2006 election: voters desperately want a new course

Hillary said, “The message sent loudly and clearly by the American people was that we desperately need a new course.“ By this point, she had traveled all over the map regarding Iraq, carried along by the shifts in public opinion and her own ambition to appear both strong and decisive, traits she new she’d need as president.

As she finalized her plans for a presidential bid, Hillary asked allies from NH how her vote for the war would play out in the campaign. AS she saw it, she had two options: chart a new course or continue to tread water.

Returned money from organization associated with terrorists

Q: Wait a minute. Didn’t your presidential candidate, George W. Bush, also accept contributions?

LAZIO: It’s absolutely wrong for all. The difference, though, on top of receiving the contributions, is that people who support the Hamas terrorist group, have been invited and courted at the White House, which I think is wrong.

CLINTON: I learned that an organization claimed credit for sponsoring a fund-raiser I attended; an organization whose members have made statements that I find offensive and have condemned. And as soon as I found out the facts, I returned all of the money that was raised because I did not want anyone to have a false impression about my strong support for Israel’s safety and security.

Pollard committed a crime, but use of secret evidence unfair

CLINTON: What Pollard did was a terrible crime against the US. It was a great breach of trust and national security and he plead guilty, was convicted and is serving a very long prison term. The question for me is around the due process issues concerning the way that he was sentenced. It is something that I have questions about and I believe that fair-minded people should ask similar questions. There was secret evidence put in before the court that has never been revealed.

LAZIO: The only person who is in a position to make that decision and the only person who’s got the authority to actually issue a pardon is the president himself.

Yugoslav involvement good on both moral & strategic grounds

Urged president to bomb Serbians

Kosovo’s unified message: We will not turn away

War authorization vote made primary harder than general

Clinton's assessment was based primarily on one thing: the anger of the party's liberal base at Hillary's vote to authorize the Iraq War and her continued refusal to recant it. With elections in Iraq scheduled for that December, the body count rising, and sectarian violence raging in the region, calls were intensifying for a troop reduction or even a full-scale withdrawal. On Nov. 13, Edwards, whom the Clintons considered Hillary's most serious rival for the nomination, published an op-ed in "The Washington Post" apologizing for his own Senate vote in favor of authorizing the war. (It's first sentence: "I was wrong.") The pressure was mounting on Hillary to do the same.

2007: I'm most qualified to end war in Iraq

She's watched as Obama's campaign was hammered for producing a proposal that was an obvious rip-off of hers. She'd begun to defuse her rival's message, where she said, "change is just a word without the strength and experience to make it happen." And finally, in the 3rd quarter of the year, she had succeeded in raising more money than Obama.

Remove a brigade from Iraq every month, no matter what

A: Yes, I am. We have a system in our country of civilian control of the military. And I am convinced that it is in America’s best interest to immediately begin to withdraw within 60 days.

Q: But aren’t you essentially saying, “I know better than the military commanders here“?

A: No, what I’m saying is that no one can predict what will happen. But one thing I am sure of is that our staying in Iraq--continuing to have many [troops killed or] injured as well as Iraqi casualties--is no way for us to maintain a strong position in the world. We don’t know what will happen as we withdraw. We do know what will happen if we stay mired in Iraq. Our military will continue to be stretched thin. The Iraqi government will not accept responsibility for its own future.

The purpose of the surge has not been fulfilled

A: The rationale of the surge was to create the space and time for the Iraqi government to make the decisions that only it can make. There is no doubt, given the skill and the commitment of our young men and women in uniform that putting more of them in will give us a tactical advantage and will provide security in some places, and that has occurred. But the fact is that the purpose of it has not been fulfilled. The Iraqi government has slowly inched toward making a few of the decisions in a less than complete way, but it hasn’t taken advantage of the sacrifice and the losses of life and billions of dollars that have occurred since the surge began. That is why I have said, upon taking office I would ask the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and my security advisers to give me a plan so that I could begin withdrawing our troops within 60 days.

Withdraw all combat troops: one or two brigades a month

A: No, I wouldn’t, and this is such a disheartening piece of news. I don’t think the Iraqis will take responsibility until we actually start withdrawing troops. We can begin that within 60 days.

Q: Is your plan to withdraw all troops? I’ve believe you have been saying up to this point combat troops.

