Posted on 11/12/2006 7:40:13 AM PST by shrinkermd
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats, who won majorities in the U.S. Congress in last week's elections, said on Sunday they will push for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq to begin in four to six months.
"The first order of business is to change the direction of Iraq policy," said Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), a Michigan Democrat who is expected to be chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the new Congress.
Levin, on ABC's "This Week," said he hoped some Republicans would emerge to join Democrats and press the administration of President George W. Bush to tell the Iraqi government that U.S. presence was "not open-ended."
Bush has insisted that U.S. troops would not leave Iraq until the Iraqis were able to take over security for their country.
"We need to begin a phased redeployment of forces from Iraq in four to six months," Levin said.
Speaking on the same program, Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), a Delaware Democrat who is expected to head the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he supported Levin's proposal for a withdrawal.
I've got some great property for you to buy. Don't check out where it is just send me a check.
I've buzzed off, smokey. I guess you couldn't?
TYhis is the only connection between this war and Vietnam.
Democrats abandon the country we went in to help, slander the troops, slander the Republican President, and then pull out before the home country is ready to defend itself.
Hard to pass up a ripe sucker.
You should have quit with "buzz off." It was so much more creative.
:^)
...reference bump.
This is the ticket, imho. "If you assess Biden and Levin on their merits one can only conclude they lack independent judgment and are only slightly above the masses in intelligence. Not really the kind of people one would hope for running the "shining city on the hill."
Anyone who would sit around the Congress in the minority for 12 years is not going to look good to a public which is not accustomed to people the calibre of Rumsfeld and Cheney who went out into the real worlds and made it while their party was out in Congress. We need to make fun of these bozos, unmercilessly. Then take them out the first chance we get.
From this single move by the Dems may come the destiny of the world.
The House not the Senate will be the key in this struggle, and the key players will be the Speaker and the Chairmen and members of the Appropriations and Armed Services Committees and the relevant subcommittees.
It seems to be the case that JCS foresees the ability to draw down some Iraqi forces in the 07-08 timeframe, and the fight over the fiscal 08 budget is when the Rats will try to micromanage the military mission in Iraq.
The Rats will claim political credit for any lowering of troop levels, even though the Bush plan all along has been to reduce troop levels as the Iraqi forces increase. The MSM will be sure that this view becomes the popular perception among American voters.
Kind of like a backseat driver demanding that you "turn left" after you have already put on your turn signal and started into the turn.
This isn't a greatly flawed article from Ruetuers, one of the reasons being that it's short.
That said, Biden and Levin make withdrawal statements and Rueters attributes it less precisely to "Democrats".
Now of course Levin and Biden are Democrats but so are (now) a majority of others, as a group, with this majority group recently being elected by the voters.
Hmmm, Democrats win election; Democrats (the connotation being all of them) want withdrawal within four to six weeks and thus the American people want withdrawal within four to six weeks.
Mild bias by Reuter's standards to be sure, but I believe the ambiguity in the title is there for a reason.
She will either keep quiet or call it a change in plans
They hate the words "cut and run"
That was obvious the week before the election when Rahm Emanuel freaked out when Liddy Dole pointed out that "cut and run " also means losing the war
As I said on the Sunday Thread .. this election was about the PR perception
I think Bush should increase troops and then challenge the dems to defund the military.
Only if our side sticks together and the Dem actually filibuster
This is so ironic. On TV they are talking about phased withdrawal. Meanwhile, in real life, we have eleven warships steaming to the gulf to counter Iranian bids to form an alliance. Israeli intelligence says Syria is planning war with rearmed Hezbollah. The bloviators are out in la la land.
If I didn't know any better I would swear my hubby posted this....he has told me the same thing over and over again.
When the DUmmies in Congress cut off the promised money to Vietnam and we ran away...millions died.
This time, the jihad will just grow bigger and we will have more of the fighting here at home.
There are legitimate things to be discussed here, and you don't seem to be interested.
You are spot on sir.
What are they going to vote on? Are the Dems really going to follow Charlie Rangel and cut off funds for the war? Unless they do, the President still runs foreign policy and the war, and I'd like to see them vote to cut funds. The repurcussions would be enormous. Like having Zarqawi's second string replacement show up all over the tube making his thanks to Allah for a Democrat victory incantation.
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.