Democrats Blast Bush Troop Redeployment Plan

[Nambe]

Agence France Presse

US Democrats on Monday blasted President George W. Bush's plan to bring home up to 70,000 troops from Europe and Asia, calling it dangerous, ill-conceived and a ploy to boost his bid for re-election.

Bush's announcement quickly drew scathing criticism from former NATO commander Wesley Clark and ex-ambassador Richard Holbrooke, two senior advisers of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Clark said the 10-year plan, unveiled by the Republican Bush in a campaign speech to US veterans in Ohio, would "significantly undermine US national security." ..

Holbrooke, a former ambassador to Germany as well as assistant secretary of state for Asia, said Bush's plan to redeploy troops and make them into a more mobile force to fight terrorism and other threats was "pretty alarming." ..

A long, well written article. A good opposing view of the effect on our troops.

Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[sandnsea]

1. "pretty alarming"

I'll say. What country is Bush planning to "liberate" with these 70,000 troops?

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Iran... perchance Syria? My money is on Iran

[cspiguy]

3. My Sen Carl Levin is for this plan - so we should wait and see

how can anyone possibly be against bringing troops home from places they do not need to be???

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Any other President you have a point

the bush boys... PNAC this has to do with PNAC

[sandnsea]

8. SKorea?

No, our troops don't need to be there. :eyes: How about Japan? We really don't need as many troops in Japan. Why don't we move them from Japan instead?

Why SKorea? So hopefully NKorea will make a military move, real or imagined, and give us an excuse to invade? I don't trust Bush one bit.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

4. actually this does make alot of sense...

.....the US presence in Europe was because of the Cold War. Theres no need to be there now.

[MattNC]

6. they're still gonna be there

just in different locations.

[yellowcanine]

7. Regardless of the merits of this idea, less than 3 months before a

presidential election is no time to be proposing something of this magnitude. Bush is getting desperate and using his role as commander in chief to try to influence the election. That is outrageous. Any redeployment of this magnitude should be carefully considered with full participation by our allies around the world. WTF is he thinking and who is telling him to do this?

[Spoon]

9. How long is this "lame duck" type stasis period that you're

talking about? Regardless, this has been talked about for some time, and will take years to complete. Kerry can stop it when he gets in, but won't because it makes sense.