Washington – As the Senate prepares to debate the progress of the war in Iraq, both senators from Colorado rejected calls for a troop withdrawal by year’s end.
“It would be a mistake to put a deadline to bring our troops home at the end of 2006,” Democrat Ken Salazar said on the eve of an expected Senate debate. “We need to make sure … that we give every opportunity for us to succeed in Iraq.”
Republican Wayne Allard believes setting a deadline would help the insurgency, which would go underground and then reappear after the troops pull out, Allard chief of staff Sean Conway said.
“Sen. Allard believes we’re making great progress in Iraq,” Conway said.
Democratic Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin have crafted amendments to a Defense Department spending bill that require most U.S. troops to leave Iraq this year. Salazar called that deadline “arbitrary.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is working on a troop level amendment that a majority of Democrats agree on, his spokesman Jim Manley said. It will “in part, require a responsible redeployment of troops starting this year,” Manley added. He would not detail where troops would be redeployed to or how many would be moved but said that the plan would not require withdrawal this year.
Reid criticized the White House for failing to articulate a plan for stabilizing Iraq. “The president is simply maintaining the same tired mantra, ‘As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down,”‘ Reid said in a statement. “Yet … U.S. force levels have actually increased in recent weeks.”
Allard, however, has met with troops stationed at Fort Carson who have told him that they do not want Congress to push for withdrawal, Conway said.
“They’ve said, ‘Let us do our job. We’re beginning to see successes here,”‘ he said.
Lawmakers are crafting a resolution that would tell the Bush administration how the Senate would like to move forward in Iraq. Salazar is working with other senators on proposed drafts of that resolution. That is likely to continue making 2006 “a year of transition,” Salazar said.
“We can anticipate that by the end of the year, there will be some redeployment and withdrawal of troops from Iraq,” Salazar said. Next year, he added, there will be additional Iraqi military forces.
“We have to turn the primary responsibility over the military functions and security of Iraq by the end of 2007,” Salazar said. “That ought to be enough time to be able to have the Iraqi government that’s now been formed take up the baton of security for the Iraqi nation.”
Staff writer Anne C. Mulkern can be reached at 202-662-8907 or amulkern@denverpost.com.
