Issue Position: Foreign Policy - Iraq
Issue Position
Issue Position: Foreign Policy - Iraq
The Iraqi government must take responsibility for their country. While I am glad that the "surge" has provided breathing space for the Iraqi government, I am frustrated that the government has so far failed to follow through with real political progress. This window of opportunity will not last forever.
I will always vote to fund our troops. I voted in favor of H.R. 4156, the bipartisan Orderly and Responsible Iraq Redeployment Appropriations Act, which passed the House on November 15. This legislation, which would have given our troops the resources they need, unfortunately stalled in the Senate. I disagreed, however, with the Democratic leadership's decision to include timelines in this legislation. I supported the Motion to Recommit that stripped the timelines from this bill, as I did with the previous Iraq funding resolution.
I am proud to say I voted in favor H.R. 2764, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008. This bill provided $70 billion for our men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan and stopped thousands of government employees for being put on unpaid furlough.
The War in Iraq is undermining our Global War on Terror. In September, I met with the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, who agreed that equipment shortages and retention and recruitment problems have hurt our ability to train our troops and fight the War on Terror. Our National Guard and Reserve are running out of equipment and the very little that they do have is often broken or decrepit.
It is time to begin bringing our troops home responsibly. I am fighting in Congress for a "one for one" policy that can show demonstrable progress in redeploying our troops. "One for one" means that for every Iraqi battalion trained and operating independently, an American battalion will be sent home or redeployed. Currently, the Department of Defense (DOD) says that nearly 50,000 Iraqis can be considered capable of operating fully independent. The same number of American troops should come home.
I will continue to fight to make the "one for one" policy the new roadmap for the war in Iraq . This will hold the Iraqi government accountable and force the President to keep his word.
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