"It's time for us to get the hell out of there."

By Joelle Farrell Monitor staff

June 24. 2007 10:00AM

T wo retired Army generals toured New Hampshire last week, hoping to pressure New Hampshire's congressional delegation to stand up to President Bush and put an end to the war in Iraq. Republican Sen. John Sununu is up for re-election in 2008, and some believe he could fall prey to a similar antiwar sentiment that helped oust two incumbent congressmen in favor of Democratic Reps. Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter in 2006. Lt. Gen. Robert Gard worked as executive assistant to Robert McNamara, secretary of defense during the Vietnam War. He believes Iraq, like Vietnam, is a failure, and the only responsible solution is to bring American troops home, he said. "These troops are not expendable commodities to fulfill the pipe-dream vision of a group of people trying to remake the world in our image," Gard said. "It's time for us to get the hell out of there." Gard and retired Brig. Gen. John Johns teamed up with Win Without War, a group that formed in 2002 in response to the buildup to the invasion of Iraq. Led by former Maine congressman Tom Andrews, the group lists 40 coalition members including Greenpeace, Peace Action and MoveOn.org.

Andrews, Gard and Johns held town hall meetings in Manchester and Keene last week and met with the Monitor's editorial board Thursday.

Terrorism threatens the United States, but the war in Iraq is exacerbating the problem, not solving it, the generals said.

Gard, a graduate of West Point and Harvard who served 31 years in the Army, said the idea that "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here" is empty rhetoric used to keep Americans scared so they don't question the administration's foreign policy. Fighting in Iraq will not stop someone who wants to blow up a dirty bomb in New York.

"These people are mobile," Gard said. "If they want to come in here, they'll come."