Centre Daily Times - "Candidates debate Iraq strategy"

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On the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Democratic candidates for the 5th Congressional District differed on the terms of withdrawal of U.S. troops while Republican candidates generally agreed that the war should be finished.

Their remarks came during a forum Wednesday sponsored by the Venango County Veterans Coalition. All three Democratic candidates for the open congressional seat addressed a sparse audience of veterans. Six of the nine Republican candidates attended.

Clearfield County Commissioner Mark McCracken and Lock Haven Mayor Rick Vilello, two of the Democratic candidates, said with little qualification that the United States should pull its troops from Iraq, though they did not elaborate.

"I think we need to get out now," said Vilello, whose Web site notes a $12 billion per month cost of the war. "We've won the war but we're losing the occupation."

McCracken, slightly more nuanced, says on his Web site that a key player in financing the coming plan for Iraq must be Saudi Arabia. He said Wednesday that the next U.S. president should produce a multinational plan to stabilize Iraq.

"I clearly feel it is the time to bring out troops home," he said.

Bellefonte's Bill Cahir, a Marine Corps reservist and two-tour Iraq veteran, was endorsed this month by Vote Vets.org and says on his Web site that the coming new Iraq policy should protect U.S. allies inside Iraq, promote security for Turkey, Jordan and Israel, and consider the long run "instead of just pulling up stakes and marching out."

He told the veterans Wednesday that "we need to map our way out of Iraq but there are things we need to do to promote stability, such as provincial elections."

Republican candidates included former Centre County commissioner Chris Exarchos, Lycoming County business executive Jeff Stroehmann, Clarion Mayor John Stroup, Clarion Baptist pastor Keith Richardson, Centre County health care professional Glenn Thompson and Clearfield County financial consultant Derek Walker.

Not present were Clinton County insurance agent John Krupa, Elk County funeral director Lou Radkowski and Centre County real estate developer Matt Shaner.

Stroehmann, who proclaimed himself "the veterans' candidate" while acknowledging that he is not a veteran, said Wednesday that the U.S. troops in Iraq need to be allowed to "finish the job."

Walker agreed. "The cost of losing is a lot greater than the cost of winning," he said.

"We should not go into a war without finishing it," Exarchos said. Withdrawing without finishing the job, he added, may mean returning to worse circumstances.

Thompson, whose son Logan was wounded four months ago by a landmine near Baghdad, said Logan will return to his Army unit in Iraq in eight days. "Things are going well" in Iraq, Thompson said, because commanders on the ground are making decisions. Stroup, conflating Afghanistan and Iraq operations as the "war on terror," said that "that commitment means we have to follow through."

Richardson addressed veterans affairs but did not take up the Iraq issue, though he says on his Web site that "Congress should fully fund the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and reject timetables for withdrawal and retreat."

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