Washington: Setting a firm time-frame for the first time for a pull-out of troops from Iraq, Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has said that her government will withdraw American soldiers from the embattled nation within 60 days if she comes to power.
"I have said that as soon as I become president, I will ask the Joint Chiefs, Secretary of Defence, my security advisers to give me a plan to begin withdrawing our troops within 60 days", she said on 'Meet The Press' programme.
Slamming President George W Bush's administration for not "planning" for the troop-withdrawal, the New York Senator said: "Starting on day one of my presidency, we will begin that planning. We will begin to withdraw our troops within 60 days.
"I think we can take out one to two brigades a month. At the same time, I will put increasing pressure on the Iraqi government. I will engage in a full diplomatic effort to work with the countries in the region and others who have an interest in the stability of Iraq", she said.
"As of January 20, 2009", she said "we will begin to bring our troops out of Iraq. Therefore, I certainly believe it's in the interests of the Iraqi government and the people of Iraq that a lot of this reconciliation that I've been calling for going back four or five years start and actually get implemented now."
Though she defended her vote in the Senate in 2002 on Iraq, Hillary ruled out any further support for the surge if the American commander in Iraq Gen David Petraeus were to come before Congress in March asking for continued backing of lawmakers.
"No, and here's why. The surge was certainly explained and rationalised as giving the Iraqi government space and time to make the hard decisions that they needed to make. 2007 was the deadliest year for American troops", Hillary said. "From my perspective, part of the reason the Iraqis are doing anything is because they see this election happening and they know they don't have much time, that the blank check that George Bush gave them is about to be torn up", she said.
Reflecting on her vote in 2002, Hillary said that Bush "misused and abused" the authority that was given to him.
"I would never do again what George Bush did with that vote. He misused and abused the authority that was given to him, in my opinion. And we can't turn the clock back. I've taken responsibility for it."
The Democrat senator further said: "I would not have given President Bush the authority if I knew he would deliberately misuse and abuse it.
"I was told by the White House personally that the point of the authority was to send a very clear message to Saddam Hussein that he was going to have to be held accountable finally, that we would know once and for all what he had there that could be used as he had used it in the past," she added.
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