Press Release

MILITARY STRAIN OF IRAQ HAS LEFT US UNSAFE
Ask Petraeus: Why aren’t we going after Bin Laden, al-Qaida in real war on terror?

NASHVILLE – With al-Qaida on the loose in Afghanistan, senators questioning Gen. David Petraeus Thursday should ask him why troops – including 4,000 Tennessee National Guard troops based in Knoxville – are scheduled to go to Iraq into next year, U.S. Senate Mike Padgett said Wednesday.

“The United States is no safer from attack than it was on Sept. 11, 2001 because al-Qaida and Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban are still operating in Afghanistan and on the Pakistani border,” Padgett said. “And what are we doing? Annoucing the deployment in 2009 of troops – including Tennessee’s own 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment out of Knoxville – to Iraq.

“Senators have a chance Thursday to ask our commander over there just why our military is being sucked dry by the civil war in Iraq while we drop the ball in the real war on terror.”

Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee will question Petraeus as part of hearings confirming him as commander over Iraq, the Horn of Africa, Afghanistan and other parts of Central Asia. Generals – including Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. George W. Casey, Army chief of staff – have said Iraq is putting the American military under untenable strain.

Tennessee National Guard troops have already done tours in Iraq, in 2004 and 2005. In the 2009 deployment, they’ll be assigned to base defense and route security in Iraq and Kuwait.

“Afghan citizens say the Taliban is operating at will in the countryside. The political situation in Pakistan is shaky, and Bin Laden and his al-Qaida soldiers are free to roam the Afghanistan border frontier,” Padgett said. “Not to mention the impact that the war in Iraq has had on the American economy and the family checkbook.

“And yet, Republicans – Senator Alexander and Senator McCain included – refuse time and again to bring our heroes home from Iraq so that we can make the war on terror our military priority.

“If Tennesseans will stand with me, I will put their personal security and their economic well-being ahead of a civil war we cannot stop. And I will use my vote to make our military a force that is once again ready to act anywhere around the globe.”

William "Mike" Padgett is former Knox County Clerk and small business owner. He and Patty, his wife of 37 years, have three grown children, Matt, Mark and Sara Beth

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