Ted Kennedy Is At It Again

Kennedy Calls for Troop Withdrawal in Iraq

WASHINGTON (AP) - The American military's continued presence in Iraq is fanning the flames of conflict, and signals the need for a new detailed timeline to bring the troops home, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said Thursday.

Just three days before the Iraqi people go to the polls to elect a new government, the Massachusetts Democrat said America must give Iraq back to its people rather than continue an occupation that parallels the failed politics of the Vietnam war.

"The U.S. military presence has become part of the problem, not part of the solution," Kennedy said in remarks prepared for delivery at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. "We need a new plan that sets fair and realistic goals for self-government in Iraq, and works with the Iraqi government on a specific timetable for the honorable homecoming of our forces."

While not the first member of Congress to call for a withdrawal of the troops, Kennedy is the first senator to do so. And his remarks continued what has been a long and blistering assault on the administration's Iraq policies.

Republican National Committee spokesman Brian Jones criticized Kennedy's timing.

"Its remarkable that Sen. Kennedy would deliver such an overtly pessimistic message only days before the Iraqi election," said Jones. "Kennedy's partisan political attack stands in stark contrast to President Bush's vision of spreading freedom around the world."

He has called the war a "fraud made up in Texas," and said the administration misled the people about the threats leading up to the war.

Now, Kennedy said, the United States and the insurgents are both battling for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and the U.S. is losing.

"There may well be violence as we disengage militarily from Iraq and Iraq disengages politically from us, but there will be much more violence if we continue our present dangerous and destabilizing course," said Kennedy. "It will not be easy to extricate ourselves from Iraq, but we must begin."

Administration officials have so far declined to discuss a timeline for troop withdrawal, saying the goal is to ensure the Iraqis are capable of maintaining their own security before military forces are scaled back.

Kennedy, who has called Iraq "George Bush's Vietnam," drew parallels between that failed conflict and the current deadly battle against guerrilla insurgents. He said the United States must learn from the mistakes of Vietnam - which he termed a misguided war that carried on too long and was not honestly portrayed by officials to the American people.

Kennedy said the first goal in the current situation should be for the United Nations - not the United States - to convene an international meeting to help the new government take shape and draft a constitution.
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What the hell is Kennedy thinking?
This is NOT the first time people have been threatened not to vote in other countries rocked with insurgents when they tried to vote.
But they went out and voted, and what do you know Democracy came! Not overnight but it came.
And giving a timetable for our troops to leave, that seems to me to be giving the insurgents a way to say "Oh the Americans are going to leave on ....Date Lets kill as many of them as we can before they depart".
Kennedy also has alot of nerve calling this George Bush's Viet Nam, when it was his own brother (JFK) that got us in to Viet Nam to begin with. And this sure as hell is NOTHING like Viet Nam.
Why doesnt Kennedy just crawl back into Boston Harbor with his bottle of Scotch!