Iraq plan ignites Burns-Tester debate
Challenger calls conflict a quagmire
By CHARLES S. JOHNSON
Gazette State Bureau
billingsgazette.net
( Burns claims Bush has a "secret plan" for winning in Iraq, but he can't talk about it, 'cause it's SECRET! Shades of Tricky Dick Nixon!)
Sen. Conrad Burns said at a debate Tuesday night that President Bush does have a plan for winning the war in Iraq, but he isn’t about to share it with the world.
Democratic Senate candidate Jon Tester replied that Bush’s only plan is to stay the course in Iraq, costing more American lives and billions of dollars, and to pass the war on to the next president who will take office in January 2009.
The two candidates’ answers about the war produced the most sparks at a debate before about 800 people at Montana State University-Billings sponsored by The Billings Gazette and the university. It was the two candidates’ sixth debate; they face off for the final time in Great Falls Friday night.
For the first time, Burns publicly expressed some concern about how effectively the U.S. is waging the war in Iraq. He echoed the views of Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, who recently returned from a trip to Iraq.
“We can’t lose in Iraq,” Burns said. “The consequences of losing is too great.”
Burns, however, said the U.S. does need to change its military tactics there. “If we don’t change, we’ll pay a heavy price, but we cannot afford to lose it,” he said.
Tester said that Burns has finally admitted that his “stay the course” position in Iraq is wrong and welcomed the senator to his own side.
For nearly a year, Tester has called on Bush to develop a plan to remove U.S. troops from Iraq. Burns has criticized Tester’s position as “cut and run.”
“We’re in a quagmire over there,” Tester said.
Burns told Tester firmly not to put him in the Democrat’s camp on the issue.
“I said we’ve got to win,” Burns said. “He wants us to pull out. He wants everyone to know our plan. That’s not smart.
“He says our president don’t have a plan. I think he’s got one. He’s not going to tell everyone in the world.”
Many in the crowd, which was dominated by Tester supporters, openly laughed at Burns’ claim that Bush has a plan.
Tester said Bush’s only plan is staying the course in Iraq at considerable sacrifices to U.S. troops and the federal treasury.
“We went in under false pretenses,” Tester said. “We pulled the troops from Afghanistan and put them in Iraq. Osama bin Laden is still running free.”
The war is costing the U.S. billions of dollars a year that could be better spent on helping middle-class families and small businesses, the challenger said.
Tester said he is not for “telling our opponents what we’re going to do. The fact is, we don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Replied Burns: “We’re not going to tell you what our plan is, Jon, because you’re just going to go out and blow it.”
Immediately following the debate, Tester campaign spokesman Matt McKenna likened Burns’ claim of a Bush plan to President Nixon’s secret plan in 1972 to end the war in Vietnam.
The Burns campaign spokesman Jason Klindt, however, said there is no secret plan. President Bush has said from the start that he wants to empower Iraqis to govern their own country.
Tester attacked Burns on the ethics issue, asking him about his “friends,” like disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, two former Burns’ staffers under investigation in the Abramoff lobbying scandal and his former finance chairman, former Billings stockbroker Pat Davison, who has been accused of running a Ponzi scheme resulting in apparent losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars of his former clients’ money.
“How is it all of your friends are under investigation?” Tester asked Burns when the candidates could question each other.
“Jon, you’ve dribbled this thing out for the last 18 months ? and there’s nothing there,” Burns replied.
The two candidates also differed greatly on the Bush administration’s tax cuts of 2001, 2002 and 2003.
They disputed whether Tester had raised taxes on some businesses in passing a 2005 bill that eliminated the property tax on business equipment on other businesses.
Tester said he opposed most of the Bush tax cuts, which Burns said were worked out by Bush and Democratic Sen. Max Baucus and supported by him. Burns said Montanans’ income taxes would rise greatly if the tax cuts weren’t extended.
“How come you want to raise taxes on 336,000 folks in Montana?” Burns asked.
Replied Tester: “It’s about the middle class, Senator Burns. You’re about your rich K Street lobbyists, and that’s the issue in this race.”
Burns in turn accused Tester of raising taxes for other businesses because the Democrat voted for a bill to freeze the business equipment property tax at 3 percent. The previous law permitted it to drop to zero over three years if a certain economic trigger was met.
Published on Wednesday, October 18, 2006.
Last modified on 10/18/2006 at 1:04 am |
