We Would Leave Iraq If Asked

[dgridley]

Q Thank you, Mr. President. You say you want nothing short of victory, that leaving Iraq would be catastrophic; you once again mentioned al Qaeda. Does that mean that you are willing to leave American troops there, no matter what the Iraqi government does? I know this is a question we've asked before, but you can begin it with a "yes" or "no."

THE PRESIDENT: We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It's their government's choice. If they were to say, leave, we would leave.

Q -- catastrophic, as you've said over and over again?

THE PRESIDENT: I would hope that they would recognize that the results would be catastrophic. This is a sovereign nation, Martha. We are there at their request. And hopefully the Iraqi government would be wise enough to recognize that without coalition troops, the U.S. troops, that they would endanger their very existence. And it's why we work very closely with them, to make sure that the realities are such that they wouldn't make that request -- but if they were to make the request, we wouldn't be there.



http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070524.html

:gl:

 

[slipondajimmy]

Yeah ,

I do not think for one second that if their gov asked us to leave we would.

 

[The Equivocate]

Not saying we should be there in the first place, but I do believe just packing up and leaving at this point would make things a lot worse than if we stuck around and gradually withdrew.

 

[whitebark]

They have asked - they voted on it even...

The next president may get around to it. Then again troops are still in Germany 62 years later.

Bush is setting himself up for bad press with that remark anyways. The anti-American forces in Iraq are getting clever at public relations and knowing that he made that statement they may push the issue now.

 

[Ixix]

no we wouldn't, we wouldn't leave our precious oil behind....er, i mean, we wouldn't leave untill 'the job is done'

:tri: