Holy crap: Pentagon Rebukes Hillary on Iraq

[Perky]

Pentagon Rebukes Clinton on Iraq

By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon has issued a stinging rebuke to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, arguing that she is boosting enemy propaganda by asking how the U.S. plans to eventually withdraw from Iraq.

Under Secretary of Defense Eric Edelman wrote a biting reply to questions Clinton raised in May, urging the Pentagon to start planning now for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

A copy of Edelman's response, dated July 16, was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

"Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia," Edelman wrote.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CLINTON_IRAQ?SITE=CATOR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-07-19-13-43-05

[wicket]

1. Holy crap is right

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

[Bitwit1234]

27. Wonder if that is why bush wrote that order

the one about people wanting to withdraw, or something like that, from Iraq. They would be arrest and their assets confiscated.

Didn't the government do something like that with Prescott Bush.Confiscate his bank assets because he was supporting Germany and Japan and raising money for them during the second world war. Maybe he took his cue from his crooked grandfather.

[SoCalDem]

32. Let's get something straight here..

Bush didn't "write" anything

"other people" write the stuff and he signs his name on it.

He's a barely literate idiot who cannot string two sentences together, and he even said he's not a "detail" guy..

The unseen ones who are writing this stuff for him are the dangerous ones.. and we'll never even know who they are (for sure)

[mithnanthy]

45. So TRUE, SoCalDem...

I wish the media would "expose this" everyday and Dems in Congress, should say it often.

[jgraz]

2. Please, Hillary, for once in your life stand up to this crap

[BOSSHOG]

3. I didn't know we had allies in Iraq

[Perky]

4. This is actually politiczation of the Pentagon

I am no fan of HRC but this is going to get the Pentagon in trouble.

[poverlay]

5. Wow, the Federal government is now well and truly politicized. I had held out some

hope that somewhere, in some deep, dark corner, somebody was still trying to do a good job, regardless of who was in charge. Maybe deeper and darker...

[hootinholler]

30. Everywhere in deep dark corners...

Across the Federal spectrum there are people who try to do the right things no matter who's in charge.

-Hoot

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. The military's getting involved in politics, eh?

Sounds like the next president's going to need to clean house.

[Bluerthanblue]

35. or that

the present one isn't leaving.

:tinfoilhat:

[rox63]

I'm no fan of HRC, but this is outrageous! n/t

[maxsolomon]

7. thoroughly politicized

i'd have your resume updated by 1/20/2009, mr. edelman.

the pentagon should stay out of politics & stick to sucking the life out of our economy.

[aquart]

8. Tell the Pentagon to stay out of our elections.

And bring dear Eric to the Hill to explain himself.

[Wiley50]

9. They are Setting Her Up . Have You Read the Exucutive Order from two days ago?

That's almost the same wording.

They want to take all of her shit

[blogslut]

20. I'd like to see them try

Go ahead, big George. Freeze her assets. I dare you.

[Virginia Dare]

22. I think HRC is somebody George and Dick DO NOT..

want to fuck with. I'd love to see them try.

[blogslut]

23. She's a scorpio

One really should avoid pissing off a scorpio.

[patrice]

10. Isn't there a new Executive Order doing this sort of thing? nm

[Richard Steele]

11. Newsflash for the Pentagon: the Iraqis already KNOW we're leaving! It's not a secret!

They know perfectly well that we're leaving someday,
and they always have. EVERYONE has!

Except, perhaps, for a handful of delusional idiots
in the White House and the Pentagon.

[OwnedByFerrets]

38. Yes, once the administration has complete control

of the oil there, we will leave.

[Cerridwen]

12. So, is she now "guilty" as defined in the EO

linked in this thread which states, in part

undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq

by "reinforc{ing} enemy propaganda"?

[Emit]

13. Wonder how this relates to Bush's newly released EO?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1369934&mesg_id=1369934

[libnnc]

17. !

:scared:

[Perky]

14. Some one needs to take a "sense of the Senate" resolution to the floor today

to demand that this jerk be fired. This is like the Pentagon stifling Senatorial dissent

I bet you would have some republican support. Hell Lieberman might even vote for this one.

[Old and In the Way]

15. First DoJ, now the Pentagon.

The next Democratic President best be ready to do a serious housecleaning. The Pentagon's role is to fight wars, not decide entry and exit.

[orleans]

16. how dare we want to know how we'll get out of iraq! the total audacity of us!

By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon has issued a stinging rebuke to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, arguing that she is boosting enemy propaganda by asking how the U.S. plans to eventually withdraw from Iraq.

Under Secretary of Defense Eric Edelman wrote a biting reply to questions Clinton raised in May, urging the Pentagon to start planning now for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

A copy of Edelman's response, dated July 16, was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

"Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia," Edelman wrote.

He added that "such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks."

Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has privately and publicly pushed Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace two months ago to begin drafting the plans for what she said will be a complicated withdrawal of troops, trucks and equipment.

"If we're not planning for it, it will be difficult to execute it in a safe and efficacious way," she said then.

Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines called the response "at once outrageous and dangerous."

"Redeploying out of Iraq with the same combination of arrogance and incompetence with which the Bush administration deployed our young men and women into Iraq is completely unacceptable, and our troops deserve far better," said Reines, who said military leaders should offer a withdrawal plan rather than "a political plan to attack those who question them."

As she runs for president, the New York senator has ratcheted up her criticism of the Bush administration's war effort, answering critics of her 2002 vote to authorize the Iraq invasion by saying she would end the war if elected president.

Edelman's letter does offer a passing indication the Pentagon might, in fact, be planning how to withdraw, saying: "We are always evaluating and planning for possible contingencies. As you know, it is long-standing departmental policy that operational plans, including contingency plans, are not released outside of the department."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CLINTON_IRAQ?SITE=CATOR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-07-19-13-43-05

[malaise]

18. I expect the Democratic Party en mass to respond to this

fugging fascist letter to Hillary.

[Perky]

How does this differ from Warner-Lugar??????

Are thet not demanding the Pentgon to develop an exit ?

[IChing]

19. Right after the executive order came out

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1369934&mesg_id=1369934

Interesting. :popcorn:

[Virginia Dare]

24. Maybe she's baiting them?

this could get VERY interesting!

:popcorn: :popcorn:

[Perky]

21. .

[sinkingfeeling]

25. Does anybody remember when the USA was free country?

[Richard Steele]

39. Some days, I think that was just a dream I had once, long ago. nm

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. About Edelman

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1143

Like many other top officials in the Bush administration's foreign policy team, Edelman began his government career in the Reagan administration. While completing his doctorate in history at Yale University, Edelman joined the U.S. Middle East Delegation to the West Bank/Gaza Autonomy Talks. He then became a special assistant to Secretary of State George Shultz. In 1990, Edelman moved from the State Department to the Pentagon, where he served as assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for Soviet and East European affairs.

Edelman also served under Cheney during the administration of George Bush Senior. At that time, he became part of a “shop” within the Pentagon that was set up by then-Defense Secretary Cheney “to think about American foreign policy after the Cold War, at the grand strategic level,” wrote Nicholas Lehman in the New Yorker (April 1, 2002).

The work of this shop, which was headed by Paul Wolfowitz, eventually led to the drafting of the now-notorious 1992 draft Defense Planning Guidance, a document that was meant to serve as a post-Cold War framework for U.S. military strategy. Others working on the guidance were Zalmay Khalilzad and I. Lewis Libby. According to Lehman, the guidance team was “generally speaking, a cohesive group of conservatives who regard themselves as bigger-thinking, tougher-minded, and intellectually bolder than most other people in Washington.” Their guidance, however, which called for actively promoting U.S. predominance throughout much of the world, proved too ambitious for Bush Senior and congressional Democrats. Although the initial draft was immediately retracted after it was leaked to the press, it would go on to serve as a framework for neoconservative advocacy during the 1990s, and many of its ideas would resurface in President George W. Bush's post-9/11 national security strategy.

[IChing]

28. Wow a Cheney underling.

What a surprise, thanks for finding that.

[starroute]

31. There's a lot more to Edelman than than

Until 2003, he was Cheney's principal deputy assistant for national security affairs, where he was among those pushing for war with Iraq.

He then became ambassador to Turkey immediately after the invasion -- when relations were already strained -- and things quickly went further downhill because he couldn't keep from promoting a Neocon agenda and meddling in Turkey's internal affairs.

In August 2005, he was brought home to be recess-appointed undersecretary of defense for policy, succeeding Doug Feith.

In short, Edelman is an important second-tier insider, and anything he says or does is far from accidental.


