Dean on Iraq: "We need to leave."

[BurtWorm]

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/face_81405.pdf

Face the Nation (CBS News) - Sunday, August 14, 2005

SCHIEFFER: Well, when you say, `We need to have a plan,' you mean a plan to leave?

Dr. DEAN: We do.

SCHIEFFER: A plan to get out?

Dr. DEAN: We need to have a plan to leave.

SCHIEFFER: Should we leave now?


Dr. DEAN: I think that's going to be very problematic. I mean, I think we've gotten in there, we've made a huge mess in there, we've created a terrorist danger for the United States where one did not exist before. But to pull out before they even have a chance to write their constitution I think is wrong. But I do think that time is coming very quickly. And if it turns out that this constitution really does take away the rights that women have enjoyed in Iraq
before, then I can't imagine why we're there.

SCHIEFFER: Well, I'll go back and ask you about that in a minute, but I know the president said, and I think it was just this week, giving a timetable for leaving Iraq would be the worst thing we could do because it would just tell the people who oppose us there, `Look, all we have to do is hang in till they leave, and then we're OK.'

Dr. DEAN: We need to leave. We're not going to be there forever, I hope. We're not going to be there forever. So the question is: What is a reasonable way to get out? And that's--we have no answers from the president on that at all. He keeps saying--well, his administration appears to be divided. Some of the generals have said, `Well, we can withdraw some of the troops, perhaps as many as 30,000, after the elections.' We have others saying, `Well, we're not going
to leave.' These people do not know what they're doing. They didn't know what they were doing when we got in, they had no plan then. They have no plan now. They do not know what they're doing.

[ironman202]

1. don't be fooled, * is looking for the first opportunity to cut and run

[leftchick]

3. I believe you are wrong

the plan is to pull out a few thousand troops but leave 60,000 or so behind at our enduring bases. It will be strategic for the Iran war.

[H5N1]

5. That IS the plan. Exactly.

[ironman202]

6. that may have been the "plan"

but the insurgency didn't play along. As soon as they can prop some dumb motherfucker up there, you'll start hearing shit like "The Iraqis will never stand up on their own with the US there propping them up, so we're going."

[FreedomAngel82]

9. I think this is why they are moving so fast

with the Constiution.

[leftchick]

I wish you were right. And it is logical

But logic plays no part in the neo-con fantasies. I still believe as long as bush/cheney is in power there will be enduring bases and communication systems and US troops in the thousands in Iraq. With the blessings of the US/Iraqi constitution and our US installed pupptes.

Yes, lives will be lost in the hundreds of thousands over the next several years defending the US positions but that has not stopped them yet.

[leftchick]

12. dupe

[ClintonTyree]

7. Sadly, I think you're right.

We will never be able to totally withdraw our troops as long as there is a neo-con anywhere within 1,000 miles of the White House. bush will NEVER agree to totally withdraw our troops, it just won;t happen. Until he's gone, we're stuck there.

[FreedomAngel82]

10. Probably

Why else did they start building the bases before we "officially" went into Iraq?

[ironman202]

14. go here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4358947

[FreedomAngel82]

8. Look at spring 2006

Declare victory (see "Mission Accomplished") and make a big show. Of course the Iraqi's will be rejoicing of our leaving but they'll find a way to twist it for Bush's approval raitings.

[peacebird]

2. "They have no plan now. They do not know what they're doing."

Sad, but true.

[hippiechick]

4. Their only plan was to say whatever they had to, to get there ...

... there never was an intention of 'leaving'.

[fob]

11. I only wish all Democrats would drop the "WE" crap. WE didn't mess

up anything, bush* did. bush* created a terrorist danger for the US where there wasn't one before.

Give em hell Howard, and a little more truth, replace the "we" with bush*.

[BurtWorm]

13. I think Dean does make the distinction

between the "they" who got us into the mess and the "we" who got stuck in it. When he says "We need to leave," it seems to me, he's expressing solidarity with the soldiers and their families who (unlike the neo-cons who never set foot in Iraq) are over there.