Posted on 12/05/2005 3:18:10 PM PST by Dog
SAN ANTONIO) -- Saying the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.
Dean made his comments in an interview on WOAI Radio in San Antonio.
"I've seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, 'just another year, just stay the course, we'll have a victory.' Well, we didn't have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening."
Dean says the Democratic position on the war is 'coalescing,' and is likely to include several proposals.
"I think we need a strategic redeployment over a period of two years," Dean said. "Bring the 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops home immediately. They don't belong in a conflict like this anyway. We ought to have a redeployment to Afghanistan of 20,000 troops, we don't have enough troops to do the job there and its a place where we are welcome. And we need a force in the Middle East, not in Iraq but in a friendly neighboring country to fight (terrorist leader Musab) Zarkawi, who came to Iraq after this invasion. We've got to get the target off the backs of American troops.
Dean didn't specify which country the US forces would deploy to, but he said he would like to see the entire process completed within two years. He said the Democratic proposal is not a 'withdrawal,' but rather a 'strategic redeployment' of U.S. forces.
"The White House wants us to have a permanent commitment to Iraq. This is an Iraqi problem. President Bush got rid of Saddam Hussein and that was a great thing, but that could have been done in a very different way. But now that we're there we need to figure out how to leave. 80% of Iraqis want us to leave, and it's their country."
Dean also compared the controversy over pre-war intelligence to the Watergate scandal which brought down Richard Nixon's presidency in 1974.
"What we see today is very much like what was going in Watergate," Dean said. "It turns out there is a lot of good evidence that President Bush did not tell the truth when he was asking Congress for the power to go to war. The President said last week that Congress saw the same intelligence that he did in making the decision to go to war, and that is flat out wrong. The President withheld some intelligence from the Senate Intelligence Committee. He withheld the report from the CIA that in fact there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction (in Iraq), that they did not have a nuclear program. They (the White House) selectively gave intelligence to the United States Senate and the United States Congress and got them to give the go ahead to attack these people."
Check out what Howie said today.
Can you say: Desperate L-U-N-A-T-I-C?
Sarge....Howard Dean says you can't win....what say you?
By "we," does he mean the terrorists?
Look what Howard Dean said today.
The DNC is sinking under Dean.
This POFS has the cohones to say this in San Antonio. I'm surprised he was able to get out of town without being tarred and feathered.
Yeah, the situation was called 'George McGovern'.
I just LOVE having Howard 'Duck!" Dean in charge of the Dems. I guess his job is to make the looniest Dems look sane.
The glass is less than half full for Howard and his followers.
"Sarge....Howard Dean says you can't win....what say you?"
String him up upside down like Mussolini.
I can't even finish reading it
Who will cover it? Most Americans will most likely never hear it. Dean's national surrogates (AKA MSM) will cover his *ss.
Force yourself....:-)
It's posted here....it will be on every blog by the morning...it will hit Fox is a day or so.
Those who do not remember history.....
The enemy within.
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