On edit: Almost forgot -- he was also involved in Plame-gate:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/p/perjury/index.html?s=oldest&query=CLASSIFICATION%20OF%20INFORMATION&field=des&match=exact

Correction of Oct 30 report about Vice Pres Cheney's aides gathering information about Joseph C Wilson's trip to Niger to investigate reports of Iraqi uranium purchases; Eric Edelman, not John Hannah, was 'principal deputy' to whom Libby spoke in June 2003 about sharing information with reporters; 'principal deputy' was mentioned in indictment of Libby for lying to grand jury.

[Perky]

29. Oh yeah definitely a Neocon

[TwilightGardener]

33. The order from the top has come: Take down the Democratic frontrunner

by accusing her of near-treason. I suppose similar "rebukes" are planned for Warner, Lugar, Biden, Kerry, Hagel? They've all asked for a clear exit strategy.

[Perky]

34. Like I said

I would think both sides of the aisle would be upset by the ham-handedness of this. It will be very interesting to see how the MSM treats this.

[blm]

50. Nah - they're not dumb - moves like this SOLIDIFY support for the person

being attacked.

[VP505]

36. Sounds like another

reason to add to the long list of other reasons to impeach both a**holes in the WH!!!

[in_cog_ni_to]

37. Hmmm.....The DOJ has been politicized, the SCOTUS has been politicized, lower courts have been

politicized, the FBI has been politicized, the CIA has been politicized, Homeland Security has been politicized, FEMA has been politicized and the Pentagon has been politicized.

NAH!!!!! WE'RE NOT TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY SCREWED! It just looks that way.:eyes:

[Supersedeas]

41. there is so much scum oozing from the Bush ilk, it was take years to cleanse

[in_cog_ni_to]

43. I agree. We're looking at GENERATIONS to undo everything they have screwed up

in 6+ years. IF Congress gets control of this ROGUE regime, that is. Otherwise, Congress will be completely useless in the psycho's fascist Homeland.:(

[dkofos]

40. I think we are about to see just how tough HRC really is.

It will also be interesting to hear what the big dog has to say about it!!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

42. Edelman you're fired! He has no right to speak like that

the taxpayers pay him

the enemy is within....

[MODemocrat]

44. Hopefully, Hillary will respond quickly to that accusation

She might even get a little help from her husband. It makes me so happy when Bill and Hill kick ass. :bounce: :bounce: The pentagon is pretty much a joke anyway. :rofl:

[eridani]

55. Though not a supporter of hers, I really hope she tears them a new one n/t

[Tesha]

46. Sounds like someone needs to go to prison for violating the Hatch Act. (NT)

[Marr]

47. Are they going to seize all of her assets now...?

It certainly sounds like this Pentagon official considers Clinton's remarks to be 'undermining the Iraqi government'. Is this fellow getting a little too excited by President Nero's latest proclamation?

[eleny]

48. They're going to get people to switch support to her

She's not my candidate. But that's the first thing I thought. I could switch from my candidate to her if they keep this up.

[blm]

49. Kerry responds to Pentagon letter. Their latest assault...it's a disgrace.

WASHINGTON D.C. -– Senator John Kerry (D-Mass) issued the following statement today, in response to a letter from the Pentagon that criticized Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D- NY) for asking whether the military had planned for an eventual redeployment of troops out of Iraq.

"This Administration reminds us every day that they will say anything, do anything, and twist any truth to avoid accountability. Their latest assault on Sen. Clinton comes from a tired partisan playbook and it’s a disgrace," Senator Kerry said.

"They ought to be planning to save lives -– not plotting to save face. One of the great tragedies of the war in Iraq has been a total lack of planning by the Administration. Failure to plan for protecting troops with the right equipment, failure to plan for treating specialized injuries and failure to anticipate the bloody civil war.

"I think it is entirely appropriate for the Pentagon to show how it is planning for the eventual redeployment of troops out of Iraq. We have a right and responsibility to know that our troops will return home in an orderly and safe manner and every reason to be skeptical given the reckless way our troops were put in harm’s way.

"Senator Clinton was right to ask the Pentagon for answers and the Administration’s smear tactics in response are wrong but not surprising."



Always the statesman. ALWAYS there whenever another Democrat is under attack.

Would others be so unselfish to do the same?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk1k0nUWEQg

[marmar]

51. Comrade Kommisar Edelman needs to STFU....

:argh:

[orleans]

52. olbermann led with this -- the first part of his show was a special comment

that zeroed in on this

[eridani]

53. Hey, asshole!

If you are so concerned about our allies in Iraq, how about letting the ones whose lives are at stake immigrate here?

[Rex]

54. Well, they are the REAL leaders of the USA.

I suspect something is afoot. I smell bad times ahead.