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Senator Levin calls for plan to empower Iraqi forces
BAGHDAD - A comprehensive plan is needed to hand more power to Iraqi forces and reduce US troop levels in the war-torn country, senior Democratic Senator Carl Levin said during a visit on Wednesday. âI expressed to the president that I opposed a fixed time for withdrawal of American forces but that I do very much favour there being some kind of a plan for those forces to be withdrawn as certain milestones are met relative to the power and capability of the Iraqi forces,â Levin told reporters after meeting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
| Oh no, a fixed timetable is bad, but milestones are good. Cheez, he really thinks anyone other than the Kos Kiddies will fall for this? |
âSo that both Iraqi and American people and the other countries of the world understand that we are not here for an unlimited period of time.â
| We've already said we'll leave when the Iraqis are ready. |
Levin, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, took a swipe at recent comments by US President George W. Bush that the military strategy in Iraq was simply that âas the Iraqis stand up, we will stand downâ.
âThere needs be some kind of a comprehensive plan ... so that we can see both the increase in Iraqi strength but also some reductions in the American and other coalition forces that occur simultaneously so that it has some meaning and significance to the rhetoric statement about standing up and standing down,â he said.
Levin was also expected to meet with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.
| Jaafari has an impossible job: educate Senator Knucklehead while remaining diplomatic. |
Senator Ted Kennedy, another Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, recently called on US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign over mismanagement of the Iraq military campaign.
| Attaboy Ted. Another round? |
Posted by: Steve White 2005-07-07 |
