“Why are you not listening to the people?”
That was Pat Alviso of Huntington Beach, whose son Beto recently returned from two tours of duty in Iraq as a Marine. She attended the “Ask Mitt Anything” event at Chapman University yesterday where GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney took questions from the audience. Well anyways, Pat Alviso didn’t appreciate Romney’s refusal to commit to a quick troop withdrawal, as she said there was strong public support for such a move. But still, that wasn’t enough to move Mitt.
A precipitous withdrawal would leave behind safe havens for terror groups and encourage their proliferation, Romney said. […]
“It’s unacceptable for us as a nation to leave safe havens there,” he said.
OK, so Mitt Romney wouldn’t like to see a “precipitous withdrawal” from Iraq. Now who the heck is actually proposing that? All the Democrats (and the few sane Reeps left in DC) are asking for is an exit strategy from this disastrous occupation that isn’t doing anything to make this nation safer. After all, if we want to talk about “safe havens for terrorists”, what ever happened to all those al-Qaeda terrorists hiding out in Afghanistan in 2001? Why are they still in a “safe haven” somewhere near the Afghan-Pakistani border?
OK, so am I missing something here? What do YOU think about Mitt Romney’s continued support for Bush’s Iraq Occupation? Should the US stay in Iraq indefinitely? Or do we need to start working on an exit strategy soon? Are the Democrats irresponsible in looking for a “precipitous withdrawal” from Iraq? Or are Republicans like Mitt Romney truly irresponsible in keeping our troops stuck in the midst of a civil war that we can’t end for them?
I want to hear what YOU have to say about what Romney had to say about Iraq yesterday, so go ahead and have your say.
All your leading candidates Andrew i.e Hillary, Obama, & Edwards want to continue the same loser strategy on Iraq as President Bush. As far as I can tell, only Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, & Mike Gravel have called for a complete withdrawl from Iraq.
Allan-
Well, you’re certainly entitled to your opinion. And while I must admit that I get frustrated with Clinton, Obama, and Edwards at times with their past cautiousness on ending this occupation, I also now understand why they’re acting with some caution. Unfortunately, Bush really did f*** up the entire Middle East region (some more than we already had before) when he decided to invade Iraq. And in 2009, our next President will have the difficult task of picking up the broken pieces left by Bush. So how do we do that? Well, we need to start by getting out of Iraq. But how? How can we do it in a way that minimizes any more pain and suffering that both our troops AND the Iraqi people will have to endure? That’s the dilemma here. And yes, while I admire both Kucinich and Paul for their willingness to end the occupation ASAP, I also understand that ASAP may mean a gradual pullout of US troops that will take several months combined with a renewed multilateral effort to help clean up the mess that Bush created. So is there really a fast and easy way to get out? Bush may have lacked any good judgment in getting into Iraq, but now we many need some good judgment to figure out how to get out of Iraq.
When Romney was asked why none of his five sons volunteered for service, he responded that they are serving their country by trying to help him (Mitt) get elected president. A fine answer for a chickenhawk Republican in 2007, but what about the four years prior to Mitt’s run for the White House.