With Bush in Iraq, Democrats renew calls for US troop pullout

With Bush in Iraq, Democrats renew calls for US troop pullout

14 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Opposition Democrats used President George W. Bush's secret visit to Iraq as an opportunity to renew their calls for speedy end to America's military involvement there.

"I hope the president will deliver a clear message in Baghdad: Now that a democratic government has been elected and the Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq has been killed, its time for American troops to begin to come home," Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy said in a statement.

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Another Senate Democrat, John Kerry, whom Bush defeated in the 2004 presidential election, said at a rally on Tuesday that the president's presence in Iraq did not change his view that the US military venture there is counter-productive.

"No matter how brave our soldiers are, no matter how valiant, no matter what their caring ... our soldiers cannot bring democracy to Iraq at the barrel of a gun," said Kerry, who planned to introduce legislation Tuesday calling for a quick withdrawal of US forces.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060613/pl_afp/iraqusbushvisit_060613174212

“A war on Iraq founded on a lie can never be true to the American character,” Kerry said early in his speech, which was almost totally devoted to the war, in contrast to Clinton’s, which was mainly focused on domestic policy. Kerry drew parallels between the Iraq war and the Vietnam War that he was a soldier in, noting that in both wars, thousands of soldiers were killed or injured long after policymakers realized they had headed in the wrong direction but stubbornly refused to reverse themselves. “I was morally wrong then and it is morally wrong now,” he said.