White House slams Howard Dean’s comments on Iraq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House criticized
Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean on Tuesday for saying it
is wrong to think the United States will win in Iraq, saying he
was sending the wrong message to U.S. troops.

Dean told San Antonio, Texas, radio station WOAI that “the
idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which
is just plain wrong.”

He predicted the Democratic Party would come together on a
proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops
immediately, and all U.S. forces within two years.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said President George
W. Bush is “focused on our plan for victory,” and will give the
second in a series of speeches on Wednesday about the way
forward in Iraq looking ahead to December 15 elections.

“I think that on the eve of historic elections, it sends
the wrong message to our troops. America wants our troops to
win and we have a plan to help them succeed and we know that
they will,” McClellan said.

He suggested Dean had some explaining to do.

“I think those are remarks for him to clarify,” McClellan
said, calling it “absolutely the wrong message to send to our
troops when we are on the verge of historic accomplishments.”

Dean called Iraq “the same situation we had in Vietnam.”

“Everybody then kept saying, ‘Just another year, just stay
the course, we’ll have a victory.’ Well, we didn’t have a
victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000
troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was
happening,” he said.

Dean is a former governor of Vermont who used anti-war
rhetoric, smart use of the Internet and fund-raising prowess to
become at one point a top contender for the role of Democratic
candidate for president in 2004. His outspoken style has
produced both admirers and critics in and out of the party.

Bush has rejected setting a timetable for withdrawing U.S.
troops from Iraq, saying it would encourage the Iraqi
insurgency. His administration has recently gone on the
offensive against critics of the war by warning that calls to
withdraw could hurt the morale of U.S. troops there.