House votes to pull troops out after Iraq report, page 1

House votes to pull troops out after Iraq report

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Iraq has achieved only spotty military and political progress toward a democratic society, the Bush administration conceded Thursday, an unenthusiastic assessment followed quickly by a House of Representatives vote to withdraw U.S. troops by the spring.

The measure passed 223-201 despite a veto threat from President Bush, who has ruled out any change in war policy before September.

I wrote the following in an earlier thread, but I think that it applies here.

I think this is precisely the wrong thing to do. First, we owe it to these people whose lives we essentially turned upside down to fix what we have done and give them a chance at a future. If we don't, our approval ratings overseas will slip even more than they are now. Does anyone actually think the world will look on the US more favorably if they leave?

Second, the region right now is too unstable. Just this morming we heard that there were 140,000 Turkish troops on the Iraqi border. Further, how long would it take for Iraq to become a puppet state of Iran, or how long would it take for some Middle Eastern country to decide that they would like Iraq for themselves?

Lastly, do we want decisions about a war based on political motives? For those who think starting the war was a political move, is ending it for political purposes any better?

It's like Colin Powell said before the war. We broke it, we bought it.

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