Senator Barbara Boxer (D - Marin County) has been complaining for months that in her estimation, the administration has no “plan” for Iraq. For instance, in a statement on October 25th:

…let us honor the lives of those who continue to serve by developing a credible plan for Iraq. It is time for this Administration to level with the American people and provide a strategy for success.

Earlier examples of the “there is no plan” theme are here and here.

On Fox News Sunday this week she made it clear that the real problem is that the administration isn’t following her plan — whatever that is :

“And the truth of the matter is things are going very badly, and this administration keeps on keeping on, status quo, no change. The president gave a speech. He packaged his speech in a plan for victory. That’s good that he packaged it. At least he’s thinking of a plan for victory. But it was all the same. And my people in California and the people all over this country are not happy with the way things are going.”

Boxer spent most of the segment preparing to take credit for the planned drawdown of U.S. troops in the region. There is almost no doubt that will happen over the next twelve months — here is an overview of current administration thinking, from November 23:

“The president has said that as soon as Iraqi forces are ready, we want to see a reduction in our own forces, and I think those days are going to be coming fairly soon when Iraqis are going to be more and more capable of carrying out the functions to secure their own future,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told FOX News in an interview.

… The Washington Post reported in Wednesday’s editions that the Pentagon tentatively plans to reduce the number of U.S. forces in Iraq early next year by as many as three combat brigades, down from 18 there now.

The plan is basically to draw down troop levels to about 100,000 in mid 2006 but that plan is flexible. Another plan that’s been in the works for some time now deals with placing U.S. troops that move out of Iraq into Kuwait.

… “If current trends hold, we’ll be able to pull significant number out of Iraq in ‘06, ” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace told FOX News in an exclusive interview.

And here is Boxer on Fox News Sunday, operating — at best — in willful ignorance of the withdrawal plan:

Clip of President Bush: “Most Americans want two things in Iraq. They want to see our troops win, and they want to see our troops come home as soon as possible. And those are my goals as well.”

Wallace: Senator, the president wants to bring home the troops also.

Boxer: (after arguing that the presence of American troops is enlarging, not diminishing, the insurgency). Now, we have put our brave men and women in there, and the reason the president gives is so that the Iraqis can stand up for themselves, so they can defend themselves, and I agree with that. Well, let’s let them begin to do just that … (ed: and this is different … how?) (snip)

Wallace: … I just wanted to ask you, though, you talk about a clear timeframe for pulling the troops out. As far as the Iraqis standing up and defending their own country, I’m sure the president would say that that’s his policy, too. You say you want a clear timeframe for pulling the troops out. What is a clear timeframe?

Boxer: I’ve never said an exact timeframe. I think you need to be flexible on it. But the fact is it’s time to tell the Iraqis we will not be there indefinitely. (ed: again, isn’t that exactly our current policy?) (snip)

Wallace: But, Senator, again, if I may press the question...

Boxer: You can. Sure.

Wallace: … what is a clear timeframe? I mean, the president would say that we’re not going to have troops there forever. I mean, he’s got a policy. You can argue with it or not, but he certainly intends to bring all of the U.S. troops home, as he said at the very beginning of this segment in the clip we played. So when you call for a timeframe for withdrawal, what does that mean?

Boxer: Well, I’ve said it over and over again. You have benchmarks. The president said — he admitted finally a little bit of an error. He said it was taking too long to train the troops, and they’ve gotten that down to a reasonable amount. So you have a timeframe based on their ability to stand up. (ed: again, how is this different?) They keep saying — the president says, and Rumsfeld says, that there’s 200,000 Iraqi trained troops. Fine. Let them defend their own country. We cannot do this forever. No country survives when foreign troops are in there defending the country. They have to do this.

So there’s no specific timeframe, but I would say the withdrawal ought to start now, right after the elections, December 15th. We’ve gone up before the elections, as John Kerry said. We can start bringing those troop levels down, and I’d like to start with the National Guard.

Boxer’s “plan” is apparently a) score points at home while b) offering nothing very different from current administration policy.

And somehow she’s in her third term and on the Senate Foreign Relations committee.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 6th, 2005 at 11:17 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Barbara Boxer, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.