Being fair about what Dean said on getting out of Iraq. [View All]

[madfloridian]

Being fair to Howard Dean about getting out of Iraq. Actually he has been speaking pretty clearly on this. Considering he can't make the plan or set the timeline...two of his last appearances on FTN and MTP showed a definite belief that we need to get out as soon as we can. Some don't seem to think so, just presenting what he has said.

Dean on Hardball - Oct. 6, 2005

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about Iraq. One in six Democrats now tell pollsters that the war in Iraq was worth it. Are you one of those one in six, or one of the five in six — I should say, well, only one in six say it's worth it. Are you one of the one in six or one of the five in six who don't think it was worth it?

DEAN: Well, I think, Chris, one thing I am is consistent. I thought this was a bad idea in the first place because I believed we would get just in the kind of mess we have. It looks like, Chris, now the Iraqi government that George Bush is supporting to hard is trying to rig the vote on the constitution. Women appear to be worse off under this constitution than they were under Saddam Hussein. I think this president's made a terrible mistake. Now we're stuck, we're in there. It's not responsible to take our troops out tomorrow, but we need to get our troops out of there and we need to do it in a reasonable way and not lose any more lives.

MATTHEWS: Most Democrats, in fact all but a quarter, think that your party, you, don't have a policy, an alternative, to President Bush on Iraq. What is your clear-cut alternative to what he's doing now in Iraq?

DEAN: Well, our clear-cut alternative, of course, wouldn't have been to get in there in the first place. But I think our clear-cut alternative is we know we have to come home. The American people are sick of this, they think this was a mistake. The question is, what's the timetable to come home? There's a lot of reasonable alternatives. I personally don't think it's reasonable to pull out all the troops tomorrow. But I clearly think sooner is better than later.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9601984/

And on Face the Nation August 14 this year. It was pdf version, so just putting text.
Linking to html version.
PDF version:
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/face_81405.pdf
HTML version
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:srqSgVI51BsJ:www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/face_81405.pdf+dean,+face+the+nation,+iraq&hl=en

SCHIEFFER: "Governor Dean, polls are showing that people are losing confidence in the president's handling of the war in Iraq. A minority--a majority now believe it's left us more vulnerable, rather than less vulnerable, to the terrorists. But what do Democrats propose to do about it?

Dr. HOWARD DEAN (Democrat, Former Governor, Vermont; Chairman, DemocraticNational Committee): Well, I think, first of all, we need a plan. The saddest article, in a series of very sad articles about people losing their lives--the saddest article I saw was in The Washington Post this morning, talking about the insiders of the administration saying, `Well, now we misjudged. We really can't achieve any of the things--or many of the things we said that we were going to achieve when we went.'

Eighteen hundred and fifty Americans lose their lives because the president can't figure out what he's going to do, had no plan when we got there and has no plan when we get out. First thing we need to do have a plan for leaving. And the second thing we need to do is to make sure that to the best of our ability we can influence the writing of the constitution. It looks like today, and this could change--as of today, it looks like women will be worse off in Iraq than they were when Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq. That's a pretty sad commentary on this administration's ability to do anything right.

SCHIEFFER: Well, when you say, `We need to have a plan,' you mean a plan to leave?

Dr. DEAN: We do.

SCHIEFFER: A plan to get out?

Dr. DEAN: We need to have a plan to leave.

SCHIEFFER: Should we leave now?

Dr. DEAN: I think that's going to be very problematic. I mean, I think we've gotten in there, we've made a huge mess in there, we've created a terrorist danger for the United States where one did not exist before. But to pull out before they even have a chance to write their constitution I think is wrong. But I do think that time is coming very quickly. And if it turns out that this constitution really does take away the rights that women have enjoyed in Iraq before, then I can't imagine why we're there."

Just trying to be fair. He can not make the plan, congressional Democrats need to. Won't do any good, except to make us as Democrats happy.

Actually I agree with what Dean said. He said the president is commander chief....HE needs to make the plan.