Reply #10: Boston Globe on Richardson's call for a timetable:

[ProSense]

Richardson wants troops out of Iraq next year

December 16, 2006

MANCHESTER, N.H. --New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Saturday that the administration should set a date to withdraw American troops from Iraq in 2007 and criticized Sen. John McCain's call for boosting troop levels there.

"It makes no sense," the potential Democratic presidential candidate said at St. Anselm College. "There is no military solution. There's got to be a political solution."

Richardson said McCain, seen as a front-runner among potential Republican presidential hopefuls, would only foment sectarian violence with his call for an additional 30,000 troops.

America must reinvigorate its diplomacy in the Middle East by starting with Iraq, Richardson said in an address at the New Hampshire Democratic Party's winter meeting.

"This is not cut and run," he said. "What I'm proposing is something that I believe will work. A fixed withdrawal date. You redeploy those troops."

A withdrawal should be coupled with a political solution and a reconciliation conference with ethnic groups in Iraq, he said. He said it would allow the Pentagon to redeploy forces to Afghanistan and bolster efforts to combat international terrorism.

U.S. Rep-elect Paul Hodes agreed with Richardson that a political solution is needed.

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