***** Posted on Fri, Nov. 07, 2003
Clark would fire overseer in Iraq, add more troops DEMOCRAT OUTLINES PLAN FOR QUICK POWER HAND-OVER By Jim VandeHei Washington Post
. . . Clark, a retired Army general and former military commander of NATO, also broke with many of his Democratic rivals by raising the possibility of increasing the number of U.S. troops to complete the mission. ``An increase doesn't mean you're failing,'' Clark said in a speech at South Carolina State University. . . .
Clark opened the door to a bigger U.S. force on the same day the Bush administration disclosed its plan to possibly reduce the number of soldiers in Iraq next year -- just as the presidential election is heating up. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., this week also called for more U.S. troops, breaking with President Bush.
The United States should not pull out of Iraq but instead make several changes to transfer power quickly to NATO and the Iraqis, Clark said. ``Every American should understand: Early exit means retreat or defeat. We can have neither.''
Of the nine Democratic presidential candidates, only the Rev. Al Sharpton and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, have called for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. . . .
<http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/7205210.htm> *****
***** "Two measures of American desperation: Wesley Clark and Howard Dean" Printed on Sunday, October 26, 2003 @ 18:52:51 CST By Sunil K. Sharma and Josh Frank YellowTimes.org Guest Columnists
. . . And as the quagmire in Iraq thickens, Dean has boasted to the Washington Post that he has no intentions of bringing U.S. troops home. Later Dean decided to flip-flop that stance, and stated in a New York Primary debate, "We need more troops. They're going to be foreign troops [in Iraq], not more American troops, as they should have been in the first place. Ours need to come home." So which is it? It seems according to Howard Dean that the Iraq disorder must go on at all costs. He is just not quite sure whose soldiers should do the occupying.
When drilled during that same debate about Bush's $87 billion dollar Iraq package, Dean said that he would support it, and that "we have no choiceŠwe have to support our troops." So, do we support our troops by bringing them home, or by financing the occupation? He hasn't clarified. . . .
<http://yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=1640&mode=thread&order=0> *****
As for other Democrats:
***** New York Times, November 14, 2003 In U.S., Fears Are Voiced of a Too-Rapid Iraq Exit By STEVEN R. WEISMAN and CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 - The Bush administration's decision to speed the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq and replace American troops with Iraqis is bringing fresh warnings from Congress and policy experts against pulling out of Iraq too early and letting election-year considerations dictate Iraq policy. . . .
"My greatest fear is that this administration, having made all the wrong choices, is going to conclude they have to bring Johnny and Jane home by the next election in order to survive," said Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in an interview.
[Democratic] Representative Rahm Emanuel, in a separate interview, said, "If you look at everything they're doing, it looks like they're laying the groundwork for a premature departure."
Martin Indyk, the White House's Middle East policy director under Mr. Clinton, said that the stepped-up attacks on rebel forces in Iraq this week were reminiscent of the naval strikes President Reagan unleashed on anti-American forces in Lebanon just before American troops were withdrawn in 1983.
"The problem is that, as the C.I.A. has already concluded, the Iraqi public has already reached its conclusion that the United States is leaving," said Mr. Indyk, director of the Saban Center of Middle East policy at the Brookings Institution. "Other nations in the region will be quick to reach the same conclusion." . . .
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/14/international/middleeast/14POLI.html> ***** -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>