|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
Clinton: Some Military to Stay in Iraq if She Is Elected NewsMax.com Wires Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., says that if she is elected president, she will keep a reduced military presence in Iraq.
In an interview with the N.Y. Times, Clinton said that under her administration a "remaining military as well as political mission" would stay in Iraq to deter al-Qaida and Iranian aggression, as well as protect the Kurds and bolster the Iraqi military.
Clinton qualified, however, that the reduced U.S. forces would not be patrolling the streets in Baghdad to ward off sectarian violence.
"So I think it will be up to me to try to figure out how to protect those national security interests and continue to take our troops out of this urban warfare, which I think is a loser," Clinton disclosed in a departure from her usual "bring the troops home" stance.
Story Continues Below
Without pinpointing the number of American troops she would keep in Iraq, she said that the continued presence was necessary to the "remaining vital national security interests in Iraq," according to the Times report.
Meanwhile, Clinton has said she would vote for a proposed Democratic resolution on Iraq that calls for a target of redeploying all combat forces by March 31, 2008.
Clinton maintained that her Iraq scenario was not at odds with the resolution, since the resolution calls for "a limited number" of troops to stay in Iraq to protect the American Embassy and other personnel, train and equip Iraqi forces, and conduct "targeted counter-terrorism operation."
As to whether the American public would be comfortable with forces on the ground in Iraq that would do nothing to stop sectarian attacks there, Clinton said:
"Look, I think the American people are done with Iraq. I think they're at a point where, whether they thought it was a good idea or not, they have seen misjudgment and blunder after blunder, and their attitude is, what is this getting us? What is this doing for us?" Although she said she was cheering on the surge of troops that will be trying to bring order in that chaotic country, she qualified that she was not hopeful.
"From the vantage point of where I sit now, I can tell you, in the absence of a very vigorous diplomatic effort on the political front and on the regional and international front, I think it is unlikely there will be a stable situation that's inherited," Clinton said.
Thus far in her stump speeches, Clinton has consistently pledged to end the war if the fighting is still ongoing as she takes office as president. "If we in Congress don't end this war before January 2009, as president, I will," she has said. © NewsMax 2007. All rights reserved.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Print Page 
Forward Page 
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2012 NewsMax.Com |