Former military leaders criticize Bush's plan to withdraw troops

WASHINGTON -- Two high-ranking retired military supporters of Senator John F. Kerry yesterday denounced President Bush's plan to withdraw up to 70,000 US soldiers from Europe and Asia.

One of them, retired General Wesley Clark, called the action "pure politics" and "a shell game."

Clark, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, said the troop withdrawals from Europe would only exacerbate strained relations with such allies as Germany, while withdrawals from South Korea make no strategic sense.

"Withdrawing these 70,000 troops won't improve our national security. It will harm our national security," Clark said at a news conference. "These moves weaken our foreign alliances. It is a shell game. They are using troops withdrawn from South Korea to feed the war in Iraq."

The former NATO commander added that Europe was a better place than Fort Riley, Kan., for responding swiftly to crises in Africa and the Middle East. And he said there would be no short-term savings from the European drawdown. "Our bases in Germany are already paid for and Germany contributes to the operation," he said.

The plan, which Bush announced at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention Monday, reflects the administration's view that the current overseas basing structure is an expensive and outdated legacy of the Cold War strategy of containing the Soviet threat and that new technologies and basing plans need to be employed to confront new threats.

"The world has changed a great deal and our posture must change with it," Bush said Monday.

But Clark called the plan "a strategic mistake."

Clark and retired Admiral Stansfield Turner, a former CIA director, also defended Kerry's service and actions in Vietnam. Clark called attacks on Kerry's service record "the lowest form of politics" and said it was time to talk about the issues and end the personal attacks.

Turner said: "It is ironic we are up here comparing the military records of George W. Bush and John Kerry. Who is the better commander in chief? Somebody who has been there in combat, or somebody who has misled us into two wars?"

He charged that Bush didn't have the foresight to provide "enough soldiers, money, resources" to win the wars after winning the battles.