Hill Outlines Support For The Responsible Redeployment From Iraq Act

Press Release

Hill Outlines Support for the Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act

Today Congress was presented with the Initial Benchmark Assessment Report on Iraq from President Bush and voted on the Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act. In response, Congressman Baron Hill issued the following statement:

"After reading the Initial Benchmark Assessment Report on Iraq, I have made the difficult decision to support the Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act.

The Report assesses 18 specific benchmarks set by Congress in the supplemental appropriations bill, which was approved and accepted by President Bush. The Iraqi government has achieved a few of the benchmarks, but the vast majority has not been met. And, those benchmarks that have not yet been achieved are by far the most important to ensuring real progress is being made in Iraq. For example, the government of Iraq has made satisfactory progress toward establishing their Electoral Commission, but has not made satisfactory progress toward creating and enacting legislation on de-Ba'athification reform. De-Ba'athification reform is one of the most sensitive and important issues that must be resolved in Iraq as it involves neutralizing and uniting competing conceptions of justice, accountability, reconciliation and economic compensation.

In fact, the three most critical benchmarks assessed in the Report are nowhere near close to meeting satisfactory progress.

First, the government of Iraq has not achieved notable success in organizing their troops to pursue extremists without depending upon American commanders for assistance.

Second, the Report rates the organizational progress of the Iraq Security Force units as unsatisfactory and wholly incapable of operating on their own. Readiness assessments for the National Police do show slow, but steady, improvement, but there continues to be viable concerns about the sectarian leanings of these law enforcement agents.

Third, the Iraqi government has failed to craft or enact legislation ensuring equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources. And, the government has not met its self-imposed deadline of May 31 for submitting the framework for oil and revenue-sharing laws to the Council of Ministers.

In not meeting these three incredibly important benchmarks, the Iraqi government has further signaled its resistance and unwillingness to make real progress and control extremists. In addition, the fact that calls for economic and diplomatic surges have gone largely unheeded, such as those from the Iraq Study Group, has left a large gap in the overall foreign policy strategy toward Iraq. These factors, combined with the loss of far too many of our soldiers' lives in Iraq, have led me to the decision that the President continues to simply promote more of the same. A stay-the-course strategy will have an increasingly detrimental impact on our military readiness and our country's future, both domestically and internationally. It is time to start the process of safely redeploying our troops out of Iraq.

Redeployment must not be confused with a cut-and-run strategy. Redeployment entails moving our troops to strategic locations throughout the Middle East to confront terrorism on its front lines, while bringing some of our troops back home to their families. The intention of this bill is not to turn our backs on Iraq and the Middle East. Instead, the intention is to provide respite for our war-weary troops and the American people, while reinvigorating the world's best soldiers to have the capability to confront terrorists throughout the world."

Source