April 29:
UPDATE: The article below appears in today’s paper with this headline:
Third-party candidates: Bring troops home
The incumbent: Hatch says an immediate Iraq pullout is irresponsible, and calls Bush’s decision to invade ‘wise’
The Salt Lake Tribune updated its online site this afternoon with an article about the debate tomorrow night: Leaving Iraq: Pros and Cons
Article Last Updated: 4/28/2006 02:59 PM
Update: Senate candidates’ Iraq views clash
By Matt Canham
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
If Dave Starr Seely were to become Utah’s next U.S. senator he would vote to immediately end the war in Iraq and bring U.S. troops home.
“It is time to just bow out of it as quickly as possible,” said the Libertarian candidate. “This war has proven to be the biggest terrorist recruiting effort ever.”
Constitution Party candidate Scott Bradley also would vote for a complete troop withdrawal, as would Desert Greens candidate Julian Hatch and Roger Price of the Personal Choice party.
But none of these men are expected to become Utah’s next senator. And the man who will most likely retain that seat could not have a more contrary view.
“It is irresponsible to make any declaration of withdrawal,” said Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, who is seeking to win his sixth term in office this November. Hatch not only disagrees with these third-party candidates but questioned the courage of those who side with them. “If we just have the guts to continue we will be effective in establishing one of the only representative governments in the Middle
East,” Hatch said.
The senator’s opponents will gather at 7 p.m. Saturday at Westminster College for a debate about the U.S. policy in Iraq, sponsored by the Desert Green party. Hatch won’t participate because he
is attending the Wasatch County Republican Convention, according to campaign manager Dave Hansen. His Democratic challenger, Pete Ashdown, will weigh in by an online video conference, since he will be at the Kane County Democratic Convention.
Ashdown doesn’t fall on one side or the other of the withdrawal debate. He doesn’t even think U.S. politicians should make the decision.
“The Iraqi people should make this decision,” said Ashdown, who owns XMission, a Utah Internet Service Provider. Ashdown believes the Iraqis should cast ballots in a referendum to decide whether U.S. troops continue their efforts or head home. If the Iraqi people want troops to stay, Ashdown believes more of the profits from Iraqi oil should go toward the reconstruction. “The Iraqi people know the truth better than anybody – anybody over here, anybody in the military, anybody in Washington,” Ashdown said.
Price said the decision should be an easy one for the American people. “We are wasting our money, our men,” he said. “We are spilling our blood and all we are doing is creating hate in the rest of the world.”
For Bradley, who always goes back to the words of the founders, this is an unconstitutional war, since Congress never formally declared war. That aside, “When we go to war, we better go to war for the right
reasons,” he said. “Our Iraq policy at this point has been a complete disaster.”
But once again, Hatch disagrees calling the decision to invade by President Bush “wise.” “Today there is not a single leader of a hostile nation that doubts American resolve.”
mcanham@sltrib.com
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 