In an interview on CNN’s Late Edition, Bill Richardson told host Wolf Blitzer how he would handle the situation in Iraq. The interview began with Blitzer asking Richardson, Governor, why not give this new strategy that General Petraeus is trying to implement a chance?” Richardson replied, “Well, I’m pleased with that progress and I respect him very much, but the reality, Wolf, is that our troops have become the targets. This is an outright civil war, a sectarian conflict. The contrast between my position and the other candidates is that I would leave no troops in Iraq whatsoever. I would take them out in the next six months. No residual forces, because precisely they have become targets. When a majority of the Iraqi people, 61 percent, want to shoot — say it’s OK to shoot at an American soldier, and close to 70 percent want us out, that position is indefensible.”
He continued, “My view is that the best way towards reconciliation in Iraq is for a withdrawal to take place, using the leverage of a withdrawal to promote a reconciliation conference of the three groups, an all-Muslim peacekeeping force, bring Iran and Syria in. And I don’t believe anybody wants an outright civil war there, particularly Saudi Arabia, particularly Iran, surrounding Sunni countries. And then lastly, a donor conference to rebuild Iraq, but the difference, Wolf, between me and the other candidates is that they would leave troops there indefinitely, and I would not, and that’s a big difference.”
Blitzer then asked Richardson if he found the idea of maintaining a Korea like presence in Iraq unacceptable. Richardson answered, “Well, it is totally unacceptable. I’ve been in Korea many, many times, in North Korea and South Korea. The South Koreans want us there. There is no outright shooting taking place. In fact, there is a little bit of a relaxation of tensions, although we want to press the North Koreans to start dismantling their nuclear weapons.”
“But I was just there, and they turned over six remains of our American soldiers from the Korean War. It’s totally a different situation. And my concern, Wolf, is that the surge that we proposed, the policy of continuing this conflict with more troops, is going to leave us more vulnerable to Al Qaida. Our obsession with Iraq has caused us to lose focus in the fight against international terrorism and Al Qaida, nuclear proliferation, a loose nuclear weapon, and other challenges that we face, like global climate change, other issues that affect our national security in the region.”
Richardson wants to invite Iran and Syria in to act as peacekeepers? This is a really bad idea. I understand that he is trying to play to the liberal anti-war base here, but inviting Iran and Syria in to handle the security in Iraq is just asking for one of those nations to interfere in Iraqi affairs to the point where Iraq becomes a satellite state. Also, has it occurred to Bill that we will be inviting the two biggest state sponsors of terrorism in the world to operate in Iraq? Just as the Republicans are busy playing who is the biggest tax cutter among their candidates, the Democrats version of the game is who can leave the fewest troops in Iraq. Richardson is right on the money about Korea analogy though. Iraq and Korea are apples and oranges. There is no comparison.
Negotiating agreements and passing Iraq off to another country are not answers. The reality is that even if we decided to leave Iraq tomorrow, we are probably going to have to stay there a while and do a phased withdrawal. What Richardson is talking about would lead to chaos. I think a phased withdrawal would do just as much to put pressure on the Iraqi government, but it would not lead to the immediate collapse of the security situation. What we must remember is that, the United States came in to Iraq and royally screwed up their country. The least we can do before we leave is try to inject a degree of stability into the nation. Although, I hate the phrase, Richardson is talking about cutting and running, and I can’t think of a worse way to get out of the mess we are in than that.
Transcript of Richardson interview
Jason Easley is the editor of the politics zone at 411mania.com. His news column The Political Universe appears on Tuesdays and Fridays at www.411mania.com/politics
Jason can also be heard every Sunday at 6:30 pm (ET) as the host of The Political Universe Radio Show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepoliticaluniverse
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2 users commented in " Bill Richardson’s plan for Iraq "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackNo question Withdrawal will give us a lot of leverage. Another far left extremist living in a different world than the real world. I kew Bill was far left but it seems he is on the fringe with Dr. Dean and Shehan. Some polls show this guy with close to 10%!
Richardson, Darfur, China, the Olympics and Tibetans in China
I agree with some of what you are saying about this important breakthrough in terms of Iraq policy, especially in the context of Lieberman now threatening to use nuclear weapons, a posture I find totally absurd and even dangerous, having studied the effects at Hiroshima and Nagasaki as much as I have. Allow me to digress a bit to examine another different but related topic: Richardson’s ideas on a possible US boycott of the Olympics.
I strongly agree with Richardson’s innovative idea put forth during the New Hampshire debates, in view of the general silence among nations vis-à-vis China’s ghastly atrocities in the human rights realm, and not just about China and Darfur, but especially towards Tibetans, and especially with its dozens of prisons which for Tibetans are exactly like Auschwitz and Dachau. I posited the same idea in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006, in correspondence to His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and to many heads-of-state, that the moral indignation of the nations in the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 could be harnessed into at least the threat of a boycott, perhaps worded more diplomatically. During the debate, Sen. Edwards clearly agreed with this point by Richardson.
Make no mistake: this is probably the last chance in human history to do anything constructive about Tibet, to prevent henceforth the genocidal treatment of Tibetans remaining in Tibet, which has since 1959 seen 1.2 million Tibetans killed, roughly 20% of the entire population of Tibet. If American political powers and their pundits won’t use the remains of our powers of moral suasion in the world at large, and if we are to once again docilely capitulate to dimwitted politicians who say that the Olympics is only about sport, and not about politics, we are no better than the many nations who were oblivious to the growing obviousness of the genocide of Jews in Europe before and during World War II.
Actually, the USA was for many years totally oblivious in this regard, whether you blame Roosevelt or anti-Semitics in the State Department, all of which is thoroughly documented in Arthur Morse’s book, While Six Million Died. In that light, we think Richardson is on the right track, and even more so, when you consider the dead pets and the poisoned toothpaste from China. That is just not “about politics:” that was life and death for many, including at least 100 dead, mostly children, in Panama!
News: In what may be its most audacious Olympic act yet, China’s Ministry of Public Security has issued an incredible directive that lists 43 categories of unwanteds who are to be investigated and barred from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Pariah groups include: - eerily vague “key individuals in ideological fields” - “overseas hostile forces” - “counter-revolutionary” figures - the Dalai Lama and all affiliates - members of “religious entities not sanctioned by the state” (e.g. Roman Catholics) - “individuals whoinstigate discontentment toward the Chinese Communist Party through the Internet,” - and even certain types of “handicapped” persons. Members of the Falun Gong would be barred, as would “family members of deceased persons” killed in “riots” — a euphemism for events such as the Tiananmen Massacre — and Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province, which the regime brands “national separatists.” Only at the very bottom of the directive does it identify “violent terrorists” and members of “illegal organizations” as targets for investigation and possible barring.
Respectfully,
Stephen Fox, stephen@santafefineart.com
Stephen Fox, 59, is a dealer of American Indian paintings and landscapes in Santa Fe New Mexico, Founder of New Millennium Fine Art (1980), author of 2 bills in the NM Legislature, to ban aspartame, and to establish a New Mexico Nutrition Council (both eviscerated by corporate lobbyists), and UN Resolution to create a new Undersecretary General for Nutrition and Consumer Protection. His website has more details: http://www.unitednationsundersecretarygeneralfornutrition.org
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