Boxer Says Administration has Failed to Respond to Voters' Call for Change in Iraq Policy

Boxer Says Administration has Failed to Respond to Voters' Call for Change in Iraq Policy

The following are U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer's (D-CA) remarks as prepared for delivery at a press conference in Los Angeles today:

On November 7th, the American people sent a clear and unequivocal message to Congress and the President: it's time for change.

Nowhere was that message more pointed than on the war in Iraq.

As a Senator who voted against the war, and a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, I have watched with frustration and dismay as our President has stubbornly refused to change course, even as our disastrous policy has sent us on a downward spiral into chaos in Iraq.

It has been two weeks since the voters sent their message of change, and still, we have yet to hear this President articulate any meaningful changes to our policy in Iraq, or even express the inclination to do so.

And who is paying the price?

Our brave men and women in uniform,

and the American taxpayers.

(Click to view: CHART 1 Costs of the War)

And I want to note that 22 percent of the deaths so far are Californians or those based in California.

These costs are robbing our families of the investments we must make to improve their lives.

Let's look at some of the unmet needs of the American people.

(Click to view: CHART 2: Unmet need of the American People)

What has the President done since the election?

Despite the departure of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, which was long overdue, we have seen no substantive changes from this White House.

Let's look at the President's visit to Vietnam.

When asked if there were lessons to be taken from Vietnam in the debate over Iraq, the President's response was, "we'll succeed unless we quit. We tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is going to take awhile."

The President's statement flies in the face of history—does he think we would have won the Vietnam War by staying the course? President Nixon took us out of Vietnam because he understood that there could be no victory for America with our brave men and women sitting in the middle of a civil war.

And the President is wrong to imply that the American people are impatient with the war—at the end of this month, we will have been in Iraq longer than we were in World War II.

Let's look at what else this Administration has said lately:

On November 13, the President's spokesperson, Tony Snow said that we are winning in Iraq.

But let's look at Iraq just in November

(Click to view: CHART 3: November Iraq headlines)

These are headlines from newspapers across the country:

"Dozens are kidnapped at Baghdad University" (New York Times, Nov. 14, 2006)

"Violence in Iraq called increasingly complex" (Washington Post, Nov. 17, 2006)

"Iraqi police find 56 bodies in Baghdad" (Associated Press, Nov. 3, 2006)

"Troubled troops in no-win plight" (USA Today, Nov. 2, 2006)

"A Violent Month Hits Home; Across the U.S., Iraq's deadly toll is mourned by family and friends" (Los Angeles Times, Nov. 1, 2006)

"U.S. Searching for Americans Abducted in Southern Iraq" (New York Times, Nov. 17, 2006)

"20 killed in bus bombing in Baghdad" (Associated Press, Nov. 13, 2006)

"November off to bloody start in Iraq" (Associated Press, Nov 3, 2006)

"Blasts kill dozens of Iraqi police recruits; Maliki to reshuffle cabinet" (Washington Post, Nov. 13, 2006)

Those are the headlines.

We know that we have already lost 47 US soldiers this month.

1,368 Iraqis have been killed this month, making it the deadliest month in Iraq since the Associated Press began tracking the figure in April 2005.

Four American security guards and an Austrian colleague were kidnapped from a supply convoy by men wearing Iraqi police uniforms…they are still missing.

And gunmen wearing Iraqi police commando uniforms stormed the Ministry of Higher Education building in the middle of the day last week, abducting 150 Iraqis.

This is November, and still this White House is beating the drum for the status quo.

Vice President Cheney told the Federalist Society on November 18th that, "the key is to get the Iraqis into the fight."

That's what Congress said more than a year ago, when 79 Senators—Democrats and Republicans—voted for a resolution saying that 2006 should be a period of "significant transition in Iraq to full Iraqi sovereignty…"

The American people agree with the 79 of us who voted for that resolution: According to a Pew Research Poll conducted Nov. 9-12, 56 percent of the American people think the U.S. should set a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

The Iraqi people want to see change as well:

In September, a University of Maryland poll found that 71 percent of Iraqis want their government to ask foreign forces to depart within a year. And 78 percent believe that our presence is provoking more conflict than it is preventing.

Senator Russ Feingold has a bill that I am cosponsoring that says it is U.S. policy to redeploy from Iraq by July 1, 2007, leaving only the minimal level of U.S. forces necessary to conduct targeted counterterrorism activities, train Iraqi forces, and protect U.S. infrastructure and personnel.

Senator Carl Levin, the incoming Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has laid out a plan to begin redeployment in four to six months.

Senator Joe Biden, the incoming Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, has proposed a political solution that would encourage a federalized Iraq, with three semi- autonomous regions and a central government to disburse oil revenues.

It's time for a change.

Even Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State and advisor to this White House, says that this war can't be won militarily: "If you mean by clear military victory an Iraqi government that can be established…across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible."

So today, in light of an Administration that is wedded to the status quo in Iraq, I ask Californians and the American people to once again be heard.

Please go to my Senate website, www.boxer.senate.gov, and sign my petition urging the President to start redeploying the troops out of Iraq now.

It's time for the President to start listening to the American people. On November 7th, we sent a message for change. But we cannot and must not let up until we see this Administration take action.

http://boxer.senate.gov/news/releases/record.cfm?id=266071&&