John Kerry Stands With Iraqi War Vets Against Bush Escalation
February 7th, 2007 @ 12:05 pm
John Kerry joined veterans of the Iraq war today in a press conference calling on the Bush Administration to reconsider the “ill-conceived” escalation of the war in Iraq. At the press conference, Democratic Senators and members of VoteVets.org demanded that Congressional Republicans who have stalled the debate, agree to a full debate on the president’s planned escalation.
The VoteVets group, is lobbying members of Congress to stand against the Bush escalation plan. John Kerry said that he “will push for a vote for his resolution setting a firm one-year deadline for the withdrawal of most US troops out of Iraq.” Kerry’s plan calls for an immediate diplomatic effort to engage the key players in the region, while simultaneously working with the Iraqi police forces to prepare them for assuming a greater role in the security of their country.
“This war is bad news and we should be looking at ways to bring it to an end, not escalate it by sending another 21,000 troops into Baghdad with no real plan for bringing about peace,” Kerry said today. “The problem in Iraq needs to be sorted out by Iraqis and our soldiers have no business trying to play referee in a nasty civil war between different factions. Nearly four years into this war, many of the men and women of our military are in Iraq without up-armored vehicles, without proper equipment, without sufficient radios or other supplies that they need to protect themselves. That’s simply unacceptable.”
Kerry also noted today “that recent audits have shown that money intended to help stabilize Iraq instead went for – among other things – an Olympic size swimming pool, VIP trailers, vehicles that can’t be accounted for and a training camp for Iraqi police that hasn’t been used in months.”
The NY Times reported today that there is “some evidence that the debate was moving beyond the bottled-up resolution,” noting calls for redeployment by Barack Obama and Kerry’s plan to set a one-year deadline:
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, a prospective Democratic presidential candidate, renewed his call to begin redeploying troops in May with a complete withdrawal of combat brigades by March 2008. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts proposed a plan to set a one-year deadline to redeploy American forces from Iraq. And pressure from outside advocacy groups intensified on Democrats to take concrete steps such as capping troop levels or blocking funds for new troops.
This was the 2nd press conference with John Kerry in as many days, on the GOP Senators efforts to block the debate on Iraq. Kerry also delivered a scathing speech on the Senate floor yesterday about the issue.
In an interesting twist, Robert Gates told a House panel today that he “did not think debate in Congress would hurt the morale of troops in combat, undercutting an assertion by many congressional Republicans that members opposing the war were undermining the fighting forces there.”
Gates added that troops understand members of Congress want to find the best way to win the war. “I think they’re sophisticated enough to understand that that’s what the debate’s really about,” he said.
The following is the press release from today’s press conference - Democrats and Veterans Demand Accountability on Iraq Escalation:
MORE & LINKS -
http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=5258
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