A: Well, I intend to try to take nearly all of them out within a year, but obviously it’s going to take a lot of planning. I don’t think the administration has done the planning. You know, we’ve got to take care of our civilians. We have more than 100,000 Americans there in all kinds of capacities. I think it would be appropriate that we take care of the Iraqis who translated, and drove for, and protected our troops. So this is not going to be easy to do, but I think you can take out one to two brigades a month.

Calling for troop withdrawal pressures Iraqi government

A: The so-called surge was designed to give the Iraqi government the space and time to make the tough decisions that only the Iraqis can make for themselves. It’s my assessment that only now is the Iraqi government starting to grapple with problems that many of us have been pushing them to resolve for 5 years. And the problem is that they have up until now believed that they didn’t really have to take any tough action, that President Bush had given them basically a blank check, that the American military would be there to protect them and protect other parts of the country. I think we’ve got to bring our troops home and really require and put the pressure on the Iraqis to make the tough decisions that they have to make.

Some tactical success in Iraq, but no strategic success yet

A: Well, that’s not at all what I’m doing. I think there’s a difference between tactical success on the ground, and strategic success. And I think you’re overstating what is happening in Iraq. There’s a lot of problems getting money from the central government into the Sunni areas. The oil bill hasn’t been resolved yet. De-Baathification is tied up in their Parliament because there is such a reaction to it by many of the Shiite factions. You know, this is, obviously, a fractious and often contentious government.

Leaving 130,000 troops in Iraq is irresponsible abdication

Have nearly all combat troops out in a year

A: I certainly hope it will be. I hope to have nearly all of them out within a year.

Withdraw one to two brigades in Iraq each month

A: Because I’ve been very clear in saying that I will begin to withdraw troops in 60 days. I believe that it will take me one to two brigades a month, depending on how many troops we have there, and that nearly all of them should be out within a year. It is imperative, though, that we actually plan and execute this right. Last spring, I got into quite a back-and-forth with the Pentagon, because I was concerned they were not planning for withdrawal, because that was contrary to their strategy, or their stated position. I began to press them to let us know, and they were very resistant, and gave only cursory information. I will ask the Joint Chiefs & my security advisers the very first day I’m president, to begin to draw up such a plan so that we can withdraw.

Can’t leave Iraq safely without a plan

Can’t let the Iraqis think the US will be there forever

Bush must ask Congress to approve agreements with Iraq

The Bush Administration says it does not even plan to submit this agreement to the Congress for approval, even though Iraqi officials plan to submit it to their parliament. It is an outrage that the Iraqi parliament will have an opportunity to debate this but the American Congress won’t. We need to rein in this President. That is why I introduced the first legislation to require the President to submit any such agreement for congressional approval and to withhold any funding to carry out the agreement.

Withdrawing troops is dangerous, including 100,000 civilians

No military solution in Iraq; this debate motivates solution

Hope to have nearly all troops out within a year

A: What I have said is that I will move as quickly as possible. I hope to have nearly all out within a year. We don’t know what we’re going to inherent from Bush, but there is a big problem looming on the horizon that we had better pay attention to, and that is Bush is intent upon negotiating a long-term agreement with Iraq which would have permanent bases, permanent troop presence. He claims he does not need to come to the US Congress to get permission, he only needs to go to the Iraqi parliament. That is his stated public position. He was recently in the region, and it is clear that he intends to push forward on this to try to bind the US government and his successor to his failed policy. I have been strongly opposed to that. We should not be planning permanent bases and long-term troop commitments.

Demand Bush to explain to Congress on his plan on Iraq

No extension on surge; deadline is why Iraq is progressing

A: No, and here’s why. The surge was rationalized as giving the Iraqi government time to make the hard decisions. 2007 was the deadliest year for American troops, and, from my perspective, part of the reason that the Iraqis are doing anything is because they see this election happening and they know they don’t have much time, that the blank check that George Bush gave them is about to be torn up.

Q: If Gen. Petraeus says, “Senator, in September you called the surge the suspension of belief. It has worked. Keep troops there just a few more months to get this reconciliation complete.”

A: The whole point of the surge was, and the testimony that we heard last fall. The point of the surge was to push the Iraqi government to make these tough choices.

