{"id":12644,"date":"2007-08-23T16:40:18","date_gmt":"2007-08-23T20:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/12644.html"},"modified":"2007-08-23T16:40:18","modified_gmt":"2007-08-23T20:40:18","slug":"warner-start-withdrawal-by-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/warner-start-withdrawal-by-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Warner: start withdrawal by Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, this<\/a> has the potential to at least shake up the debate a little.<\/p>\n

One of the Senate’s top Republicans has called on President Bush to start bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq by Christmas, telling reporters Thursday that a pullout was needed to spur Iraqi leaders to action.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the influential former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he has recommended that Bush announce the beginning of a U.S. withdrawal in mid-September, after a report is released from the top U.S. officials in Iraq.<\/p>\n

“In my humble judgment, that would get everyone’s attention the attention that is not being paid at this time,” said Warner.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Warner reportedly noted that Bush, Cheney, and others have repeatedly said that the American commitment to Iraq was not open-ended. “The time has come to put some meaningful teeth into those comments — to back them up with some clear, decisive action,” Warner added.<\/p>\n

The details of Warner’s proposal are, at this point, unclear. We don’t know, for example, how many troops he’d like to see come home, and\/or whether this December draw-down would be the start of a broader, phased withdrawal process.<\/p>\n

We also don’t know if Warner is just making a “recommendation” to the president. Will he actually vote to force troops to start coming home by Christmas? To date, Warner has talked a good game more than once, but when it comes time to vote, he’s fallen right into line.<\/p>\n

If Warner is serious about withdrawal, he has the stature with the Senate Republican caucus to change a few minds (and save a lot of lives, and improve our national security). If this is just hollow rhetoric, he’ll disappoint the nation. Again.
\n
\nUpdate<\/i>: TP has a clip<\/a> of Warner’s announcement. He said, “I say to the President, respectfully, pick whatever number you wish. You do not want to lose the momentum. But certainly, in the 160,000 plus — say 5,000 — could begin to redeploy and be home to their families and loved ones no later than Christmas of this year.”<\/p>\n

That would be a 3% reduction. Not much of a withdrawal.<\/p>\n

While Warner called for a timetable, he argued it was not the role of Congress to mandate it. “Let the President establish the timetable of withdrawal, not the Congress,” he said. Bush need not lay out the “totality of the timetable,” Warner argued. But he must announce at least “a single redeployment of some several thousand” soldiers.<\/p>\n

After the first redeployment from Iraq, Warner said a second contingent should be withdrawn at a later date “at the President’s discretion.” Such a move, Warner argued, “would get everyone’s attention.”<\/p>\n

“We simply cannot as a nation stand and continue to put our troops at continuous risk of loss of life and limb without beginning to take some decisive action,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It sounds like pretty weak tea. We’d all like “decisive action,” but unless Warner is planning to challenge Bush directly, and bring some of his Senate friends with him, all of this comes across as “Pretty please, Mr. President, we’d really love it if you adopted a sensible policy. But don’t worry, we won’t force you.”<\/p>\n

It’s within Warner’s power to spur real change here. He shouldn’t let the moment pass him by.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, this has the potential to at least shake up the debate a little. One of the Senate’s top Republicans has called on President Bush to start bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq by Christmas, telling reporters Thursday that a pullout was needed to spur Iraqi leaders to action. Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}