Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy,
On Redeployment Of U.S. Forces From Iraq
July 18, 2007

Mr. President, I strongly support the Levin-Reed Amendment, and I urge our friends on the other side of the aisle to end their filibuster of this vital piece of legislation. 

The President’s Iraq strategy has been a disaster.  It was born of deception, fueled by incompetence, and pursued through arrogance and stubbornness.   

This strategy has not made us safer.  It has undermined the international credibility that took generations of Americans’ sacrifice to build; it has squandered billions of hard-earned tax dollars that would have been better used in directly countering terrorists; it has skewed our priorities here at home; it has weakened our military readiness; and it has created an open sore in an already volatile Middle East.  It is time to extricate our troops from Iraq’s civil war and let the Iraqis and their regional neighbors forge their own political settlement.

As many predicted, the security situation in Iraq has not appreciably improved despite the President’s surge strategy.  The ongoing violence comes from a deadly brew of suicide bombings, intra-ethnic conflict, and out-of-control militias – all unleashed by the President’s poorly planned invasion and occupation of the country. 

Our troops can provide some semblance of security in limited areas for limited periods of time.  But this fleeting security largely just shifts the focal points of violence, and it comes at the horrific price of the lives and limbs of still more of our soldiers and Marines killed and maimed every day in roadside bomb attacks and ambushes. 

The issue is not whether our troops can gain control of a few city blocks, but whether there is any way that we can stop Iraq’s civil war.  I challenge anyone to say how we can do that, when the Iraqis do not yet have the political will to do it themselves.     

The Iraqi Army is fraught with ethnic divisions and few Iraqi units are capable of fighting successfully on their own.   

As others have pointed out, it often appears the Shiite-dominated Iraqi Army is simply out to settle scores with the Sunnis who ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein.  The unfortunate truth is that the Iraqi Army cannot bring security now, and it is unlikely to be able to in the coming years without overwhelming, side-by-side support and sacrifice of American soldiers.  

That leaves political reconciliation, and we all know where that stands.  The Iraqis are no closer to an oil revenue-sharing agreement, no closer to an acceptable political arrangement, and no closer to a functioning government that serves all Iraqis.  Our presence has become an excuse for inaction.  Why should Shiites sacrifice when they have American forces to die for them?  Why should the Kurds be more conciliatory when they think we will protect them forever?  Why should the Sunnis reconcile among themselves when they can fight Americans together?  

Rory Stewart, an insightful author and observer of the Middle East, recently commented that our presence in Iraq is — to use his phrase — “infantilizing Iraqi politics,” making the Iraqis completely incapable of finding their own way.    

As our troops are withdrawing we should make a concerted diplomatic push, bringing together representatives of Iraq’s government and Iraq’s neighbors.  They would have little choice but to recognize that without the U.S. military’s constant presence, they have to make some kind of accommodation among themselves. 

That is what the Levin-Reed and the Feingold-Reid-Leahy amendments would accomplish.  Based closely on the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, both amendments would require the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq to commence within 120 days. 

By springtime of next year, only a small number of troops necessary for limited counter-terrorism, force protection, and training purposes would remain in the country.  These amendments would effectively end the United States military presence in Iraq as we know it. 

The White House wants to wait to until September, when General Petraeus will report on progress from the surge.  Yet it is folly to wait when we already know what the answer will be.  We are going to hear words like, “The situation is still challenging, but we are making progress.”  We are going to get a report like the glossy one released last week, which said the Iraqis are making progress in some areas, as if that is enough reason to continue farther still down the wrong road. 

We can already see the way the review is predetermined in statements of General Petraeus’ deputies.  General Odierno told reporters a couple of months ago that the current surge level of U.S. troops would be needed in Iraq through next year.  Major General Lynch, the commander of the southern portion of Baghdad, echoed that view only yesterday.

We in Congress have a constitutional responsibility to act now.  If we put off developing a consensus plan for the redeployment of U.S. forces, more of our troops will be needlessly killed and wounded.  More innocent Iraqis will lose their lives.  And, as today’s public summaries of the National Intelligence Assessment on Al Qaeda underscore, the war in Iraq has made our country less safe.  It is an indictment of the ruinous policies and strategies this Administration has pursued in Iraq, year after year. 

We must end this treadmill trudge to nowhere.  We must show the Iraqis that only they can save their country.  It is time to shift focus back to Afghanistan and to rebuild our military and our defenses at home.  It is time to restore our reputation as a Nation united in combating terrorism, but unwilling any longer to sacrifice our sons, our daughters, or our values for a flawed policy that cannot succeed. 

# # # # #