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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (41339)	4/4/2004 5:41:33 PM
From: lurqer	Respond to of 89467

Switching between the three old broadcast networks this morning, I heard this. Sorry Lugar. I know there is going to be a problem with the June 30th schedule that was set to coincide with the Bush reelection timetable, but it's too late to change that now. Any attempt to do so will be seen as extending the occupation, and cause an explosion. So, the Keystone Kops have done it again. Myopic to the point of blindness, they set a schedule planning on it being a plus for Bush's reelection, Not only is it going to be the opposite, they have also "painted themselves into a corner". From over a year ago, I've said Bush was going to win. It's still his election to lose, but he's doing such a good job. JMO Lugar Says U.S. May Need to Delay Iraq Handover David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration may have to consider extending its June 30 deadline for the transfer of sovereignty in Iraq or risk seeing the country lapse into civil war, the head of the U.S. Senate's foreign relations panel said on Sunday. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar of Indiana and the panel's ranking Democrat, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, said in separate interviews that more troops may be needed to stabilize the Arab country amid growing violence including Sunday's deadly gunbattle between Spanish soldiers and Shi'ite demonstrators. The lawmakers also chastised the Bush administration for failing to produce a plan to deal with a newly sovereign Iraq, and touted a Biden proposal that would give NATO a major new security role and establish a U.N. commissioner for Iraq who would answer to the U.N. Security Council. "We're going to end up with a civil war in Iraq, if in fact we decide we can turn this over -- including the bulk of the security -- to the Iraqis," Biden told "Fox News Sunday," saying an Iraqi force would not be ready to take over security duties for at least another three years. "Something's got to happen between now and then ... or else we're going to end up with a civil war there. We're going to end up with the worst of all worlds," he added. Less than three months before the scheduled handover of sovereignty by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, Lugar told ABC's "This Week" that the Bush administration had not advised Congress on its plans for Iraq once CPA administrator Paul Bremer leaves. The White House also has not discussed likely candidates for the job of U.S. ambassador to Iraq, who would oversee a huge Baghdad embassy staff of 3,000 people charged with assuming some of the CPA's responsibilities. MAY BE TIME TO EXTEND DEADLINE Asked whether it was time for Washington to consider extending the sovereignty deadline, Lugar said: "It may be. And I think it's probably time to have that debate. "At this point, I would have thought there would have been a more comprehensive plan," he added. "The fact is that we don't know what we're going to do." Lugar suggested the administration had been distracted from Iraq by Bush's decision to let his national security adviser testify before the panel investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "Our focus has been on 9/11 -- who did what, and who didn't -- but it ought to be on June 30," he said. The Senate foreign relations panel was scheduled to examine the situation in Iraq at hearings later this month. White House officials had no immediate comment. The lawmakers spoke after a week of rising tension in Iraq, where authorities clashed with militants from the majority Shi'ite community just as U.S. troops planned retaliation against Iraqis who killed and mutilated four U.S. contractors in the Sunni city of Falluja. Lugar stopped short of saying a civil war was already emerging in the religiously and ethnically divided Muslim country. But he said it was obvious that Iraqis could not cope with the situation alone. "You have the militia that have not been disarmed, and if in fact the worst situation comes, the militia begin to fight each other. That is civil war," he said. Biden, who proposed a U.N. commissioner and a NATO security role for Iraq in a Washington Post column, told Fox that NATO countries could send an initial force of 20,000 troops. "They're ready to come in," he insisted. "Instead, what have we done? We've pulled (U.S. troop strength) down from 140,000 people to 100,000, without any trained force to replace it, and none in sight." reuters.com lurqer