Rep. Ben Cardin called on President Bush Monday to start bringing troops home from Iraq immediately at a pace of 10,000 a month so that all would be home by the end of next year.
“The Bush administration has mismanaged this war from Day 1 and the American people have paid a heavy price,” said Cardin, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate and a 10-term congressman who opposed the authorization of the war.
In a speech at the Universityof Maryland, College Park, Cardin said he wants members of National Guard and the Reserves ? now about 25,000, including about 1,000 from Maryland ? be brought home first. He wants the president and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to organize a peace conference to “negotiate international responsibilities,” including training of Iraqi security forces, providing humanitarian aid and rebuilding infrastructure.
Former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, Cardin?s leading primary opponent, said, “I?m glad Mr. Cardin has finally come around to opposition on the war.” Mfume said that last summer he called for a quick withdrawal that would bring the soldiers home by the end of 2006.
Cardin at that point opposed a timeline because he said he believed that it would put the troops in danger, according to an Aug. 26, 2005, story in The Washington Post.
A spokesman for the Senate campaign of Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele attacked the call for a timed withdrawal from the opposite direction.
“Cardin calls for a timetable while saying it?s not a timetable, just as he?s gone back and forth on taking any action in Iraq,” said Doug Heye. “Unfortunately, it?s this kind of hypocrisy people have come to expect from career Washington politicians.”
Another Democratic contender, Dennis Rasmussen agreed. “Once again, this just demonstrates the failed leadership of Congress,” said Rasmussen, who said that, like most Americans, he now opposes the war. “We dishonor our troops by bringing them home arbitrarily without an orderly exit strategy” that has “defined goals,” he said.
Joshua Rales, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination, said, “I have pledged to bring our troops home by March 2007 and to vote against additional funding for combat operations beyond that date.”
Despite his opposition to the invasion, Cardin has voted for funds to support the U.S. forces there.
