Feingold on the Iraq Study Group and the Need to Redeploy Troops

[pstans]

Sen. Feingold wrote a piece at the Huffington Post about the Iraq Study Group Report. Feingold outlines the need to redeploy our troops in order to find and defeat terrorist networks around the world.

By redeploying our troops from Iraq, we can pursue a new national security strategy that will make our country safer. We can finish the job in Afghanistan. We can scrap the "transformational diplomacy" this Administration has used to offend, push away, and ultimately alienate so many of our friends and allies, and replace it with an aggressive, multilateral approach that would leverage the strength of our friends to defeat our common enemies.

And we can repair and infuse new capabilities and strength into our armed forces. By freeing up our Special Forces assets and redeploying our military power from Iraq, we will be better positioned to handle global threats and future contingencies. Our current state of readiness is unacceptable and must be repaired. Our National Guard, too, must be capable of responding to natural disasters and future contingencies.

The way to win a war against global terrorist networks is not to keep over 140,000 American troops in Iraq indefinitely. We will weaken, not strengthen, our national security by continuing to pour a disproportionate level of our military and intelligence and fiscal resources into Iraq.

Unfortunately, while the Iraq Study Group's report recognizes that the Administration's policy is not working, it doesn't correct the myopic focus on Iraq that has so dangerously weakened our national security. In the end, this report is a regrettable example of 'official Washington' missing the point. The growing threats we face in places like Afghanistan and Somalia are every bit as important to our national security as Iraq. Until Congress and the Administration recognize that, we will only perpetuate the deeply misguided policies that got us into Iraq in the first place.

Russ is standing up for US!
"It's time to stand up - not to cheer, but to fight back." - Russ Feingold