Today, NBC’s Meet the Press featured a panel with retired Navy Admiral Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) and Win Without War director Tom Andrews debating former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) and prominent neocon Richard Perle.
Andrews and Sestak made short work of DeLay and Perle. Andrews emphasized how dangerous it is to place U.S. soldiers into a civil war. “Our kids don’t know when they’re out there on the streets of Baghdad, whether the people they’re next to are the enemy or their allies. … They’re losing their lives as a result.”
Sestak made the case for redeploying U.S. forces out of Iraq. “Even George Washington at the Battle of Brandywine understood after this initial clash that he had to redeploy and go elsewhere to assume the strategic victory. That’s what this is about. Is there a better way to handle Iraq and then to be able to handle the entire security environment?”
Watch it:
At one point, DeLay claimed that places like Bahrain and Qatar wouldn’t accept U.S. troops who had redeployed out of Iraq. Sestak put his hand on DeLay’s arm and informed him that the U.S. military already has bases in those countries.
Later, Perle made the incredible statement that “‘Redeploy’ is a euphemism for cut-and-run.” Note to Perle: redeployment is an official military term (see this entry in the Pentagon’s Dictionary of Military Terms). “Cut and run” is the euphemism, and a tired and false one at that.
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