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Biden Backs a More Gradual Iraq Pullout NewsMax.com Wires WASHINGTON -- The senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Monday that he shares the frustration of those who support an immediate pullout from Iraq but he is "not there yet" and believes there should be a phased withdrawal. "I still believe we can preserve our fundamental security interests in Iraq as we begin to redeploy our forces," Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware told the Council on Foreign Relations. "That will require the administration not to stay the course, but to change course, and to do it now." Biden referred to "respected voices on military matters" like Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, who called for a troop pullout on Thursday. But Biden said he does not support bringing the troops home now. Rather, he said, 50,000 U.S. troops should leave Iraq by the end of 2006 and "a significant number" of the remaining 100,000 should leave in 2007. Biden said President Bush has to be realistic and forget his "grandiose goals" in Iraq, which "will not become a model democracy any time soon." "Instead, we need to refocus our mission on preserving America's fundamental interests in Iraq," including ensuring that the country does not become a haven for terrorists or become the site of a full-scale civil war, he said. Story Continues Below
The United States must build a political consensus that gives the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites a stake in keeping Iraq together, Biden said. "Does anyone here support using American troops to fight a civil war against the Sunnis on behalf of the Kurds and Shiites?" he asked. "I don't — and I doubt many Americans would. But if we fail to forge a political consensus soon, that is what our troops will be dragged into." Biden called the United States' large military presence in Iraq "both necessary and increasingly counterproductive." "Right now, our troops are the only guarantor against chaos," he said, but the military presence "is also, increasingly, part of the problem." "Two years ago, even one year ago, Iraqis were prepared to accept an even larger American presence if that's what it took to bring security and real improvements to their lives," he said. "Our failure to do just that has fueled growing Iraqi frustration. A liberation is increasingly felt as an occupation. And we risk creating a culture of dependency, especially among Iraqi security forces." Biden, a 32-year veteran of the Senate, has been traveling the country and testing the waters for a possible presidential run in 2008. © 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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