Posted on 03/20/2007 2:25:05 PM PDT by M. Thatcher
Last week, with no fanfare, Mr. Hunter unveiled his own plan that his office says will "set the stage for withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq." In a letter to President Bush, Mr. Hunter calls for rotating Iraqi troops into combat assignments and, once they prove adept at the new role, American forces can leave the country. Mr. Hunter offered his plan after returning from a fact-finding mission to Baghdad, Ramadi and Fallujah. He doesn't give a specific date for withdrawal, but his plan is certainly a sign of waning support among Republicans for the war.
[snip]
As his Iraq plan shows, symbolic attempts at micromanagement are becoming the mandatory way even for ambitious GOPers to distance themselves from the war without seeming to be in favor of defeat.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Brendan Minater, you are full of sh*t. HAs Hunter ever even HINTED that we would withdraw before the Iraq Army can assume full responsibliites? NO. He stresses VICTORY. Pure and simple.
It's a PLAN FOR HOW TO GET THEM ALL TRAINED PROPERLY. You must be a blithering Rudy/MCCain rump boy if you think this stupidly.
Total BS. This is a liberal hit-piece against Hunter. Hunter supports Bush fully on Iraq and supports the surge specifically. The main difference is that he wants every Iraqi unit to take part for a time to gain expirience.
To paint him as a cut'n'runner and even comparing him with Murtha is only an attempt to make him politcally cold at the very beginning.
Ping
I believe rotating troops out as the Iraqis take over is pretty much the same as the president's plan. After all there are only two other options. Retreat immediately or keep sending troops indefinitely.
Bush has said over and over, "when the Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down." This is just Hunter's take on the same objective.
There are a lot more people who support temporarily relocating the US military a few hundred miles eastward.
Richard's lost little brother.
From NPR:
Congressman Hunter, you today said that Congressman Murtha was just plain wrong. What is wrong with the idea that the military has done as much as it can, and it's just time to leave?
REP. DUNCAN HUNTER: Well, Margaret, moving -- leaving in a precipitous manner -- that is, before we fully train up the Iraqi military and give them the ability to sustain their own security -- is a recipe for disaster.
And we saw that when we tried to move green Iraqi troops into the battle in Fallujah before they were trained and we noticed they didn't show up for formation the next day.
So we've walked through this series of milestones for the elections and the approval of the constitution and we're moving toward a permanent government. And we are standing up the Iraqi military. We are training them, and they're taking on larger responsibilities every day.
They're taking over areas like Najaf and Sadr City that heretofore were guarded only by Americans, and the decision to leave should be based solely on the judgment of the combatant commanders on the ground who say, "My Iraqi counterparts can now handle this particular area of the country on their own with minimum American support or with no American support." When they can do that, we should leave.
I heard him talk about this plan and this is exactly what it is. He wants to find a way to get units battle-hardened, that's all. I thought it sounded pretty sensible.
Once again (though this should come as absolutely no surprise to those of us who have had enough of WSJ "Opinions") WSJ's total endorsement of "Open Borders to one and all" is very much against Duncan Hunter and anywhere, and everywhere they can find a reason to smear him in the hearts and minds of the "real conservatives" Rush was speaking of earlier today, they will.
Worth repeating! I also heard him and that is exactly what it is.
Hunter is probably the single most supportive congressman in Washington when it comes to our troops. He even wants to go a step further and support American troops with American industry that won't embargo needed equipment on a whim.
You KNEW you were gonna get this reaction, dintchya? LOL
Liberal spin in action people.
Of course we're not going to remain in Iraq indefinitely. That hasn't been Bush's plan; the plan has always been to withdraw once the Iraqi military is fully capable of defending its own country from invaders.
Hunter is just giving some finality to the president's plan, so that the Iraqis will have stood up their whole military within the near future.
In other words, this is a hit piece.
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