Reply #23: no, but they could easily be withdrawn within six months....

[mike_c]

There is no doubt in my mind that the pentagon has contingency plans for withdrawing under a variety of circumstances, and that the normal defense appropriation could be used to pay for it.

No, we can't order them all out of Iraq by next Tuesday, but that's not what most in the anti-war movement advocate. We want them home as soon as possible, subject to safety concerns, an orderly withdrawal, and so on. More to the point, we want a candidate who will make that commitment rather than using a smoke screen to obfuscate the issue. Clinton's statement lacks only the "light at the end of the tunnel" to make it utterly Nixonian.