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Republican senator says Iraq looking like Vietnam
Washington: A leading Republican senator said Sunday the war in Iraq is looking more like the Vietnam conflict from a generation ago.
Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, who received two Purple Hearts and other military honours for his service in Vietnam, reaffirmed his position that the United States needs to develop a strategy to leave Iraq.
"Stay the course is not a policy," said Hagel, a possible White House contender in 2008. "By any standard, when you analyse 2 1/2 years in Iraq ... we're not winning."
Senator George Allen, another Republican, another possible candidate for the GOP nomination for president in 2008, said the formation of a constitution guaranteeing basic freedoms would provide a rallying point for Iraqis.
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http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13922241
Hagel said "stay the course" is not a policy. "By any standard, when you analyze 2 1/2 years in Iraq ... we're not winning," he said.
President Bush was preparing for separate speeches this week to reaffirm his plan to help Iraq train its security forces while its leaders build a democratic government. In his weekly Saturday radio address, Bush said the fighting there protected Americans at home.
Polls show the public growing more skeptical about Bush's handling of the war.
In Iraq, officials continued to craft a new constitution in the face of a Monday night deadline for parliamentary approval. They missed the initial deadline last week.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/21/AR2005082100375.html
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"What I think the White House does not yet understand and some of my colleagues, is the dam has broken on this (Iraq) policy," Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee and possible presidential candidate in 2008 said Sunday August21 , Reuters reported.
He told ABC's "This Week" that there were growing similarities between Iraq and US involvement in Vietnam and he predicted the longer the United States stayed in Iraq the more unpopular it would become.
"We are locked into a bogged down problem not unsimilar or dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam. The longer we stay the more problems we are going to have," he said.
"I don't know how many more casualties we're going to take. We're spending a billion dollars a week now (in Iraq)," said Hagel.
August has been the deadliest month for the US occupation troops in Iraq with at least 42 fatalities thus far.
According to Pentagon figures, some1 , 800US troops have died since the beginning of the invasion-turned-occupation of Iraq in March2003 .
The bloody Vietnam conflict is said to have claimed up to58 , 000US soldiers and injured more than200 ,000.
The lowest unofficial Vietnamese casualty estimates are around1 . 5million killed. Other counts took the number to three million.
Instable Mideast
A decorated Vietnam War veteran, Hagel also said the war in Iraq had further destabilized the Middle East and the White House needed to find an exit strategy for Iraq.
"We should start figuring out how we get out of there. But with this understanding, we cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the Middle East," said Hagel.
Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin also called for a pullout timetable, setting a December 2006 as a deadline to withdraw from the war-torn country.
In an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," Feingold said if a target date was not set the American public would become more and more disillusioned.
"The president is not telling us the time frame ... what's happening is that the American public is despairing of the situation," said Feingold.
"I felt it was time to put on the table an idea and break the taboo," he added.
The White House rejected the remarks and said it was essential the United States complete its mission in Iraq.
"The president knows a free and democratic Iraq will help transform a dangerous region and lay the foundation of peace for our children and grandchildren," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said in Crawford, Texas, Sunday.
"Our policies of the past only allowed the Middle East to become a terrorist breeding ground," he said. "Quitting now wouldn't help anyone except terrorist killers, who certainly aren't quitting their efforts to target innocent people."
The US army’s chief of staff said Saturday, August20 , the army plans to keep the current number of soldiers in Iraq, estimated at some 140 ,000, for at least four more years.
The Americans are showing more discontent with President George W. Bush’s handling of Iraq, with high-profile protests during his ranch vacation and new poll results showing nearly six in 10 Americans worried about the outcome of the war.
Asked whether the United States was meeting its objectives in Iraq,56 percent of those polled said it was not and 39 percent said it was.
The poll is to be published in next month's issue of Foreign Affairs, the journal of the Council on Foreign Relations.
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-08/22/article01.shtml