Reply #28: You left out the "within the next six months" part in your subject header.

[Tom Rinaldo]

That really really really effects the entire texture of his remarks. Elsewhere on this thread Bush is quoted saying that U.S. forces will not be pulled out of Iraq "until Iraq is stabalized" and that is not what Clark said here at all. If people actually read Clark's full plan as described in an Op-Ed that he wrote in USA Today (available to read at www.securingamerica.com ) for one thing Clark says that the United States needs to absoulely swear off of any intention to maintain any permanent bases inside Iraq, he says that the United States should clearly act with the understanding that the Iraqi people are the sole deciders of who gets Iraq's Oil revenues and how they are divided up and used. In other words Clark is saying that the United States has to be absolutely clear that we renounce any imperial ambitions inside of Iraq. I could just as easily take Clark's full statement and attempt to summarize it as: Clark says that U.S. must not stay in Iraq". This is not George Bush's "stay the course" policy.

What this says is that Clark right now doesn't advocate drawing down American troops during the next six months. People may have strong opinions about what Clark does say, but it should not be misconstrued into something he did not say. Clark did not say that the U.S. must stay in Iraq. The implications of that misleading summary phrase are far more sweeping than saying we shouldn't begin a withdrawal of troops during the next six months, while we among other things use those six months to conduct regional diplomacy that would include providing reasonable security guarentees for all of Iraq's neighbors. Not exclusively, but first and foremost that phrase should be read to emphasize two nations that the Bush regime has continually threatened to attack and/or overthrow in the past; Iran and Syria.

What Clark literally seems to have said is that this is not the right moment to fiddle with troop strength, to decrease OR increase it. It is the right moment to launch a major regional diplomatic effort. That is not the same as saying that the United States MUST STAY in Iraq, though obviously it would mean having the United States stay in Iraq for more than six months.

edited to add a few comments to the first paragragh.