Posted on 01/28/2005 9:28:00 AM PST by demlosers
TANYA NOLAN: As President Bush calls for resolve in the face of attempts by insurgents to undermine the elections, a US Senator is calling for American troops to be withdrawn from Iraq. The liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy says the US military is now part of the problem.
But, as Washington correspondent John Shovelan reports, even members of Senator Kennedy's own party don't agree.
JOHN SHOVELAN: Ted Kennedy calls the war in Iraq President Bush's Vietnam.
TED KENNEDY: This is Vietnam again.
JOHN SHOVELAN: And just a few days before the Iraqi elections, Senator Kennedy urged the administration for a specific commitment to withdraw all US troops over the next year, beginning with an immediate withdrawal of 12,000 and completing it by early 2006.
Senator Kennedy says the war in Iraq has become a war against the US.
TED KENNEDY: We must learn from our mistakes. We must recognise what a large and growing number of Iraqis now believe the war in Iraq has become a war against the American occupation.
JOHN SHOVELAN: Some polls suggest 92 per cent of Iraqis see the US as an occupation force.
Senator Kennedy has previously described the war as a fraud made up in Texas, and said the administration misled the people about the threats leading up to it.
Now he says the US forces and the insurgents are battling for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, and the US is losing.
TED KENNEDY: We have reached the point that a prolonged American military presence in Iraq is no longer productive for either Iraq or the United States. The US military presence has become part of the problem, not part of the solution.
We need a serious course correction. And we need it now. We must make it for the American soldiers who are paying with their lives.
JOHN SHOVELAN: Democrats this week launched a blistering attack on the administration's Iraq policy, and forced a nine-hour debate on the nomination of the President's Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, while the White House has begun implementing an aggressive plan which paints the Iraq election and the US commitment there as vital to its interests.
But it's a communication strategy which is struggling. A Wall Street Journal poll has found 52 per cent of people don't believe the war in Iraq was worth it.
Despite this public slump in support, the Democrat warhorse, Senator Kennedy's view wasn't supported by fellow Democrat Senator Bill Nelson.
BILL NELSON: If we turn tail and pull out, the place would erupt into civil war, there would be all kind of chaos. Terrorism loves a vacuum, the terrorists would fill it.
JOHN SHOVELAN: The White House has refused to discuss a time line for troop withdrawal, saying the goal first is to ensure Iraqis are capable of maintaining their own security.
John Shovelan, Washington.
Clearly Teddy is the baby of the family and spoiled silly.
I smile every time I think of when Kristinn caught him outside a TV station (recently) and commented about poor Mary Jo's untimely death and Kennedy pretended not to notice.
HEHEH!
FReepers are everywhere!
Kennedy has come to define the parameters of what constitutes a kook. He has been wobbling off axis for years, going back to the Viet Nam war, reneging on practically every blaze of idealism that was put on display by his brother John, and fighting vigorously to destroy whatever legacy his brother Robert had established. This may have allowed him to avoid the fate of an ambush assassination, but the later stages of long-term alcohol abuse are certainly becoming apparent.
Edward M. Kennedy has become a mumbling mediocrity.
It's Teddy boy who needs to do some withdrawing... in detox.
Yep! a true schitzoid. First they want more troops now they want a withdrawl. Standing on shifting sands......
Welcome home, MikeinIraq!! Thank you very much for your service!!
I, too, would like him to shut up!! The Republicans need to get a real, viable candidate to challenge him AND Kerry when they are up for re-election. When Kennedy was up for re-election a couple years ago, I had to vote for the Green Party candidate - nobody challenged him - it's a disgrace.
I think that is half the issue with him. He KNOWS that no one up there has teh base or the b@lls to challenge him. Kerry is a more likely person to get beaten before Kennedy is.
I think (I'm afraid) that unless Teddy kills another chick, we are stuck with him until his end.....
SHUT UP FAT DRUNK!
Welcome home, MikeinIraq!! Thank you very much for your service!!
I, too, would like him to shut up!! The Republicans need to get a real, viable candidate to challenge him AND Kerry when they are up for re-election. When Kennedy was up for re-election a couple years ago, I had to vote for the Green Party candidate - nobody challenged him - it's a disgrace.
sorry for the double-post....
"A solution to the Mass. problems of Kennedy and Kerry"
We get enough Freepers and like minded individuals to move to that Blue state AND PAINT THE TOWN RED! We move enough of us in there to throw the bums out...then move out to Calfornia and do the same things with Boxer and Fienstein.
Do you have proof??
When the fat drunk dies, they better not try and cremate him, the bastard traitor will burn for three days.
Why doesnt someone stand up like C Rice and say you know what..thats treason to signal weakness to the enemy and call for withdrawl at a specified time..the enemy would knowing our timetable make changes accordingly...cant they understand that?
Sounds good to me. I wonder why, when Kerry was
touting his Vietnam heroism..there was not a peep
out of this guy..Kennedy. Where was he when Vietnam
was being quagmired (Walt Cronkite terminology)...I
guess he was too busy taking ladies across a bridge..
You know the rest. This man is typical of most of
the "delirious Senators- 13 of them" a fruitcake from
the get-go..and a complete..A$$. Jake
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