Senator Clinton Calls for Withdrawal From Iraq to Begin in 2006

[papau]

In the past Hillary has responded to shots taken by the right , and the left, by not returning fire, but by focusing on what specific changes she recommended. Indeed, the New York Post reported Congressional Black Caucus meeting where Harry Belafonte said, "our foreign policy has made a wreck of this planet" and Hillary stood up and said "what Harry said is so important" has been one of the stronger moments for her - until today's "it is time for the president to stop serving up platitudes and present us with a plan for finishing this war with success and honor, not a rigid timetable that terrorists can exploit, but a public plan for winning and concluding the war...And it is past time for the president, vice president or anyone else associated with them to stop impugning the patriotism of their critics." While not an absolute timetable to withdraw troops, she was explicit about her emerging view that troops could be redeployed next year if coming elections in Iraq go well.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/nyregion/metrocampaigns/30hillary.html

Senator Clinton Calls for Withdrawal From Iraq to Begin in 2006

By PATRICK D. HEALY

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her strongest statement on the war in Iraq since visiting the country in 2003, yesterday defended her vote to authorize military action but harshly criticized President Bush's leadership and called for a plan to begin withdrawing troops next year.

In a 1,600-word letter that was e-mailed to thousands of New Yorkers, Mrs. Clinton used new verbiage to attack the White House's war planning from top to bottom, while also laying out her general vision for reducing troop levels. The letter came on the eve of an Iraq speech by President Bush, as well as one month after an antiwar crusader, Cindy Sheehan, denounced Mrs. Clinton's position on the war.

"I take responsibility for my vote, and I, along with a majority of Americans, expect the president and his administration to take responsibility for the false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of the war," Mrs. Clinton wrote, in response to letters from New York residents with questions about the war.

She added, "Given years of assurances that the war was nearly over and that the insurgents were in their 'last throes,' this administration was either not being honest with the American people or did not know what was going on in Iraq."
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I did like the reported White House response (spokesman, Ken Lisaius) "We're not going to cut and run, we're going to keep moving toward victory over terror. Victory in Iraq will deny the terrorists their stated goal."