North Jersey congressman calls for Iraq pullout (Rep. Steve Rothman)

[sabra]

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyNCZmZ2JlbDdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5Njg4NTMxNSZ5cmlyeTdmNzE3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTM=

North Jersey congressman calls for Iraq pullout


Rep. Steve Rothman's call Thursday to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq within six months drew a myriad of responses, ranging from applause to derision.

The Fair Lawn Democrat became the first member of New Jersey's congressional delegation to publicly call for an outright withdrawal, although Reps. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, and Donald Payne, D-Newark, have supported legislation for a redeployment of troops throughout the Middle East.

"This should spur more of our legislators to come out publicly on this," said Madelyn Hoffman, director of NJ Peace Action, which has lobbied members of Congress to push for a withdrawal.

But Rothman's stance was condemned by some Republicans, who said military leaders should determine when troops leave.

[Teaser]

1. "military leaders should determine when troops leave"

Uh...no.

Civilian leaders set the goals for the military. It is the job of military leaders to figure out how to accomplish those goals, or fight like hell trying to accomplish them.

When military leaders start to set policy, you are more than halfway to a police state.

[rodeodance]

2. Military leaders are major stakeholders--they reputatiions must be

preserved as winners---not losers. they will fight to stay to the end

[saigon68]

4. THE IRAQ PULL-OUT

[hermetic]

3. Pull out? Maybe can't be done.

Check this out: "For the first time, we have actual descriptions of a couple of the 'super-bases' built in Iraq in the last two and a half years and, despite being written by reporters under Pentagon information restrictions, they are sobering. Thomas Ricks of the Washington Post paid a visit to Balad Air Base, the largest American base in the country, 68 kilometers north of Baghdad and 'smack in the middle of the most hostile part of Iraq.' In a piece entitled Biggest Base in Iraq Has Small-Town Feel, Ricks paints a striking portrait.
"The base is sizable enough to have its own 'neighborhoods' including 'KBR-land' (in honor of the Halliburton subsidiary that has done most of the base- construction work in Iraq); 'CJSOTF' ('home to a special operations unit,' the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, surrounded by 'especially high walls' and so secretive that even the base Army public affairs chief has never been inside); and a junkyard for bombed out Army Humvees. There is as well a Subway, a Pizza Hut, a Popeye's, 'an ersatz Starbucks,' a 24-hour Burger King, two post exchanges where TVs, iPods, and the like can be purchased, four mess halls, a hospital, a strictly enforced on-base speed limit of 10 MPH, a huge airstrip, 250 aircraft (helicopters and predator drones included), air-traffic pile-ups of a sort you would see over Chicago's O'Hare airport, and 'a miniature golf course, which mimics a battlefield with its baby sandbags, little Jersey barriers, strands of concertina wire and, down at the end of the course, what appears to be a tiny detainee cage. ...'
"There are at least four such 'super-bases' in Iraq, none of which have anything to do with 'withdrawal' from that country. Quite the contrary, these bases are being constructed as little American islands of eternal order in an anarchic sea."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/02/24/DDGU9GJ59N1.DTL

[ninkasi]

5. We can build these huge bases

Big enough to have their own neighborhoods...how many neighborhoods in New Orleans have been rebuilt? The money Bush is wasting in Iraq could be put to much better use here, but then we know he has no interest in helping Americans who are not part of the "haves" and "have mores"...his base.