A Plan

U.S. Adm. Joe Sestak commanded a carrier battle group and was director of the Navy's anti-terrorism unit. He is a newly elected Democratic Congressman from Pennsylvania. He outlines his plan to exit Iraq. Former admiral says all American forces should pull out by year's end By Renee Schoof McClatchy Newspapers Feb. 20, 2007 WASHINGTON - After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. Adm. Joe Sestak commanded a carrier battle group in combat near Afghanistan, then in the Persian Gulf in the run-up to the Iraq war. Now a freshman member of the House of Representatives, Sestak, a Pennsylvania Democrat, has introduced a bill calling for withdrawing all American forces from Iraq by the end of this year, while strengthening the U.S. military presence in the region and in Afghanistan. Sestak, who defeated 10-term Republican incumbent Curt Weldon in November, has a Ph.D. in political economy and government from Harvard University. He served as the director for defense policy on President Clinton's National Security Council and once was the director of the Navy's anti-terrorism unit. His bill would cut off most money for military operations in Iraq by Dec. 31. "I honestly believe that in the next few months we will move to this position," Sestak said in an interview. "It may not be my bill, but it will be something very similar." The main reason, he said, is that the war in Iraq is hurting American national security: It's diverted resources and attention from the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and from other challenges to U.S. interests around the world. "We diverted our attention, our resources and our forces ... to Iraq," he said. "To my mind Afghanistan is the poster child for what isn't being done in this world where the real war on terrorism is elsewhere, not Iraq." Raed More At McClatchy Newspapers