Baker Report: The Democratic Reaction

Jason Leopold reports....

The Iraq Study Group released its long-awaited report on Wednesday, recommending that the United States' involvement in the nearly four-year-old war should continue until at least 2008. This angered some Democrats, who said that the carnage and bloodshed in the region has reached a tipping point and that American soldiers should return home beginning sometime in mid-2007.

"Unless we set a serious timetable for redeploying our troops from Iraq, we will be unable to effectively address these global threats," said Senator Russ Feingold (D-NY), who is expected to draft legislation in January calling for US soldiers to leave Iraq by as early as July 2007. "In the end, this report is a regrettable example of 'official Washington' missing the point."

Perhaps the most explosive revelation contained in Wednesday's report is the cost of the invasion and post-war reconstruction, which will soar to $2 trillion, 20 times higher than what the Bush administration estimated prior to the March 2003 invasion. To date, the Iraq War has cost upwards of $350 billion, according to figures released by the Pentagon.

Last Thursday, the Pentagon trimmed its budget request for the war from $127 billion to $100 billion. The cost of the war has risen substantially as the violence increases and more equipment is destroyed or worn out in harsh conditions, according to the Pentagon.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120706A.shtml