Hillary Clinton says immediate withdrawal from Iraq would be "a big mistake"

&to=http://english.pravda.ru/main/2000/10/06/123.html' target=_blank>Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would be "a big mistake."

The New York Democrat, who is seen as a likely candidate in the 2008 presidential elections, said she respects Democratic Rep. Jack Murtha, the Vietnam veteran and hawkish ex-Marine who last week called for a troop pullout. But she added: "I think that would cause more problems for us in America."

"It will matter to us if &to=http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/399/16411_Iraq.html' target=_blank>Iraq totally collapses into civil war, if it becomes a failed state the way Afghanistan was, where terrorists are free to basically set up camp and launch attacks against us," she said.