Pelosi's trip: She believes more strongly that withdrawal will help region, troops deserve better

[Kadie]

CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Pelosi's trip: She believes more strongly that withdrawal will help region, says troops deserve better policies than president's
Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief

Monday, January 29, 2007

(01-29) 04:00 PST Washington -- Three days in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan have made House Speaker Nancy Pelosi even more certain of her view that moving troops out of Iraq is the best way to bring stability to the region, she told The Chronicle on Sunday.

Speaking from Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, Pelosi said the nation owes its troops a better policy than the one now being pursued by President Bush, and emphasized the importance of reconstructing the war-torn region.

As Congress prepares to challenge the president's Iraq policy, Pelosi offered no indication that her meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had softened her opposition to Bush's plan to send 21,500 more American troops into the war.

The high-level meetings highlighted Pelosi's determination to place Iraq near the top of the agenda for the new Democratic Congress. It also emphasized on a world stage the enormous differences between Congress and the White House over the way forward.

"We owe them better policy. We owe them better initiatives,'' Pelosi said after meeting the past three days with scores of U.S. troops and military commanders, as well as the top political leader in each of the three countries. "I believe redeployment of our troops is a step toward stability in the region.''

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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/29/MNGP0NQQOK1.DTL

[Kadie]

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