Reply #4: So we just keep on funding it forever and ever amen? I so disagree. [View All]

[madfloridian]

"ED: General Clark if things won't improve by September this means that the Congress is going to have to go back and fund, continually fund these operations. Is that correct?

WES: Well, I think even if it does improve in Sept. the Congress is going to continue to have to fund the operations.

ED: We're going to have this vote all over again then aren't we?

WES: We are going to have this vote for the next few years unless something catastrophic happens that causes us to reconsider and pull the plug on the whole operation.

ED: If we were to do that, pull the plug on the whole operation, what is your prediction on what would happen, General Clark?

WES: We would have a hard time disengaging from the region, Ed. We've got security responsibilities to the Gulf States. We've got security interests with Israel. We've got friends in Lebanon. We've got many different issues that are affected by the outcome in Iraq. So, if we pull the plug on the operation you could probably physically remove the troops in 6 to 8 months in good order. If you saw a larger war go ---would you want to be back in? How about if you saw Al Qaeda taking over provinces? How about if you saw the collapse in the West Bank and aid flowing in through Syria from Iran and a quarter being cut across Iran, across Ira, by the Iranians to facilitate that. And you saw widespread deployment of let's say Iranian Revolutionary Guards inside Iraq, would you want to be back in at that point? And so, there's so many unpredictable in this that--- I'm one of those who has counseled against just getting frustrated and pulling the plug. I wouldn't have gone in in the first place. It was a HUGE strategic mistake. We have to find the right way to back out of this."