Another one of your boys has reached the age of reason. I guess this guy is one republican who actually feels accountable for the mess this administration has created.
December 8th, 2006 4:29 pm
GOP Senator Joins Call for Pullout -- Says Situation in Iraq is 'Absurd,' Perhaps Even 'Criminal'
By E&P Staff / Editor & Publisher
NEW YORK As the national debate over Iraq, in the media and in Washington, continues in the wake of the Iraq Study Group report, a Republican U.S. Senator from Oregon has joined the fray in an unexpected way.
In a major speech in Congress on Thursday night, Sen. Gordon Smith called the current U.S. war effort "absurd," perhaps even "criminal" and caleld for rapid pullouts. He added that he would have never voted for the conflict if he had reason to believe the intelligence the president gave the American people was inaccurate.
Citing the hundreds of billions of dollars spent and 2900 Americans deaths -- and saying he needed to "speak from the heart" -- Smith said, "I for one am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal. So either we clear and hold and build or let's go home."
Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a Republican defeated in November, cited Smith's speech in suggesting that support for the war is crumbling. Smith's statement "is political dynamite," Chafee asserted.
Smith had said the U.S. military's "tactics have failed" and he "cannot support that anymore....We have paid a price in blood and treasure that is beyond calculation" for a war waged due to bad intelligence....
"I, for one, am tired of paying the price of 10 or more of our troops dying a day. So let's cut and run or cut and walk, but let us fight the war on terror more intelligently that we have because we have fought this war in a very lamentable way."
December 8th, 2006 4:29 pm
GOP Senator Joins Call for Pullout -- Says Situation in Iraq is 'Absurd,' Perhaps Even 'Criminal'
By E&P Staff / Editor & Publisher
NEW YORK As the national debate over Iraq, in the media and in Washington, continues in the wake of the Iraq Study Group report, a Republican U.S. Senator from Oregon has joined the fray in an unexpected way.
In a major speech in Congress on Thursday night, Sen. Gordon Smith called the current U.S. war effort "absurd," perhaps even "criminal" and caleld for rapid pullouts. He added that he would have never voted for the conflict if he had reason to believe the intelligence the president gave the American people was inaccurate.
Citing the hundreds of billions of dollars spent and 2900 Americans deaths -- and saying he needed to "speak from the heart" -- Smith said, "I for one am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal. So either we clear and hold and build or let's go home."
Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a Republican defeated in November, cited Smith's speech in suggesting that support for the war is crumbling. Smith's statement "is political dynamite," Chafee asserted.
Smith had said the U.S. military's "tactics have failed" and he "cannot support that anymore....We have paid a price in blood and treasure that is beyond calculation" for a war waged due to bad intelligence....
"I, for one, am tired of paying the price of 10 or more of our troops dying a day. So let's cut and run or cut and walk, but let us fight the war on terror more intelligently that we have because we have fought this war in a very lamentable way."
