The British and the Danes Realize the Futility. What About the Bush Administration?The news today that the British and the Danes will be withdrawing troops from Iraq should provide some interesting questions from the White House press corps for the Administration.
The British have 7,100 troops in Iraq (down from 40,000 at the time of the invasion) and Prime Minister Tony Blair announced today in Parliament that he will draw down nearly 25% of the remaining troops in the coming months. The Danes also announced today that they would be withdrawing the whole of their 460-member commitment from Iraq.
Take these events in the context of Vice-President Cheney's speech yesterday aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, in which he proclaimed that the American public would not stand for retreat from Iraq. Does he now believe that our British and Danish coalition partners are in full scale retreat? Is he also denying that the polls consistently demonstrate that the American public wants out of Iraq?
Let's also examine what the Vice-President didn't say in his speech. He didn't say that should these servicemen and women be wounded in combat, they should expect to convalesce at Walter Reed hospital replete with holes in the ceiling, black mold, and receive care for post-traumatic stress disorder from other wounded soldiers suffering.
The president found himself at Walter Reed on Friday, but apparently did not have time to inspect the horrible conditions these soldiers are subjected to here in Washington, DC, a short drive from the White House.
So what's the real story here? Is it that the American people will not stand for a redeployment in Iraq as the Vice-President suggests? Or is it that Britain, Denmark, our wounded soldiers at Walter Reed, and the American public recognize the devastation that a poorly planned, poorly executed, disastrous war has wrought?
http://johnconyers.com/node/101
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