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"The
longer we stay the more problems we are going to have," said
Hagel. (Reuters)
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WASHINGTON,
August 22, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The US
administration has come under escalating pressures over the situation
in war-ravaged Iraq, with an influential US Republican senator saying
the longer the United States stayed bogged down in Iraq, the more the
conflict looked like another Vietnam War.
"What
I think the White House does not yet understand and some of my
colleagues, is the dam has broken on this (Iraq) policy,"
Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a senior member of the Foreign Relations
Committee and possible presidential candidate in 2008 said Sunday
August 21, Reuters reported.
He
told ABC's "This Week" that there were growing similarities
between Iraq and US involvement in Vietnam and he predicted the longer
the United States stayed in Iraq the more unpopular it would become.
"We
are locked into a bogged down problem not unsimilar or dissimilar to
where we were in Vietnam. The longer we stay the more problems we are
going to have," he said.
"I
don't know how many more casualties we're going to take. We're
spending a billion dollars a week now (in Iraq)," said Hagel.
August
has been the deadliest month for the US occupation troops in Iraq with
at least 42 fatalities thus far.
According
to Pentagon figures, some 1,800 US troops have died since the
beginning of the invasion-turned-occupation of Iraq in March 2003.
The
bloody Vietnam conflict is said to have claimed up to 58,000 US
soldiers and injured more than 200,000.
The
lowest unofficial Vietnamese casualty estimates are around 1.5 million
killed. Other counts took the number to three million.
Instable
Mideast
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"I
felt it was time to put on the table an idea and break the
taboo," said Feingold. (Reuters)
|
A
decorated Vietnam War veteran, Hagel also said the war in Iraq had
further destabilized the Middle East and the White House needed to
find an exit strategy for Iraq.
"We
should start figuring out how we get out of there. But with this
understanding, we cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the
Middle East," said Hagel.
Democratic
Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin also called for a pullout timetable,
setting a December 2006 as a deadline to withdraw from the war-torn
country.
In
an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," Feingold said if a
target date was not set the American public would become more and more
disillusioned.
"The
president is not telling us the time frame ... what's happening is
that the American public is despairing of the situation," said
Feingold.
"I
felt it was time to put on the table an idea and break the
taboo," he added.
The
White House rejected the remarks and said it was essential the United
States complete its mission in Iraq.
"The
president knows a free and democratic Iraq will help transform a
dangerous region and lay the foundation of peace for our children and
grandchildren," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said in
Crawford, Texas, Sunday.
"Our
policies of the past only allowed the Middle East to become a
terrorist breeding ground," he said. "Quitting now wouldn't
help anyone except terrorist killers, who certainly aren't quitting
their efforts to target innocent people."
The
US army’s chief of staff said Saturday, August 20, the army plans to
keep the current number of soldiers in Iraq, estimated at some
140,000, for at least four more years.
The
Americans are showing more discontent with President George W.
Bush’s handling of Iraq, with high-profile protests during his ranch
vacation and new poll results showing nearly six in 10 Americans
worried about the outcome of the war.
Asked
whether the United States was meeting its objectives in Iraq, 56
percent of those polled said it was not and 39 percent said it was.
The
poll is to be published in next month's issue of Foreign Affairs,
the journal of the Council on Foreign Relations.
