dirty
EOG Master
<TABLE width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>How Convenient...she is playin the middle like a Fiddle...Wake up Idiots:doh1
Hillary Clinton takes 'wait-and-see' stance on US troop pullout from Iraq
Nov 23 6:49 PM US/Eastern
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With Americans embroiled in a heated debate over the US invasion of Iraq, Senator Hillary Clinton has taken a position considerably to the right of many in her Democratic party, including that of her ex-president husband.
An early favorite to win her party's 2008 presidential nod, the former first lady was guarded in remarks Monday on the way forward in Iraq, just days after John Murtha, a pro-military former Marine in the US House, stunned the political establishment by calling for a complete US withdrawal.
Murtha's remarks left lawmakers from both parties scrambling to stake out positions of their own, including Clinton, who expressed "the greatest respect" for the decorated Vietnam War hero, but said that pulling US troops would be "a big mistake."
The former first lady said a decision on withdrawing from Iraq should be deferred until after national elections there next month.
"I don't think realistically we know how prepared they are until we get a government on December 15," she is quoted as saying, in remarks to an audience in New York, the state she represents in the US Senate.
"My approach is we tell them we expect you to meet these certain benchmarks and that means getting troops and police officers trained, equipped and ready to defend their people," Clinton said in widely-reported remarks.
Those comments are the latest sign that Clinton -- known during the eight years of her huband's presidency as a "bleeding heart liberal" -- has reinvented herself in the Senate as something of a hawk.
In addition to casting a Senate vote in support of the war in Iraq, she occupies a coveted seat on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, and has forged key alliances with various Republican conservatives in the US legislature.
Her comments advocating standing firm in Iraq come as many leading centrists within her party have begun to say that it is time to gradually move toward a troop pullout.
A respected Democratic moderate, Senator Joseph Biden, this week called for some 50,000 US troops to be pulled from Iraq in 2006, with additional troops to follow.
Meanwhile, another Democratic star, Senator Barack Obama, on Tuesday called for a "limited drawdown of US troops," combined with efforts to bolster Iraqi security forces.
For its part, the White House has lashed out at critics who have questioned its decision to go to war, saying that the flawed intelligence used ahead of the invasion was the best available at the time.
But in a sign that President George W. Bush's administration may be relenting in the face of searing criticism and plummeting poll numbers, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said late Tuesday that conditions for reducing US troops deployed in Iraq could be in place "fairly soon."
Pundits said Hillary Clinton, now flirting with the right flank of her party and with presidential aspirations, is showing a great deal of political savvy.
"If you look at the polls carefully, they show that Americans are disaffected with the Bush administration policy in Iraq, but have very little confidence in the Democrats on that score either," said Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.
"Her position is a much better general election position" in that it will enhance her credibility among conservatives and moderates, said Sabato.
"For the time being that's a pretty safe position for her."
Meanwhile, former president Bill Clinton last week called the 2003 invasion "a big mistake" -- going quite a bit further than his wife in ruing the US military role in Iraq.
"The American government made several errors ... one of which is how easy it would be to get rid of Saddam and how hard it would be to unite the country," he said in remarks made last week to a group of students at the American University of Dubai.
"We never sent enough troops and didn't have enough troops to control or seal the borders," Clinton said. "It was a big mistake."
Hillary Clinton takes 'wait-and-see' stance on US troop pullout from Iraq
Nov 23 6:49 PM US/Eastern
Email this story </TD><TD align=right></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
With Americans embroiled in a heated debate over the US invasion of Iraq, Senator Hillary Clinton has taken a position considerably to the right of many in her Democratic party, including that of her ex-president husband.
An early favorite to win her party's 2008 presidential nod, the former first lady was guarded in remarks Monday on the way forward in Iraq, just days after John Murtha, a pro-military former Marine in the US House, stunned the political establishment by calling for a complete US withdrawal.
Murtha's remarks left lawmakers from both parties scrambling to stake out positions of their own, including Clinton, who expressed "the greatest respect" for the decorated Vietnam War hero, but said that pulling US troops would be "a big mistake."
The former first lady said a decision on withdrawing from Iraq should be deferred until after national elections there next month.
"I don't think realistically we know how prepared they are until we get a government on December 15," she is quoted as saying, in remarks to an audience in New York, the state she represents in the US Senate.
"My approach is we tell them we expect you to meet these certain benchmarks and that means getting troops and police officers trained, equipped and ready to defend their people," Clinton said in widely-reported remarks.
Those comments are the latest sign that Clinton -- known during the eight years of her huband's presidency as a "bleeding heart liberal" -- has reinvented herself in the Senate as something of a hawk.
In addition to casting a Senate vote in support of the war in Iraq, she occupies a coveted seat on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, and has forged key alliances with various Republican conservatives in the US legislature.
Her comments advocating standing firm in Iraq come as many leading centrists within her party have begun to say that it is time to gradually move toward a troop pullout.
A respected Democratic moderate, Senator Joseph Biden, this week called for some 50,000 US troops to be pulled from Iraq in 2006, with additional troops to follow.
Meanwhile, another Democratic star, Senator Barack Obama, on Tuesday called for a "limited drawdown of US troops," combined with efforts to bolster Iraqi security forces.
For its part, the White House has lashed out at critics who have questioned its decision to go to war, saying that the flawed intelligence used ahead of the invasion was the best available at the time.
But in a sign that President George W. Bush's administration may be relenting in the face of searing criticism and plummeting poll numbers, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said late Tuesday that conditions for reducing US troops deployed in Iraq could be in place "fairly soon."
Pundits said Hillary Clinton, now flirting with the right flank of her party and with presidential aspirations, is showing a great deal of political savvy.
"If you look at the polls carefully, they show that Americans are disaffected with the Bush administration policy in Iraq, but have very little confidence in the Democrats on that score either," said Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.
"Her position is a much better general election position" in that it will enhance her credibility among conservatives and moderates, said Sabato.
"For the time being that's a pretty safe position for her."
Meanwhile, former president Bill Clinton last week called the 2003 invasion "a big mistake" -- going quite a bit further than his wife in ruing the US military role in Iraq.
"The American government made several errors ... one of which is how easy it would be to get rid of Saddam and how hard it would be to unite the country," he said in remarks made last week to a group of students at the American University of Dubai.
"We never sent enough troops and didn't have enough troops to control or seal the borders," Clinton said. "It was a big mistake."