Sunday, August 06, 2006

Strange Times: Key GOP Senator Backs Iraq Pullout -- 'NYT' Opposes

Strange Times: Key GOP Senator Backs Iraq Pullout -- 'NYT' Opposes:

NEW YORK - Two days after Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) called for a phasedwithdrawal from Iraq beginning within six months, a New York Times editorial came out against any such plan, calling Democratic moves in this direction 'realithy avoidance....It involves pretending that the nightmare can be ended by adopting a timetable for a phased withdrawal of American troops.'

President Bush's policies encourage 'the illusion that it is just a matter of time and American support before Iraq evolves into a stable democracy,' the Times editorial on Sunday declares. 'The Democratic timetable spins a different fantasy: that if the Iraqis are told that American troops will be leaving in stages, at specific dates, their government will rise to the occasion and create its own security forces to maintain order.

'The Iraqi government has not failed to develop adequate police and military forces of its own because it lacks the incentive. It has failed to do so because it is weak and divided, because its people are frightened and because the strongest leaders in the country are the men who control sectarian militias. A phased withdrawal by itself would simply leave the American soldiers who remain behind in graver danger, and hasten what looks like an inevitable descent into civil war.

No comments: