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Chandler calls for troop pullout from Iraq
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Rep. Ben Chandler, who got a firsthand look at the situation in Iraq last weekend, said U.S. troop withdrawals should begin right away to force the Iraqi government to stand on its own.
“I think we need to leave them with as stable a situation as we can but we need to lift off from the country as soon as possible,” the Democratic congressman told the Lexington Herald-Leader in an interview. “I think it’s time to start withdrawing.”
Chandler acknowledged any such shift in policy is unlikely until the next president takes office in January.
Jon Larson, Chandler’s Republican opponent in the upcoming 6th District election, said the United States must be more patient with an Iraqi government that’s still “finding its way.”
“I believe we are going to need a continued presence in Iraq for a considerable amount of time,” he said. “It sounds like it’s an extremely risky measure that Congressman Chandler is suggesting.”
Chandler said a surge of an additional 20,000 troops last year, which he spoke against on the House floor, clearly helped conditions.
“We’ve done a wonderful job really in bringing more security to the country,” he said. “You cannot dispute the fact that it is connected with putting more troops there.”
But he said U.S. efforts might have reached the “point of diminishing returns.”
“We’ve given them breathing room to stabilize their situation, and I’m not sure for the money we’re spending that we can accomplish a great deal more than that,” he said. “Essentially we’re borrowing from the Chinese in order to pay for a war that, if you look at the final outcome, it’s really questionable whether we gain a thing from it.”
Chandler, a member of the House appropriations committee’s subcommittee for State Department and foreign operations funding, traveled to Ramadi and Baghdad on Saturday with four members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation and Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop of New York.
In addition to meeting with troops and surveying the region, the group met with Gen. David Petraeus and Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin.
Chandler said he’s increasingly concerned with the mounting cost of U.S. occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, which works out to roughly $330 million per day.
“It’s a shocking amount of money and at a time when we’re concerned about our ability to compete in a global economy,” he said.
Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., who sits with Chandler on the House appropriations committee, said he also has been concerned about the Iraqi government’s “progression towards political stability, financial accountability, and meeting the training milestones for their own military.” But he said removing U.S. forces too soon could cause disarray that would encourage violence and terrorism.
“I believe artificial timetables and unrealistic goals supported by some in Congress are a recipe for disaster in achieving a free and peaceful Iraq,” Rogers said.
Rogers, who hasn’t traveled to Iraq, said he’s awaiting Petraeus’ latest round of recommendations to Congress and President Bush in September.
