Gingrich Would Bring Troops Home As Fast As Possible

Reuters reports:

Republican presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Wednesday that as president he would draw down U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as quickly as possible.

"As rapidly as the generals think is safe," Gingrich said after speaking to about 180 members of the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina in Charleston.

"And I would go to a much different style of using covert operations and using diplomatic and economic pressures. And I'd have a very clear goal, which is replace the Iranian dictatorship. But I think this is a very hard problem."

After nearly a decade of war, polls show Americans are increasingly eager to bring their troops home.

U.S. troops are scheduled to leave Iraq by 2012 and President Barack Obama has proposed a phased withdrawal from Afghanistan that would have them out of that country in 2014.