Democratic Leaders: Escalating Our Military Involvement in Iraq Sends Precisely the Wrong Message
Posted by on January 10, 2007 at 09:26 PM
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Senate Assistant Democratic Leader Richard Durbin released the following statement tonight on President Bush's address to the nation on the war in Iraq:
"Last November, the American people delivered a strong message of no confidence in the President's Iraq policy and clearly expressed their desire for a new direction. The President had an opportunity tonight to demonstrate that he understood the depth of the concern in the country, make a long overdue course correction, and articulate a clear mission for our engagement in Iraq. Instead, he chose to escalate our involvement in Iraq's civil war by proposing a substantial increase in the number of our forces there. This proposal endangers our national security by placing additional burdens on our already over-extended military thereby making it even more difficult to respond to other crises.
"While we all want to see a stable and peaceful Iraq, many current and former senior military leaders have made clear that sending more American combat troops does not advance that goal. Our troops have performed the difficult missions given to them in Iraq with great courage. The Congress and the American people will continue to support them and provide them with every resource they need. But our military forces deserve a policy commensurate with the sacrifices they have been asked to make. Regrettably, the President has not provided that tonight.
"Rather than escalating our involvement in Iraq by sending additional troops, we believe that a plan for the way forward in Iraq requires these elements:
- Shifting greater responsibility to the Iraqis for their security and transitioning the principal mission of our forces from combat to training, logistics, force protection, and counter terrorism operations;
- Beginning the phased redeployment of our forces in the next four to six months; and
- Implementing an aggressive diplomatic strategy, both within the region and beyond, which reflects the continuing obligation of the international community to help stabilize Iraq and which assists the Iraqis in achieving a sustainable political settlement, including by amending their constitution.
"Iraqi political leaders will not take the necessary steps to achieve a political resolution to the sectarian problems in their country until they understand that the U.S. commitment is not open-ended. Escalating our military involvement in Iraq sends precisely the wrong message and we oppose it.
"In the days ahead, Congress will exercise its Constitutional responsibilities by giving the President's latest proposal the scrutiny our troops and the American people expect. We will demand answers to the tough questions that have not been asked or answered to date. The American people want a change of course in Iraq. We intend to keep pressing President Bush to provide it."
Comments (7) «
I noticed something as I watched House Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Maj. Ldr. Reid holding that Press Conference after talking to the Chimpanzee and as they were answerng the questions, Reid seemed like he was a little afraid to speak up and tell it like it was to the point where Spkr. Pelosi, draped in red like the Congressional Diva she is, had to cut in and state plainly that they did not have a conference, they were simply "notified" by the Chimp as to what he had already planned to do.
(SIGN)
Thank the Lord we finally have a woman running things.
;p
To: Speaker Pelosi, Leader Reid, Leader Hoyer and the rest of the Democrats;
It doesn't matter if your for the "surge" or against the "surge", you elected official have taken the position that you will not stop funding this war. Obviously for political purposes that is the smart strategic move.
But if you would like to do the right thing and want to be proactive, I have a suggestion. Tommorrow when the House and the Senate take the floor try proposing a suplementary bill to increase funding for the Veterans Administration and funding for Tramatic Brain Injury (TBI). Don't just nickle and dime it, increase it 10 fold. Tell this President if he wants to sacrifice more American Servicemembers then he must understand that more and more servicemembers will be entering the roles of the Veterans Administration and it will need more funding. Lets see who really "Supports the Troops"
Stem Cell can wait till Friday, Lets push a new Veterans Bill now!
Who will lead us?!
Is there no one in the Democratic Party who can step up, put their personal interests aside, AND organize and direct the outrage the American people feel towards this President?!
Tell us WHERE you want us to MEET; what time you want us board the buses to converge on Washington to tell Bush, loud and clear, up front and personal how disgusted we are with his blatant disregard for the will of the people.
WHEN does the March on Washington begin?!
It's now or never for the Democratic Party. Seize the moment! Or it will dissipate into universal despair.
PLEASE RESPOND.
Hi,
according to the Spiegel: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,459193,00.html - the Bush gang has attacked the Iranian embassy in Arbil and has taken 6 diplomats for further interrogation (torture).
By breaking permantely the international law the facist rogue state of the JEWSA is seen around the world as terrorists. Obviously the war criminals in the White House prepare for a big war.
What are the Democrats doing, by giving this criminals their way.
I M P E A C H and P R O S E C U T I O N of the Bush and Cheney gang is the only answer.
If it were his girls he was sending to the streets of Bagdad, I am sure the war would suddenly be over.
I have been against this war from day one and its unfortunate the president decided to take the route of adding troops to a failed policy. On the other hand the critics of the democrats claim the dems don’t have a plan nor an answer as to what will follow if we leave. What will follow if we leave will happen regardless. The only difference is the time it will take for that to happen. The Bush administration on the other hand has NO answer as to if these benchmarks (and they won’t even tell us what they are) are not met what our policy is then. What I have heard today from Rice and the Defense secretary is that they are not willing to tell us what the policy is even if they know what it is. Here is a simple strategy in my view that will ultimately be in the hands of Iraq and only Iraq will decide how they want their country to proceed. Let’s face the facts the troops are going for starters. Now that they are there and more are going for a policy that we are told is to clear, hold and build but no benchmarks or consequence’s for benchmarks not met we have few options. Let’s assume the generals on the ground decided that 80,000 troops regardless of Iraqi or American troops are needed to secure Baghdad. Let’s assume that right now 50,000 Iraqi troops are there along with the goal of 30,000 American’s. Let’s set a benchmark that in 4 months the Iraqi’s must increase that amount of their own troops by 15,000. Here is the benchmark. If the Iraqi force meets the 15,000 added to their already 50,000 then they met the benchmark and we then take 15,000 American troops and deploy them to the next worst area of Iraq to clear it. We then set the same benchmark for another 15,000 in 4 months and so on until all of Baghdad has Iraqi forces. If the Iraqi force does not meet the 15,000 added requirements we then take 15,000 American troops from there and bring them home. If we end up bringing them home because the Iraqi force didn’t meet the benchmark then it’s the Iraqi government that decide it not us and that would of happened anyway regardless of how long we are there. If they meet the benchmark then they should be rewarded with the 15,000 American troops deploying to another area of Iraq to clear. If they continue to meet these benchmarks along the way pretty soon the entire country will be secure. If they don’t then they decided their own fate and it’s not our fault they didn’t step up. That’s just my opinion that seems like a win win on both sides.
Come on,Democrats, it can't be that hard. You're holding all the cards.For God's sake, act against Bush and Cheney now!!
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