Former Reagan NSA Director - Calls For Immediate Withdrawal From Iraq

[kpete]

Iraq

Lt. General William Odom (Ret.), former Director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan, shocked the crowd yesterday when he called for unilateral withdrawal from Iraq. Odom was speaking at Innovative Solutions for Iraq, the inaugural event for the Independent Institute's Washington office (I am director of research for the Independent Institute). Odom was then seconded by Lawrence Korb, former Vice President and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and also Assistant Secretary of Defense under Reagan.

Withdrawal may seem like a radical suggestion, but this time around the push for withdrawal isn't coming from radicals but from seasoned, well-respected, establishment figures.

During the event Odom and others referred to Vietnam, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and the lessons we should have learned from that war. It was really stunning, therefore, when during question period a man stood up to praise Odom for speaking out in a way that no figure of his stature had done during the Vietnam war. The speaker was Daniel Ellsberg.

CSPAN will air the event in about a week.

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2006/02/no_paradox.html

[babylonsister]

1. So who will these clowns in control pay attention to? nt

[Coexist]

2. There goes another one ...

they will all fall down soon.

[Quixote1818]

3. Good for him! A very important developement nt

[NewJeffCT]

4. but, people calling for withdrawal are the "lunatic fringe"

At least that is what the media tells us, that majority on the looney fringe.

[Quixote1818]

6. Funny how the "lunatic fringe" were exactly right years ago on Iraq

nt

[Botany]

5. Considering 80% + of Iraq thinks it is a good idea to kill Americans .....

.... and that they have no running water, electricity, or jobs that means only one thing
Mission Accomplished.

If Wolfie, Rummy, Cheney, Condi, Rush, and * thinks it is a good idea to stay ... they can get their
asses over there ASAP .... we have more then 130,000 College Repugs in this country .....

send the buses to their campuses ..... then fly to Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, Paris Island, and other basic training camps
.... 8 weeks in basic .... 4/8 ATI .... then over to Iraq ...... also any Rush or Fox News listeners, Freepers, and born again
dumb fucks who thinks that Jesus sent W. Bush can go too. They keep yapping that the liberal media and the
Demo-rats are not getting the "good news" out of Iraq ..... time for them to go.

[Quixote1818]

7. Kick

[tsuki]

8. K&R

[The Magistrate]

9. Gen. Odom Is A Professional, Ma'am

Whatever else he is, he is a competent soldier, and knows a lost position when he sees one....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[Nutmegger]

10. K & R!!!

:kick::thumbsup:

[progressoid]

11. Why do they hate Amerikkka?

[buddysmellgood]

12. Time to smear Odom.

[Charlie Brown]

13. Someone alert Mean Jean

cause as we all know, "only cowards cut and run."

[welshTerrier2]

14. this is old but very welcome news

last August, Odom wrote a piece called "What's wrong with cutting and running?"

here's a link: http://niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=129

it's worth reading the arguments he makes ...

when will one or more of the Senate Dems call for, and fight for, an immediate end to the war? it truly is sad to watch the Democratic Party flailing around about Iraq ... some have made their little speeches; none, or at least very few, have made it a daily mission ...

[Roland99]

15. Anyone outside the neocon(PNAC) circle is a traitor to America!

[Armstead]

16. He's been against this all along

Odom has been speaking out strongly against Iraq War from the beginning.

I don't know if he went through a conversion at some point, or else repesents an honest conservative who sees through the Neo-COM bs.

[Roland99]

17. Kick! This PROVES it's not just left-wing, anti-war fanatics. AMERICANS

want the war over...the MAJORITY of Americans!

[Mr_Spock]

18. I wonder why he hates America so?

Bush, that is :D

[roseBudd]

19. I have a flyer file for download that quotes Odom & Clark

Right click and choose Save Traget As:
http://bushcheated04.com/war2.pdf

[autorank]

20. More proof of the "management" civil war.

Odom is a heavy hitter and for him to come out and say this shows that we're in the midst of a "management" civil war. The Bush faction, total lunatics, is being opposed strongly by paleo conservatives and the intellectually honest on the right (in addition to the rest of us). Why did this happen now? Why did Fitzgerald get appointed a couple of years ago? Why is Paul Craig Roberts going out of his way to call Bush every name in the book? How long can the neocons hang onto power? Not long I suspect. Watch for more of this in the near future. Bush is bad for business, big time; he's bad for America's interests; and he's bad for the planet. Time to go. He won't cooperatively so they'll keep hauling big guns but ultimately it will take a crisis of legitimacy which could include: Supreme Court corruption in Gore vs. Bush proving the court cheated; drop dead proof of hacking, vote switching, and/or vendor collusion in the 2004 vote. I suspect it will take this to get rid of him.