Bush’s classified withdrawal plan is cursory; out in 60 days

The reason I have to do that is because last spring, I asked for a briefing on what the planning was. The secretary of defense and the Department of Defense basically said “We’re not going to tell you.” And I said, “Well, yes you are.” We had such a briefing. It was classified. I can’t talk about it, but the bottom line is it was cursory.

I don’t think that the Bush White House wants there to be much planning. So starting on day one of my presidency, we will begin that planning. We will begin to withdraw our troops within 60 days. I think we can take out one to two brigades a month. At the same time, I will put increasing pressure on the Iraqi government. I will engage in a full diplomatic effort to work with the countries in the region and others who have an interest in the stability of Iraq.

GovWatch: Withdrawal in 60 days has no timetable to finish

I chose this one because of the importance of the underlying issue, and a pattern of obfuscation on Iraq by the Clinton campaign. Clinton has promised to order her generals to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq within 60 days of her inauguration, but she has never provided a “definite timetable” for bringing the troops home. In fact, she has said that she cannot promise to get all U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of a second presidential term. At a campaign event on December 19, she was a little more specific than she had been previously when she said “I think we can bring home one or two combat brigades a month.” There is a huge difference, however, between “can” and “will.” “Can” does not constitute a “definite timetable.”

Absolutely oppose the war in Iraq

A: Absolutely. But I do not oppose the brave young men and women who have fought this war with such distinction and heroism. I will begin to bring our troops home as soon as I am president, because Bush does not intend to end the war while he is still president. We’re doing to have to get the Joint Chiefs and my secretary of defense and advisers together to start the planning to move as quickly as possible, because I don’t believe that the planning has been sufficiently undertaken in the Pentagon under the Bush administration. We have to try to get the Iraqi government to understand its obligations, because there are no military solutions. We need to engage in diplomacy, with respect to Iraq. We have a big diplomatic apparatus. Bush doesn’t use it. He relies on a very small group of people. That’s a terrible mistake. Bush’s policies have alienated our friends and emboldened our enemies. We’ve got to do more than just send our young men and women out.

Bring out as many combat troops as quickly as possible

Goal to remove all troops from Iraq by 2013, but no pledge

A: It is my goal to have all troops out by the end of my first term. But it is very difficult to know what we’re going to be inheriting. We do not know, walking into the White House in January 2009, what we’re going to find. What is the state of planning for withdrawal? That’s why last spring I began pressing the Pentagon to be very clear about whether or not they were planning to bring our troops out. And what I found was that they weren’t doing the kind of planning that is necessary, and we’ve been pushing them very hard to do so. You know, though, about the Democrats taking control of the Congress, I think the Democrats have pushed extremely hard to change this president’s course in Iraq. The Democrats keep voting for what we believe would be a better course.

No funding that does not move us toward withdrawal

A: I will not vote for any funding that does not move us toward beginning to withdraw our troops, that does not have pressure on the Iraqi government to make the tough political decisions that they have, that does not recognize that there is a diplomatic endeavor that has to be undertaken. This has gone on now, unfortunately, for years, with the president holding on to his failed policy and with Republicans in the Senate and on the campaign trail deciding to support that failed policy, and it’s really the only way that I can register my very strong disapproval of this policy, and I will continue to do so.

Q: But some of this money goes to protect our troops from mines and IEDs.

A: I think the best way to protect our troops is to start bringing them home.

Protect troops with body armor then & bringing them home now

• I have fought hard for body armor when the Bush administration was not able or willing to produce it in the quantities that were necessary.
• I’ve fought hard for armored vehicles because we knew that they needed additional protection in Iraq and they weren’t getting it.
• I have stood against the no-bid contracts and the cronyism that has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars that should be going to protecting our troops. But this administration, unfortunately, keeps turning a blind eye to the abuses in the contracting process.
• And I will continue to do everything that I can to protect our troops, starting with trying to get to a policy that will recognize their valor, but also the fact that there is no military solution. Everyone agrees with that. And yet that is the only policy that this administration is willing to support.

Defunding war is the only way to force Bush to change course

A: I am saying that I’ve been guided by what I believe is the principle that should govern any decisions anyone in public life makes: I try to do what I think is best for my country and for the troops who serve it. And I have seen no evidence that this administration is willing to change course in any significant way. I voted against funding last spring. I will vote against it again because I think that it’s the only way that we can demonstrate clearly that we have to change direction. The president has not been willing to do that, and he still has enough support among the Republicans in the Senate that he doesn’t have to.

