Statement of Senator Tom Harkin on General Petraeus' Report to Congress

Statement

STATEMENT OF SENATOR TOM HARKIN ON GENERAL PETRAEUS' REPORT TO CONGRESS

Harkin: "Asking General Petraeus to evaluate the surge he has overseen in Iraq is like asking a college student to grade his own term paper."
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2007
Washington, D.C. - Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today issued the following statement.

"Today, General Petraeus once again came to Capitol Hill to ask Congress to prolong our involvement in Iraq's civil war. His assessment of the situation in Iraq was positive, but not independent. The simple fact is that asking General Petraeus to evaluate the surge he has overseen in Iraq is like asking a college student to grade his own term paper.

"In 2004, when General Petraeus was charged with training Iraqi security forces, he made a similar positive assessment of the situation in Iraq in a Washington Post op-ed. He said then that Iraqi forces were stepping forward, leading their country and that they showed a determination and desire to accept the full burden of security tasks for Iraq. That was nearly three long years ago and we have come to find out differently. Most importantly, since the General's encouraging news in 2004, we have lost nearly 2,700 more American troops in this conflict.

"The Bush Administration and Senate Republicans have continually asked the American people to wait until September to evaluate the effectiveness of the surge that began last January. Well, September has come and the situation in Iraq is the same: the Iraqi government has still failed to make progress towards reconciliation and our troops are still policing a civil war that requires a political, not a military, solution.

"Tomorrow will mark the sixth anniversary of September 11, a day on which barbarity and hatred came to our nation's shores and was met by heroism and bravery to make all Americans proud. This anniversary is a stark reminder of why we must combat terror as effectively as possible.

"The simple truth is that America cannot be as safe as it should be when our troops remain mired in a civil war in Iraq that has no foreseeable end. It is time to pursue a different strategy and redeploy our troops. It is unwise and it is immoral to ask our brave young men and women to continue putting their lives on the line when the Iraqi government cannot do the most basic work necessary to bring their country together.

"Evidence from the recently released GAO Report and the National Intelligence Estimate overwhelmingly show that the Iraqi government has failed to make political progress, the very thing which this latest surge was supposed to enable them to do. Our brave troops' professionalism, capability, and courage are unparalleled. However, our outstanding troops cannot end Iraq's civil war. Only Iraq's government can do that and they so far have refused to take the actions needed to do so.

"Congress must take the necessary steps to require the Bush Administration to redeploy our troops so that we can pursue a smarter campaign against the terrorists who threaten us."

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