Posted on 07/06/2005 1:30:23 AM PDT by phoenix_004
A U.S. senator who criticized President Bush's Iraq policy at recent congressional hearings was in Baghdad on Wednesday for meetings with politicians, officials said. Sen. Carl Levin, the Senate Armed Services Committee's senior Democrat, was accompanied by several members of his staff, U.S. Embassy spokesman Adam Hobson said. The embassy referred all other queries to the Michigan senator's office, where staffers weren't immediately available for comment.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a statement early Wednesday saying that he would receive a U.S. Senate delegation in the heavily fortified Green Zone, where Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy are located.
During contentious Senate Armed Services Committee hearings more than a week ago, Levin stressed that he and other critics of Bush's Iraq policy are determined to show their support for U.S. troops in Iraq. At the same time, "we're also determined to be constructive critics of the policies which not only sent them there, as unequipped, and without international support, and without plans for the aftermath," he said.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. John Abizaid, top American commander in the Persian Gulf, were among those who testified at the hearings.
Levin said the Bush administration should tell the Iraqis that if they do not meet their deadline for drafting a new constitution - Aug. 15, with a possible six-month extension - the United States would consider setting a timetable for troop withdrawals.
Rumsfeld said such a timetable would be a bad mistake.
Levin also challenged Abizaid to contradict Vice President Dick Cheney's assessment that the insurgency was in its "last throes." While Abizaid acknowledged that he believed more foreign fighters were entering Iraq now compared to six months ago, he declined to criticize Cheney's statement.
Had he stayed home, his report would have been the same same negative drivel. I despise Carl Levin.
did he do any photo-ops with Zarqawi or al Sadr?
Ditto. But, one thing, he's tied for first place with Alan Greenspan in the 'All-American Comb-Over Contest'.
Levin ought to lose the glasses too.
Same here.
Worse yet, Levin's hair appears GREASY and unwashed. He's a filthy pig.
How did you know I was new?
Thanks.
Put your mouse over each name and you will see the sign-on dates. I didn;t recognize your name, so I looked.
The guy is a complete arse. Who does he think he is uttering threats? May a stray celebritory bullet land on his head, or at the very least, may a thousand camel fleas infest his armpits.
Please stay there.
Sincerely,
Ranald S. MacKenzie
It's always the a-holes who make the threats. Like Kennedy, Biden, Leahy and this a-hole whom I truly despise. I cannot understand why Michigan continues to reelect him and his brother. They're both obnoxious.
"we're also determined to be constructive critics of the policies which not only sent them there, as unequipped, and without international support, and without plans for the aftermath," he said.
Criticism is not constructive unless you offer a better way to do things moving forward. Just pointing out things someone does wrong in your opinion is destructive criticism.
Levin is way ahead of Greenie.
I think that he has to reach so far that he is combing hair from below and behind his belt.
We know for damn sure he ain't going outside! He may as well have stayed home....EXCEPT...he wants the (bogus) credibility to be able to back up his rantings by pronouncing, "I was there!" Levin=squat
..It's not "may a 1000 camel fleas infest his armpits", it's "may the fleas from 1000 camels infest his armpits".
;D
Will the fleas displace the lice? Levin's armpits....talk about your Quagmires...
I love it when they're outside and the wind blows.
By the way, I saw Colmes of 'Vanity and Colmes', down in Aruba last week. He was caught in a wind gust or two, and he was pretty bald.........not that there's anything wrong with it.
;-)
HOpefully while there some good soldier pins a target on his ass.
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