US should withhold funds for Baghdad government: Hillary Clinton
US should withhold funds for Baghdad government: Hillary Clinton
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Senator Hillary Clinton has rejected President George W. Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq, and said the US needs to withhold funding for the Iraqi government until it shows a commitment to national reconciliation.
Clinton, seeking to establish her opposition to Bush's policy in Iraq after initially backing the war, has said in media interviews after a visit to Baghdad that the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was not committed to establishing peace between rival Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
"The Iraqi government is not committed to taking the steps both militarily and politically that would help them to gain control over Baghdad and other places in the country," Clinton told NBC television Wednesday.
"We are doing nothing to change the dynamic with the Iraqi government. They're waiting us out. They intend to do everything they can to impose a particular brand of dominance over the Sunnis, and there's no reason for the Sunni insurgency, therefore, to stop.
Clinton, who met Maliki and top US commanders while in Baghdad over the weekend, said she wants to place conditions on US funding for Maliki's government.
"I don't think we should continue to fund the protection for the Iraqi government leaders or for the training and equipping of their army unless they meet certain conditions, including making the political compromises that have been called for now for more than two years."
"I think putting leverage on them and saying, 'You know what, we provide security for the members of this government. We're cutting funding for that. We're not going to fund an army that doesn't show up half the time, that is more aligned with their sectarian position than with the national identity.'"
Clinton, a front-runner for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2008 who had previously taken a cautious stance on Bush's new plan to send 21,500 more US troops to Iraq, branded it a "losing strategy".
"I do not think that this strategy has a very high level of success at all attached to it. In fact, I think that at best it's a holding pattern."
Clinton said that instead of Bush's plan to increase US troops in an attempt to restore security in Baghdad and Al-Anbar province, she backs placing an immediate cap on the number of troops in the country, currently about 132,000.
"I support the beginning of a phased redeployment out of Baghdad and eventually out of Iraq completely."
Clinton spoke a day after a UN report said more than 34,000 Iraqis were killed in violence in the country last year, a figure the White House called inflated.
Clinton, who accompanied by several other legislators also visited Pakistan and Afghanistan on the same trip, said Bush's intention to increase troops in Iraq would hurt efforts to fight the radical Islamist Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan.
"We're going to have a big Taliban offensive in the spring. We need more troops in Afghanistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070117/wl_mideast_afp/usiraqpoliticsclinton_070117155001
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Senator Hillary Clinton has rejected President George W. Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq, and said the US needs to withhold funding for the Iraqi government until it shows a commitment to national reconciliation.
Clinton, seeking to establish her opposition to Bush's policy in Iraq after initially backing the war, has said in media interviews after a visit to Baghdad that the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was not committed to establishing peace between rival Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
"The Iraqi government is not committed to taking the steps both militarily and politically that would help them to gain control over Baghdad and other places in the country," Clinton told NBC television Wednesday.
"We are doing nothing to change the dynamic with the Iraqi government. They're waiting us out. They intend to do everything they can to impose a particular brand of dominance over the Sunnis, and there's no reason for the Sunni insurgency, therefore, to stop.
Clinton, who met Maliki and top US commanders while in Baghdad over the weekend, said she wants to place conditions on US funding for Maliki's government.
"I don't think we should continue to fund the protection for the Iraqi government leaders or for the training and equipping of their army unless they meet certain conditions, including making the political compromises that have been called for now for more than two years."
"I think putting leverage on them and saying, 'You know what, we provide security for the members of this government. We're cutting funding for that. We're not going to fund an army that doesn't show up half the time, that is more aligned with their sectarian position than with the national identity.'"
Clinton, a front-runner for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2008 who had previously taken a cautious stance on Bush's new plan to send 21,500 more US troops to Iraq, branded it a "losing strategy".
"I do not think that this strategy has a very high level of success at all attached to it. In fact, I think that at best it's a holding pattern."
Clinton said that instead of Bush's plan to increase US troops in an attempt to restore security in Baghdad and Al-Anbar province, she backs placing an immediate cap on the number of troops in the country, currently about 132,000.
"I support the beginning of a phased redeployment out of Baghdad and eventually out of Iraq completely."
Clinton spoke a day after a UN report said more than 34,000 Iraqis were killed in violence in the country last year, a figure the White House called inflated.
Clinton, who accompanied by several other legislators also visited Pakistan and Afghanistan on the same trip, said Bush's intention to increase troops in Iraq would hurt efforts to fight the radical Islamist Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan.
"We're going to have a big Taliban offensive in the spring. We need more troops in Afghanistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070117/wl_mideast_afp/usiraqpoliticsclinton_070117155001
posted by presgore19 at 4:06 PM
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