who is up for re-election next year, urged a new course.
“I am unwilling to continue our current strategy,” Domenici, who serves on the Senate’s defense appropriations subcommittee, said in a statement.
“I do not support an immediate withdrawal from Iraq or a reduction in funding for our troops. But I do support a new strategy that will move our troops out of combat operations and on the path to coming home,” Domenici said.
Domenici joined the ranks of influential Republican lawmakers who recently have broken with Bush over the 4-year-old conflict in Iraq, declaring themselves unable to keep backing a war that has no end in sight after the deaths of 3,590 U.S. troops.
“I have carefully studied the Iraq situation and believe we cannot continue asking our troops to sacrifice indefinitely while the Iraqi government is not making measurable progress to move its country forward,” Domenici said.
Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declared last week that Bush’s strategy was not working and troops should start leaving. Ohio Sen. George Voinovich, another Republican, urged “gradual military disengagement.”
Bush has shown no public sign of changing course. On Wednesday, he asked the country for “more patience, more courage and more sacrifice” in Iraq during an Independence Day address at a National Guard air base.
The White House has played down the Republican defections while anti-war forces have new hope for a coalition in the Senate that would force a change in U.S. war strategy.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who voted to authorize the war in 2002 but then soured on the conflict, said on Thursday that senators like Domenici, Lugar and Voinovich now had to back their criticism with votes for withdrawal.
Reid said they would have a chance beginning with a defense policy bill that will be brought to the Senate floor next week.
Domenici said he backed a bipartisan Senate proposal that may be debated as part of the defense policy bill and would create the conditions for a possible drawdown of U.S. troops by March.
The plan by Sens. Ken Salazar, a Colorado Democrat, and Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, embraces recommendations made last December by the Iraq Study Group.
Republican leaders have urged lawmakers to wait until September, when the top U.S. commander in Iraq makes his progress report, before pushing for change in Iraq policy. But Domenici said he could see now that things were not improving.
On Drudge now.
From POLITICO:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0707/Domenici_is_the_latest.html
Throw the RINO bums out.
I believe the surge is working! What a shame if we pull out now - what a waste! And I shudder to think of the ramifications if we do that.
He may or may not be a RINO, but he is now showing himself to be a weak-kneed wuss. These idiots need to be shown the door and replaced with some folk with the balls to fight a war longer than 3 weeks.
after the “fellow travelers” in the u.s. state department
revealed american military secrets to the chicoms during the korean war,
and after the collaboration of the american new left and american media with the communists during the vietnam war,
you’d think that the bush administration would have prepared for iraq carefully.
not. rumsfeld, franks, tenet, bremer blew it.
as colin powell said, “if you break it, you own it.”
bush owns it.
Lugar, Voinovich and now this creep. Pathetic...
IMPORTANT — WE NEED TO GO AFTER SENS. LUGAR,DOMENICI, VOINOVICH, ETC. CALL 202-224-3121.
PLEASE READ WHAT’S HAPPENING IN IRAQ
al-Qaida Video Reflects Group’s Troubles [turns out winning in Iraq is fundamental to al-Qaida]
AP via Breitbart.com ^ | July 5, 2007
Posted on 07/05/2007 2:24:31 PM PDT by John Jorsett
BAGHDAD (AP) - A new video by al-Qaida’s deputy leader Thursday left no doubt about what the terror network claims is at stake in Iraq—describing it as a centerpiece of its anti-American fight and insisting the Iraqi insurgency is under its direct leadership.
But the proclamations by Ayman al-Zawahri carried another unintended message: reflecting the current troubles confronting the Sunni extremists in Iraq, experts said.
Yes, let's give the Democrats a bigger majority in the Senate. brilliant.
Pete has served this country well and I met him some 15 years ago.
Anyone can read my former posts and I dare them to challenge my conservative cajoles but folks sometimes a Senator or two gets it close to right.
I have said all along that we should have taken off the kid gloves and douched out the country of Iraq when it first came our way.
We should have exploited the oil for our own since the damn ignorant peace loving world thinks that is why were there in the first place.
Hell why not just make Iraq our ST state since it is evidently a hell of a lot less extreme fringe than Kalifornia or Vermont.
Even though we can’t seem to be able to seal our own Southern border we should have sealed the borders with Iran and Syria.
We should have given Iran and Syria an ultimatum and said cross the damn border and kill one American boy and your ass will suffer from a few FAT Boys and Bunker Busters being dropped over your stupid nuclear works.
Cross over again and your damn fascists government will be history and El Presidente MoIamanutjob will be swinging from the gallows like his crazy wannabe brother Sadam.
Well thats my lowly red state opinion Flame Away.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.