Kennedy: Military Fuels Insurgency
Mass. Senator Calls For Detailed Timeline To Bring Troops Home
-
Play CBS Video Video Cranking Up The Conflict With a surge of polling-place attacks and troops in Iraq bracing for more violence Sunday, Dan Rather reports that a new poll shows encouraging percentages of Iraqis plan to cast ballots.
-
Video Readying Polls In Mosul The streets are being swept for non-coalition vehicles as polls are readied in Mosul, Iraq's most dangerous city. Kimberly Dozier reports on a risky job, working at the polls.
-
Video Boot Camp In A Combat Zone Iraq's National Guard troops are supposed to be leading security forces on Election Day. But training them has been a test for American soldiers, Dan Rather reports.
-
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy: "We need a new plan that sets fair and realistic goals for self-government in Iraq." (AP /CBS, Karin Cooper)
-
Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
-
Interactive American Heroes Profiles of U.S. soldiers who've died in Iraq, a look at the war's toll and pictures of mourning.
-
Interactive The 109th Congress Meet the leaders and follow the action in the House and Senate.
Just three days before the Iraqi people go to the polls to elect a new government, the Massachusetts Democrat said America must give Iraq back to its people rather than continue an occupation that parallels the failed politics of the Vietnam War. He said at least 12,000 troops should leave Iraq right away.
"The U.S. military presence has become part of the problem, not part of the solution," Kennedy said at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. "We need a new plan that sets fair and realistic goals for self-government in Iraq, and works with the Iraqi government on a specific timetable for the honorable homecoming of our forces."
While not the first member of Congress to call for a withdrawal of the troops, Kennedy is the first senator to do so. And his remarks continue what has been a long and blistering assault on the administration's Iraq policies.
Republican National Committee spokesman Brian Jones criticized Kennedy's timing.
"Its remarkable that Sen. Kennedy would deliver such an overtly pessimistic message only days before the Iraqi election," said Jones. "Kennedy's partisan political attack stands in stark contrast to President Bush's vision of spreading freedom around the world."
He has called the war a "fraud made up in Texas," and said the administration misled the people about the threats leading up to the war.
Now, Kennedy said, the United States and the insurgents are both battling for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and the U.S. is losing.
"There may well be violence as we disengage militarily from Iraq and Iraq disengages politically from us, but there will be much more violence if we continue our present dangerous and destabilizing course," Kennedy said. "It will not be easy to extricate ourselves from Iraq, but we must begin."
Administration officials have so far declined to discuss a timeline for troop withdrawal, saying the goal is to ensure the Iraqis are capable of maintaining their own security before military forces are scaled back.
Kennedy, who has called Iraq "George Bush's Vietnam," drew parallels between that failed conflict and the current deadly battle against guerrilla insurgents. He said the United States must learn from the mistakes of Vietnam — which he termed a misguided war that carried on too long and was not honestly portrayed by officials to the American people.
Kennedy said the first goal in the current situation should be for the United Nations — not the United States — to convene an international meeting to help the new government take shape and draft a constitution.
© MMV The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBSNews.com On Digg
Gen. Ray Odierno, head of multinational forces in Iraq, on progress there and plans for Afghanistan.
