Influential Republican Senator Calls for Troop Pullouts
As reported in this morning’s WaPo, Sen. John W. Warner called on President Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq in time for Christmas. The senator’s declaration came as a new intelligence report concluded that political leaders in Iraq are “unable to govern effectively.”
The Virginia senator made his comments after a four-day trip to the Middle East.
Warner’s declaration followed the release of a new National Intelligence Estimate which indicated that, while the “surge” in troops numbers has had a “measurable but uneven” effect on the security situation on the ground in Iraq, the gains will likely be unsustainable without substantial improvement in the political situation in Baghdad. The NIE predicted that the Iraqi government will become “more precarious” in the next six to 12 months, and said there is little hope of reconciliation among the political factions in Iraq.
All of this comes after President Bush compared the situation in Iraq to the Vietnam War, in a perverse and somewhat confusing attempt to suggest that withdrawal is unwise.
Michael
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