Gov. Richardson wants Iraq pullout now

WASHINGTON, June 19 (UPI) -- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat running for president, said Tuesday if he were president he would withdraw all troops from Iraq this year.

He told a crowd at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 2007 national conference in Washington he would not even leave behind troops to conduct counter-terror operations or train Iraqis.

"I would withdraw all of our forces, without any residual troops, by the end of this calendar year," Richardson said.

In place of American troops he said he would cobble together an all-Muslim peacekeeping force, work to bring the Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish factions together and negotiate with Syria and Iran on ways to bring stability to the region.

Richardson is well behind Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., in the quest for the Democratic Party's standard bearer. The next president of the United States would not take office until 2009. By then, Pentagon insiders hope to have brought down troop levels to a steady state of between 50,000 and 100,000 -- enough to continue training Iraqi forces, conduct operations against al-Qaida, help the government with military logistics and be a stabilizing force by signaling continued U.S. interest and involvement.

Discord over the war in Iraq is credited in large part for the turnover in Congress in the last election, when Democrats wrested control from Republicans in both the Senate and the House.

Richardson echoed complaints from the anti-war contingent that the Democrats now in power have not done enough to bring the war in Iraq to an end.

"I also believe that the Congress has been weak in trying to stop the war. Too often we're looking at funding resolutions. Too often we're looking at timetables. What I would urge the Congress to do is press ahead with a major initiative to de-authorize the war, to stop the war by the end of this calendar year," he said.