(Host) Republican U.S. Senate candidates Greg Parke and Richard Tarrant have very different views about how the United States should conduct the war in Iraq in the next year.
Speaking last night on VPR’s GOP Senate debate program, Tarrant said the time has come for U.S. forces to be redeployed in the region so that the Iraqi army can try to end the violence in that country:
(Tarrant) “It’s more than a civil war it’s chaos it’s time to redeploy our troops out of harm’s way back to Kuwait back in the desert someplace where we can continue to train he Iraqi army to take over this difficult job a place where we can still offer strike force support when needed but it’s time to get our troops out of harm’s way.”
(Host) But Parke described that position as “cutting and running” and he thinks the United States needs to make a long term commitment to Iraq.
(Parke “If you set a timetable you’ve basically given up and then written it off and you’ve signaled to your enemies that you do not have the will to see it through. So setting any kind of a timetable would be absolutely foolish strategically, tactically, any way you want to look at it.”
(Host) The third candidate in the race, Cris Ericson said she also supports a continued U.S. presence in Iraq because she feels it’s important for the United States to bring democracy to this region of the world.