Press Release

PADGETT TO PETRAEUS: AMERICANS FED UP, WANT TROOPS HOME
Iraqi society is broken along age-old lines that we can’t fix

RIPLEY – Gen. David Petraeus asked Congress yesterday for patience with the effort in Iraq, but Americans have run out of patience and want our troops brought home, Mike Padgett, a candidate for the U.S. Senate said.

“Gen. Petraeus himself once posed the question: ‘How does this end?’ Well, it ends when we face the fact that Iraqi society is broken and bleeding along lines that have existed for centuries. We cannot fix it, no matter how many dollars and lives we spend in the process,” Padgett said during a campaign swing through West Tennessee.

“Any progress we have made in stabilizing Iraq is fleeting, and experts predict it could take years, if not decades, plus trillions of dollars and, worst of all, thousands of additional lives to make any real difference. The American people are not willing to pay that price.

“I, along with all Tennesseans, have great respect for Gen. Petraeus and am grateful for his leadership of the 101st Airborne. But the people of the Volunteer State want the troops out of Iraq and the focus back where it should be: on the global war against terror.”

Padgett rejected Petraeus’ proposal to withdraw some troops, then halt the pull-back and, in the general’s words, “over time, determine when we can make recommendations for further reductions." Padgett said Americans “don’t trust something open-ended like that after all of the misleading information about this war that the Bush administration has already fed them.”

Padgett supports a phased withdrawal of American forces in Iraq and a re-engagement with other nations – old allies and new, particularly in the Middle East – to pinpoint and wipe out terrorism.

“We cannot do it by ourselves,” Padgett said, “but if Tennesseans will stand with me, I will work in the Senate to find a way forward that makes the United States safe and respected in the world community once again.”

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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