Giuliani says U.S. will need long presence in Iraq

[Scurrilous]

Source: Washington Post

<snip>

"U.S. troops will likely be fighting in Iraq when the next president takes office in 2009 and some U.S. forces will need to stay there to deter regional threats, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said on Tuesday.

Like President George W. Bush, Giuliani cautioned against a precipitous U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, saying Washington must avoid what happened in Vietnam when the U.S. pullout led to "the killing fields of Cambodia, a newly energized and expansionist Soviet Union and a weaker America."

"The consequences of abandoning Iraq would be worse," the former New York mayor wrote in an article for Foreign Affairs magazine laying out the broad contours of his foreign policy."

<snip>

"Giuliani's comments on Iraq come during a presidential campaign dominated by how to extract the United States from a conflict that has wearied most Americans. Some Democrats would like troops pulled out by next March."







Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/14/AR2007081400003.html

---

Toward a Realistc Peace

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070901faessay86501/rudolph-giuliani/toward-a-realistc-peace.html

[ClintonTyree]

1. Hopefully.....

Giuliani's presence as a viable candidate for the GOP will be short lived.

"Like President George W. Bush, Giuliani cautioned against a precipitous U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, saying Washington must avoid what happened in Vietnam"..... Perhaps if chucklenuts had avoided the Viet Nam-like exercise in stupidity in the FIRST place we wouldn't be forced to choose such a disastrous course now. Sure, NOW he wants to avoid any Viet Nam comparisons. :banghead: There is no logical choice other than abandoning Bush's stupid war.

Screw you, Rudy. Go find another cousin to boff or something.

[rodeodance]

2. I am so tired of Small minds in our government.

[Ilsa]

3. They are very limited in their thinking. He must own some Halliburton stock. nt

[tanyev]

4. This war is getting less and less popular and Rudy wants to campaign on keeping troops there?

You go, Rudy.

[gratuitous]

5. War or abandonment: Are those the only choices?

And if we truly are locked in an existential war with an implacable foe, when are the people who see this so dubious concept so clearly going to begin acting as if what they say is true? When will Mitt and Rudy and the rest start committing their own children to the cause?

Teeny, tiny minds.

[Supersedeas]

10. complete imperial occupation or disengagement (framing debate in the margins)

[dazzlerazzle]

6. Rudy

You have to wonder about the intelligence of a guy who was married to his second cousin and it took him 14 years to discover this?

[0007]

9. Egads!!

[mvd]

7. I bet Ghouliani is the neocon fave

That's good, because barring lots of shenanigans (which we will definitely have to watch for,) I think Hillary can beat him.

[Nickster]

8. How does anyone take this crap seriously?

The killing fields of Cambodia, that was ended by the communist North Vietnamese army in 1978. The Soviet Union fell just 13 years after the end of the Vietnam War. Weaker America? What does that even mean? Don't we do about 6 billion a year in trade with that communist Vietnam country these days?

[napi21]

11. Actually, I hope he KEEPS talking like that! If he IS the Pub

candidate, he won't stand a CHANCE at getting elected!

[Betty]

12. republicans = endless war

it's that simple. If you like wars that serve no useful purpose and actually hurt our country, vote repug.

[IndianaGreen]

13. Rudy = Hillary when it comes to the war in Iraq

The United States’ security would be undermined if parts of Iraq turned into a failed state that serves as a petri dish for insurgents and Al Qaeda. It is right in the heart of the oil region. It is directly in opposition to our interests, to the interests of regimes, to Israel’s interests.

-- Hillary Clinton

Published on Thursday, March 15, 2007 by the New York Times

If Elected... Clinton Says Some G.I.’s in Iraq Would Remain

by Michael R. Gordon and Patrick Healy

WASHINGTON — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton foresees a “remaining military as well as political mission” in Iraq, and says that if elected president, she would keep a reduced military force there to fight Al Qaeda, deter Iranian aggression, protect the Kurds and possibly support the Iraqi military.

In a half-hour interview on Tuesday in her Senate office, Mrs. Clinton said the scaled-down American military force that she would maintain would stay off the streets in Baghdad and would no longer try to protect Iraqis from sectarian violence — even if it descended into ethnic cleansing.

In outlining how she would handle Iraq as commander in chief, Mrs. Clinton articulated a more nuanced position than the one she has provided at her campaign events, where she has backed the goal of “bringing the troops home.”

She said in the interview that there were “remaining vital national security interests in Iraq” that would require a continuing deployment of American troops.

The United States’ security would be undermined if parts of Iraq turned into a failed state “that serves as a petri dish for insurgents and Al Qaeda,” she said. “It is right in the heart of the oil region,” she said. “It is directly in opposition to our interests, to the interests of regimes, to Israel’s interests.”

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0315-02.htm