Things in Iraq are getting really bad. The LA Times has an article today saying that the civil war is “all but declared“, and we now get a Republican Representative, who has been a supporter of the war, saying it is time to get out:
Congressman Gil Gutknecht found the situation in Iraq more bleak than he anticipated during a weekend visit to the war zone, and said a partial withdrawal of some American troops might be wise.
Gutknecht, a strong supporter of the war since it began in March of 2003, told reporters in a telephone conference call Tuesday that American forces appear to have no operational control of much of Baghdad.
“The condition there is worse than I expected,” he said. “… I have to be perfectly candid: Baghdad is a serious problem.”
The 1st District Republican said he was deeply impressed by the professionalism of American soldiers and gained hope from the more stabile situation in the Kurdish-dominated northern region of Iraq.
But he said the next six weeks could be critical in determining whether stability can eventually come to the rest of the country, and he believes removing some American troops is necessary to send the Iraqi government a message that it can’t rely so heavily on the American military much longer.
His assessment of the problems facing Iraq and the potential value of removing some American troops comes one month after Gutknecht was widely quoted during a debate in the House about the war.
I am sure the war mongers will paint Gutknecht as someone who is just playing politics, but they will be the true ones playing politics. Iraq is bad and the left knows it, as well as most of America. It is just the war mongers who are denying it, in hopes that it will develop into a larger scale war.