Reid: U.S. can't win Iraq military fight

[cal04]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday the military fight in Iraq was "lost," triggering an angry backlash by Republicans who said the top Democrat had turned his back on the troops.

The bleak assessment was the sharpest yet from Reid, who has vowed to send President Bush legislation calling for combat to end next year. Reid said he told Bush on Wednesday that he thought the war could not be won through military force and only through political, economic and diplomatic means.

"I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense and — you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows — (know) this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday," said Reid, D-Nev.

Republicans pounced on the comment as evidence, they said, that Democrats did not support the troops.

I can't begin to imagine how our troops in the field, who are risking their lives every day, are going to react when they get back to base and hear that the Democrat leader of the United States Senate has declared the war is lost," said Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070419/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. So much for "overwhelming military force"