Coble tones down comments on war
By Tony Batt
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., on Monday, sought to tone down
his comments that the United States should consider taking its soldiers
out of Iraq.
"I am not calling for withdrawal of troops from Iraq," Coble
said. "I am suggesting that we put that option on the table for discussion
and for consideration. ... Who knows, after we consider it, maybe we can't
do it."
Over the weekend, Coble told the Greensboro News & Record that he
was "fed up with picking up the newspaper and reading that we've lost
another five or 10 of our young men and women in Iraq."
Voters in his district, who once overwhelmingly supported the war, are
now split, Coble said.
He said he would consider raising the issue of possible troop withdrawals
within the House crime, terrorism and homeland security subcommittee that
he chairs.
Coble, 73, may be the first conservative Republican to raise the issue
of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa, regarded as
a liberal Republican, had called for a withdrawal by the end of 2004.
Calls to the White House Monday were not returned.
Normally a staunch supporter of Bush administration policies, Coble said
he spoke out on Iraq because he criticized President Clinton for insufficient
responses to terrorist attacks in the 1990s.
"Since I was critical of the Clinton administration, I feel obliged
to be consistent if I think there are shortcomings in the Bush administration,"
Coble said in a telephone message left in response to an interview request.
"I don't think I'm being disloyal to President Bush by questioning
this."
Coble said he voted for the invasion of Iraq partly because he believed
the Bush administration had a strategy for securing peace after the war.
"It appears that that probably was not the case," Coble said.
"Maybe I was at fault for not having probed it thoroughly enough."
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Samantha Young of the Stephens Washington Bureau contributed to this
story.
Copyright 2002, Stephens Media Group
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