Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says Democrats in the U.S. Senate, including a couple of Democratic presidential hopefuls, are engaged in a “troubling” debate over withdrawing troops from Iraq.
“This is the same group of senators who unanimously voted to give David Petraeus until September to implement a plan,” Huckabee says. “Here is it the first part of July and they’re ready to just cut and run and say, ‘Nope, we’re not going to let him do the job that we unanimously agreed to let him do.'”
One proposal Democrats are offering calls for starting to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in 120 days. Huckabee says he understands that the public wants the war to stop.
“I want every last American to come home, too, but I want to make sure that we do the job that will keep this war from getting worse and from spilling over and becoming a regional nightmare rather than just an Iraqi nightmare,” Huckabee says.
According to Huckabee, it’s the generals on the ground and not the politicians who should be deciding when to withdraw. “If we listen to the guys with medals on their chests, mud and blood on their boots, and they come back and say, ‘Look, you know what? We need to get out of here,’ then we need to get out of there,” Huckabee says.
If it comes to that point, Huckabee says the Saudis, Kuwaitis, Turks and Jordanians need to be brought in to “handle” Iraq.
Huckabee’s campaigning in Iowa this week and he says while Iowans are asking him about Iraq’s future, they’re also interested in his views on taxes, health care reform and energy policy.