Sierra Mike
07-19-2007, 03:49 PM
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon told Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton that her questions about how the U.S. plans to eventually withdraw from Iraq boosts enemy propaganda.
In a stinging rebuke to a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman responded to questions Clinton raised in May in which she urged the Pentagon to start planning now for the withdrawal of American forces.
A copy of Edelman's response, dated July 16, was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
"Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia," Edelman wrote.
He added that "such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks."
Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines called Edelman's answer "at once outrageous and dangerous," and said the senator would respond to his boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
I predict Gates will pretty much say the same thing. :)
Clinton's antics are awfully transparant. She wants to take credit for the entire redeployment process and claim she's "the one who got it done." The truth of the matter is, no military unit is ever sent into the field without a plan for bringing it back. Redeployment of assets to CONUS or their original OCONUS duty stations is part of the package. What she really wants from the Pentagon is a time and date, so she can start up the Celebration Machine and await the waves of adoration and idolation that she perceives to be waiting in the wings.
However, since this article is from the AP, it wouldn't be complete without a swipe at Goring--I mean, Cheney:
Edelman is the Undersecretary of defense for policy. He is also a former U.S. ambassador and one-time aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. During the 2004 campaign, Cheney told Iowa voters that electing the Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards would risk another terrorist attack.
That closer really has a lot to do with the rest of the article.
Read all the nonsense here (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070719/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_iraq).
SM
In a stinging rebuke to a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman responded to questions Clinton raised in May in which she urged the Pentagon to start planning now for the withdrawal of American forces.
A copy of Edelman's response, dated July 16, was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
"Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia," Edelman wrote.
He added that "such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks."
Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines called Edelman's answer "at once outrageous and dangerous," and said the senator would respond to his boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
I predict Gates will pretty much say the same thing. :)
Clinton's antics are awfully transparant. She wants to take credit for the entire redeployment process and claim she's "the one who got it done." The truth of the matter is, no military unit is ever sent into the field without a plan for bringing it back. Redeployment of assets to CONUS or their original OCONUS duty stations is part of the package. What she really wants from the Pentagon is a time and date, so she can start up the Celebration Machine and await the waves of adoration and idolation that she perceives to be waiting in the wings.
However, since this article is from the AP, it wouldn't be complete without a swipe at Goring--I mean, Cheney:
Edelman is the Undersecretary of defense for policy. He is also a former U.S. ambassador and one-time aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. During the 2004 campaign, Cheney told Iowa voters that electing the Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards would risk another terrorist attack.
That closer really has a lot to do with the rest of the article.
Read all the nonsense here (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070719/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_iraq).
SM