Patraeus report requires willing suspension of disbelief

A: Well, I think he became the spokesman for the president’s failed policy. The president will announce that he’s going to withdraw 30,000 troops by next summer. That would have happened anyway, because we have to start withdrawing the so-called surge troops and get back to the pre-surge number. Then, I’m afraid, based on what we’ve heard from the general, that’s where it’s going to sit under this president until he leaves office.

Q: You said yesterday it required a willing suspension of disbelief. Meaning that you questioned either his veracity or his judgment in what he said.

A: No, what I said was meant to convey my very strong feeling that no matter how flat the pancake, there’ always two sides. The problem is that what the administration’s report intended to do was to take anecdotal evidence and actually gild the lily once again, making it seem as though there had been much more progress than I think you can actually justify.

Push Pentagon to start planning for Iraq withdrawal

Secondly, we need much stronger pressure on the Iraqi government than this administration has been willing to bring. And I would certainly condition any aid of any kind on their actually making the political decisions that they have been reluctant and unwilling to do so far. There is no military solution. Everybody agrees with that. And the political solutions seem to be out of the grasp of the Iraqis, because they’re still jockeying for power.

If you look at how we would have to take our troops out, plus the equipment, which we would not want to leave, plus what we do with the Iraqis who sided with us--thousands of them--plus more than 100,000 American contractors who are there--this is a massive, complicated undertaking

Redeploy responsibly, with regional diplomatic effort

FactCheck: Correct that DoD has no plan to remove all troops

Clinton is correct that the Department of Defense has not yet constructed specific plans for a withdrawal from Iraq. In a briefing delivered on May 9, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that the DoD does not in fact have a contingency plan for bringing home all American soldiers at once. That means that there is no official line on how long it would take to redeploy all the troops in Iraq. Privately, military sources agree that it’s impossible to give a realistic estimate without deciding certain parameters such as the acceptable degree of risk for troops that would be withdrawing in the face of an armed enemy.

Deauthorize Iraq war, and don’t grant new war authority

Now, I see the signs “Lead us out of Iraq now.” That is what we are trying to do. I have joined with Senator Byrd to sponsor legislation to deauthorize this war. The point of our proposal is very simple: To end the president’s authority for the war and force him to seek new authority.

If he thinks that he can get any kind of authority through the Congress, I think that he’s mistaken. But we need to end the authority that he is currently operating under, in order to strip him of the legitimacy of going forward with his policy. When I’m president, we are going to have a different foreign policy. We’re going to start talking to people again. We’re going to start rebuilding our alliances again.

Phased redeployment, not irresponsible immediate withdrawal

She continued to support “phased redeployment,” as opposed to the immediate withdrawal of 50,000 troops proposed by John Edwards, or a dramatic funding cutoff mentioned by others. Her approach, she told a reporter, stemmed from being “cursed with the responsibility gene.

The Iraq war is Bush’s war

Bush misused authorization for war

Now Hillary claims she didn’t believe that she was voting for war. She doesn’t defend her vote or call it a mistake. She wants to blame it on someone else--because Bush misled her.

This war is up to Iraqi people to win or lose, not the US

A: The American people have spoken. The Congress has voted, as of today, to end this war. And now we can only hope that the president will listen. I’m very proud of the Congress under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid for putting together a piece of legislation which says we will fund our troops and protect them, we will limit the number of days that they can be deployed, and we will start to bring them home. And I think that is exactly what the American people want. This is not America’s war to win or lose. We have given the Iraqi people the chance to have freedom, to have their own country. It is up to them to decide whether or not they’re going to take that chance.

Begin re-deployment out of Iraq in 90 days

A: There are really two different ways of thinking about this: the first, is what we can do while President Bush is still in office, and the second is what I will do when I’m President. First we’ve got to face up to the reality that the situation in Iraq is deteriorating. It is not improving and all the happy talking in the world will not fix the grim reality on the ground. My plan to end the war confronts that reality head-on. I introduced legislation called “Iraq Troop Protection and Reduction Act.” Under it, we would begin re-deployment of our troops out of Iraq in 90 days. I have been pushing this plan for almost 2 years. The bill would fight the President’s escalation by capping the number of troops in Iraq, it would also prohibit sending more troops to escalate a failed strategy.

