Sen. Biden On CBS-TV: “Draw Down These Combat Troops And Get Them Out Of That Civil War”
September 4, 2007
Sep. 4: Two U.S. Senators offered decidedly different perspectives on the state of Iraq’s government and the prospects of success for the U.S. military’s “surge” in that nation, as CBS-TV’s host Bob Schieffer interviewed Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, and Senator Lindsay Graham, Sunday on “Face The Nation.”
Senator Biden dismissed the argument that a military push on the part of the United States could by itself ensure the political success of the Iraqi government.
“The purpose of this surge was to give breathing room to acquire some political reconciliation,” Biden remarked. “There is no political reconciliation. And the total number of Iraqi civilian deaths are up around Iraq, not down. The number of people fleeing their homes has gone from 50,000 a month to 100,000 a month since the surge.”
Biden referred to the Biden-Levin Amendment to immediately draw down combat troops and have them out of the country by March 2008, leaving only those necessary to train the Iraqi army to protect U.S. civilians in Iraq and to deny al Qaeda the ability to occupy Anbar province. “That requires about one-fifth of the number of troops we have there.”
“We should begin to draw down these combat troops and get them out of the civil war.”
Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Air Force Reserve who had just returned from Reserve duty in Iraq for the last two weeks. “Well, the surge provided a level of security I haven’t seen [in Iraq before]. We’re finally getting the formula right. Anbar is just not about more troops; Anbar is about the local people, the Sunni Arabs in Anbar rejecting al Qaeda.”
Read more of Senator Biden’s remarks on the CBS News Web site for “Face The Nation” HERE. SEND US YOUR COMMENTS.
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