Sen Reid (HuffPo): "The Clock Is Ticking Mr President-&-I Do NOT Believe More Troops Is The Answer"

[kpete]

Sen. Harry Reid

The Clock is Ticking, Mr. President

Frankly, I don't believe that more troops is the answer for Iraq. It's a civil war and America should not be policing a Sunni-Shia conflict. In addition, we don't have the additional forces to put in there. We obviously want to support what commanders in the field say they need, but apparently even the Joint Chiefs do not support increased combat forces for Baghdad. My position on Iraq is simple:

1. I believe we should start redeploying troops in 4 to 6 months (The Levin-Reed Plan) and complete the withdrawal of combat forces by the first quarter of 2008. (As laid out by the Iraq Study Group)

2. The President must understand that there can only be a political solution in Iraq, and he must end our nation's open-ended military commitment to that country.

3. These priorities need to be coupled with a renewed diplomatic effort and regional strategy.

I do not support an escalation of the conflict. I support finding a way to bring our troops home and would look at any plan that gave a roadmap to this goal.

more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-harry-reid/the-clock-is-ticking-mr_b_36752.html

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Ooooh... Good To See That Harry's Getting All Medieval on Bush

I'm sure that this will force Bush to change course.

[Junkdrawer]

2. I hope this means Reid is backtracking from his statement on ABC's "This Week"...

I'm guessing Reid is still getting flaming emails from that appearance...

[bryant69]

3. Well i think he gets out of it by saying we want to give the commanders

in the field what we need.

He can say that as long as we are going to pursue this bonehead course we should give the generals what they think they need to win or at least keep from losing, but what Bush should really be doing is pulling the troops out.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[KittyWampus]

4. Or maybe Reid KNEW the Joint Chiefs statement was coming and acted wisely

MAYBE just maybe, DU'ers read more into Reid's first statement than was actually in there.

Maybe just maybe, the reactionary screamers on DU are shown to be just exactly what they are onceagain.

[Junkdrawer]

6. The Fat Lady hasn't sung yet...

More than likely, Bush WILL escalate by 30K-40K troops.

How Reid reacts to that will inform my opinion.

[rodeodance]

7. It sure looks like it. Glad to see this new Reid

[Webster Green]

5. A bit of a flip flop, isn't it?

Too bad Reid is so out of touch with reality that he thought more troops was a good idea until he felt the backlash from that idiotic idea.

This is our leadership?

Ha!....We're fucked again folks!

[longship]

8. Dupe

I posted this last night. Look on Greatest page.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2951630