Update [2005-8-18 11:28:25 by Madman in the Marketplace]: Senator Feingold’s Press Release

joyful shouts from Liberal Street Fighter

Found at USA Today & the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, through the Xoff Files:

Feingold seeks troop withdrawal

Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, will call Thursday for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq by Dec. 31, 2006.

Feingold, who is exploring a run for the presidency in 2008, told U.S. News: “I believe I am the first senator [to set a deadline]. It says: Here is the date by which we ought to finish the mission.”

One of our finest Senators has once again shown that he has the integrity and vision to speak the truth while many of the other leaders of the Democratic Party still bang the drums of war.

Even this June, when Feingold introduced a resolution in Senate that called on the president to clarify the mission in Iraq and lay out “a plan and timeframe for accomplishing that mission,” the senator did not call for a deadline for withdrawing troops.

Back then, Feingold said he was not dictating “deadlines or dates certain . . . because drawing up timeframes is best and most appropriately left to the Administration, in consultation with military leaders.”

Now, however, Feingold has changed his mind and believes a deadline is necessary.

“I offered a resolution and tried to engage colleagues and asked the president to give us a vision,” he said. “The president has simply refused to give us a mission or timeframe to bring the troops home.”

The USA Today story goes on to quote the Senator on the timidity of many of the other elected officials in the Democratic Party:

“I call what I am doing breaking the taboo,” Feingold said. “The senators have been intimidated and are not talking about a timeframe. We have to make it safe to go in the water and discuss this. A person shouldn’t be accused of not supporting troops just because we want some clarity on our mission in Iraq.”

While Feingold is aware some will accuse him of playing into the hands of the insurgents and strengthening terrorism, he says the Iraq war has made America less and not more safe.

“The president’s policy in Iraq has played into the hands of the terrorists,” he said. “Iraq is now the principal training ground for terrorists.”

The Journal Sentinal quotes Senator Feingold further:

“The situation is becoming more and more untenable because of a lack of a clear plan to finish the task and leave,” said Feingold in a telephone interview while he traveled between listening sessions in northern Wisconsin.

Feingold said he planned to put out a public proposal Thursday on the issue.

The Bush administration and even some critics of the war have argued that setting target dates for the withdrawal of troops would be artificial and embolden insurgents in Iraq.

Feingold said he rejected that argument because he was convinced that the indefinite presence of troops and the lack of a withdrawal plan fueled the insurgency.

Feingold said a deadline for full withdrawal — he proposed Dec. 31, 2006 — should be flexible and subject to changing conditions. But he contended that setting even a target date would “help us to undermine the recruiting efforts and unity of the insurgents, encourage Iraq ownership of the transition process … and reassure the American people our Iraq policy is not directionless.”

It is time for the party to differentiate itself from the war-mongering Republicans, and hopefully truly progressive leaders like Senator Feingold can move out ahead of the enabling warhawks that have been running our party for too long, helping the Republicans squander our public funds on death, destruction and war profiteering while our infrastructure here continues to crumble.

More and more, I really hope that we can all say Russ for President in 2008.

Russ photo from a column by John Nichols column in the Capitol Times

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