U.S. Envoy (Crocker) Offers Grim Prediction on Iraq Pullout

Source: NYT

U.S. Envoy Offers Grim Prediction on Iraq Pullout

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By JOHN F. BURNS and ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: July 10, 2007

BAGHDAD, July 9 — As the Senate prepares to begin a new debate this week on proposals for a withdrawal from Iraq, the United States ambassador and the Iraqi foreign minister are warning that the departure of American troops could lead to sharply increased violence, the deaths of thousands and a regional conflict that could draw in Iraq’s neighbors.

Two months before a pivotal assessment of progress in the war that he and the overall American military commander in Iraq are to make to the White House and Congress in September, Ryan C. Crocker, the ambassador, laid out a grim forecast of what could happen if the policy debate in Washington led to a significant pullback or even withdrawal of American forces, perhaps to bases outside the major cities.

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Fearing that the last pillars of Republican support for the war are eroding, the White House invited Senators John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, who has been critical of the administration’s war policy, and Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, a staunch supporter of the American troop presence, to the White House to ask them to delay votes on withdrawal until the administration delivers an interim progress report on the war due in September. Republicans on Capitol Hill said they believed that President Bush was considering addressing the nation about Iraq this week.

Although Mr. Warner said he was inclined to heed the president’s request to delay a vote, the Democratic leader, Senator Harry Reid, of Nevada, said Monday afternoon that he would not wait. Indeed, hours later, the Senate began debate on the National Defense Authorization Act, the main military spending bill for the next budget year — and a vehicle for trying to force the administration to change its policy.

The bill calls for the military to balance the amount of time American troops spend overseas and on American soil, a measure that would severely limit troop deployments to Iraq.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/world/middleeast/10iraq.html?ex=1341720000&en=db660d25359e222b&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

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Read the whole thing. This is the story everyone is going to be talking about tomorrow.

Support for Bush is collapsing faster than Jenna at a frat party.

so he can have a peaceful August vacation again?

How have his other August breaks worked out of us?

We need to drag him out of the WH before that.

the walls are tumbling down. It's a good thing!:D

which is that there were no WMD's and the illegal invasion of Iraq was based on lies and that we should get out of there and let those people actually start rebuilding their country.

Hypocrites.