HE'S HOWARD THE COWARD
New York Post
By DEBORAH ORIN
December 7, 2005
December 7, 2005 -- WASHINGTON — Democratic Party chief Howard Dean
has sparked a firestorm by claiming America can't win the Iraq war —
taking flak from families of fallen soldiers, the White House, Republicans and
even some fellow Democrats.
Republicans said Dean's remark — coupled with 2004 nominee John
Kerry's weekend claim that U.S. troops are "terrorizing" Iraqis — shows
Democrats have "a retreat and defeat strategy."
Dean touched off the furor by telling San Antonio radio station WOAI-AM:
"The idea that we're going to win this war is an idea that, unfortunately, is
just plain wrong."
He predicted Democrats will unite on a strategy to withdraw all National
Guard and Reserve troops from Iraq "now" and all U.S. forces within two years,
moving them to an unnamed "friendly neighboring country" to hunt
terrorists.
President Bush quickly rejected Dean's remarks, saying: "I know we're going
to win . . . Oh, there's pessimists, you know, and politicians who try to score
points. But our strategy is one that is — will lead us to victory."
Vice President Dick Cheney also rejected calls — like Dean's —
for "sudden withdrawal" from Iraq in a speech to cheering Army troops at
upstate Fort Drum, including 3,500 who just came back from a tour in Iraq.
"This would be unwise in the extreme — a victory for terrorists, bad
for the Iraqi people and bad for the United States. To leave that country
before the job is done," Cheney said.
He also quoted a Democrat who disagrees with Dean — Sen. Joe Lieberman
(D-Conn.), who ran against Cheney for vice president in 2000 on the Al Gore
ticket and just came back from Iraq reporting progress.
"We stand together in this war," Cheney said, noting Lieberman says "almost
all of the progress in Iraq and throughout the Middle East will be lost if
[U.S.] forces are withdrawn faster than the Iraqi military is capable."
Around the country, Republican leaders sought to use Dean as a weapon to
bludgeon local Democrats, demanding that they say if they agree that Iraq can't
be won.
Dean's remarks upset Robert Arciola. His son, Army Pfc. Michael Arciola, 20,
of Elmsford, Westchester, was killed by a Ramadi sniper on Feb. 15.
"It makes me angry to hear people talk like this. It seems that the people
who do all the yelling about the war don't have kids in the Army," he told The
Post.
"My son believed in what he was doing. He told me he wanted to join right
after 9/11 when he was in his junior year in high school. He was going to get
even with them. If we pull out, we won't win."
Edwin Cuming of White Plains, whose nephew, Army Spc. Kevin Cuming, died in
Iraq, said: "I think we should stay until it's finished. I don't want to see
him die in vain."
Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said: "It's fairly
extraordinary. I can't remember any time in history where the leader of a
national party . . . predicted America would lose a war we were engaged
in."
Mehlman told the same San Antonio radio station, "Imagine if we had said to
Hitler in 1942 that in two years we're going to pull out of Europe . . . Hitler
would not have surrendered."
He blasted Kerry for telling CBS on Sunday, "There is no reason that young
American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of
night terrorizing kids and children, you know, women."
deborah.orin@nypost.com
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