America elected this Congress to bring our troops home

Online petition to pressure Bush & GOP for redeployment

A: We need to keep the pressure on Bush not to veto it, which is why I have launched this online petition drive, to have pressure put on Republicans particularly in the Senate, because we have to do everything possible to put pressure on the President so that we can make it absolutely undeniable that we have to reverse course. I think we should let the American people understand, and let President Bush fully understand that it is he who is rejecting the funding. We have passed funding, but we did it within the context of timelines, and if he can be held responsible for vetoing the funding because he will not start to follow the will of the American people, and de-escalate this conflict, and bring our troops home, I think that puts tremendous pressure on Republicans who are going to be running for office again in 2008.

If Bush doesn’t end Iraq war, when I’m president, I will

I hope that the president will extricate us from Iraq before he leaves office. But let me assure you, if you doesn’t, when I’m president, I will.

Require Bush to redeploy or seek additional authority

Cap troops in Iraq and no more blank check for war

If war not over by 1/2009, as president, I will end it

Cut off funds for Iraqi use, but not for troops

McCAIN: I don’t see any place in the Constitution where that kind of authority is granted to the Congress. The Congress can cut off funding. And if my colleagues believe that they’re going to send young Americans to die in an unwinnable situation, it seems to me that their conscience would dictate that they cut off the funding for the entire effort. This resolution is basically a vote of no confidence in the men and women we are sending over there. We’re saying, “We’re sending you-we’re not going to stop you from going there, but we don’t believe you can succeed and we’re not willing to support that.” I don’t think the troops would find that an expression of support.

Phased redeployment out of Iraq, beginning immediately

A: #1: We need to resolve the political problems in Iraq. They’ve been allowed to fester. How are you going to guarantee the reasonable Sunni majority a place in the government? How are you going to distribute the oil revenue, so people don’t feel that they’re being ripped off? These are key issues for political resolution of sectarian violence. #2: We’ve got to have the regional neighbors involved--with a high-level contact group, where we bring the regional powers together. #3: The President’s strategy has basically been, “Well, when the Iraqis stand up, we’ll stand down.” Well, the Iraqis have been standing up, but they haven’t been fighting. That’s why we need a phased redeployment--moving our troops out so they have to stand and fight for themselves.

Q: Give us a timetable for that phasing out.

A: When we originally proposed it, we said that 2006 should be a year of transition. We’re running out of time in 2006. I think this needs to be done immediately.

Begin troops withdrawal within 60 days after elected

Withdraw troops within 60 days after taking office

Agrees with Newt Gingrich that Iraq policy is a mess

Hillary Clinton, who recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, said she agreed with Gingrich. She blamed the administration for “miscalculation” and “inept planning” in Iraq. “I do think we need more troops” in Iraq, Clinton said. She said she believes in giving the chief executive the authority to wage war, as her husband did in Bosnia and Kosovo. “But I regret the way the president has used the authority.” Clinton dismissed complaints that she should not have criticized President Bush while in Iraq and blamed a “right-wing apparatus.” Clinton said she was merely responding to questions from U.S. troops. “I’m not going to lie to an American soldier,” she said on CBS.

Urged President to veto UN condemnation of Israel

Q: Did you urge him to use it?

CLINTON: That was what I urged my husband to do. He made a different decision

US should have vetoed biased anti-Israel UN resolution

CLINTON: We should have vetoed it. It was one-sided. It did not address the violence that I believe is fomented by Arafat. It did not address what Israel has tried to do, such as pulling out of Lebanon. We’re seeing the capture of Israeli soldiers, the desecration of Joseph’s tomb. It’s imperative that Arafat end the violence and get back to negotiating. The US remains the guarantor of Israel’s security, and in the Senate, I would certainly be a strong voice for doing whatever was required. I’ve also called for conditioning aid to the Palestinians on their willingness to end violence, on their willingness to rid their textbooks of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli statements.

LAZIO: I did issue a statement immediately expressing my strong disappointment with America not using its veto power. I do not support call for a Palestinian state. My record is one of 100% consistency for the security of the state of Israel.