[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 68 (Friday, May 26, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5329-S5330]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  FORMATION OF A NEW IRAQI GOVERNMENT

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, last evening, during his press conference 
with Prime Minister Blair relative to Iraq, President Bush stated:

       The formation of a new government represents a new 
     beginning for Iraq and a new beginning for the relationship 
     between Iraq and our coalition.

  I hope that is not overly optimistic, but, frankly, I am afraid that 
it is because of the incompleteness of the Iraqi Government. Its two 
most important positions--the Minister of Defense and the Minister of 
the Interior--have not been filled. These are critical positions 
because numerous police and army units have been dominated by militia 
members who are loyal to sectarian or political leaders and not to the 
central Government, and because many militia members outside the police 
and the army are engaged in a rampage against innocent civilians.
  While there have been disagreements on a number of issues related to 
Iraq, almost everyone has agreed that the new Iraqi Government would 
have to be a government of national unity with specific emphasis on 
independent nonsectarian choices for the positions of Minister of 
Defense and Minister of the Interior if there was to be a chance of 
quelling the sectarian violence and defeating the insurgency.
  Our senior military leaders have been telling us for years that there 
is no military solution to the violence in Iraq and no way to defeat 
the insurgency without a political solution among the Iraqis 
themselves.
  The Government that was announced last weekend and approved by the 
Iraqi Council of Representatives does not represent a political 
solution because it did not include the two most important ministries: 
the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior.

[[Page S5330]]

  The plain truth is that the various Iraqi political actors were not 
willing to make the compromises necessary to bring about a government 
of national unity within the time allotted by the Iraqi Constitution. 
And they still haven't. We hope they will at any time, but they still 
haven't.
  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, appearing on FOX News last 
Sunday, minimized the lack of selections for these two positions when 
she said:

       People are dramatizing the fact that they didn't get 
     certain posts that they hoped to get.

  She went on to say:

        . . . let's give them three days or four days, or five or 
     six days, to come up with the best possible interior 
     ministry. You know, the five days that they will take to vet 
     people more thoroughly, to make sure they have the right 
     person, will be well worth it.

  On ``Meet the Press'' that afternoon, Secretary Rice even spoke of 
that failure as a plus, a positive, saying:

        . . . I think it actually shows some maturity that they 
     were able to go ahead with the formation of the government so 
     that they can start working, but that they can take a little 
     bit longer.

  How is that a sign of maturity? In my view, both the mature and the 
necessary thing under the constitution of Iraq was for the Iraqi 
political leaders to make the compromises necessary to form the entire 
Government, including, in particular, the Minister of Defense and the 
Minister of the Interior, the two most important ministries.
  It was also disappointing that neither President Bush nor our 
Secretary of State mentioned anything about the need to amend the Iraqi 
Constitution. General Casey noted in testimony before the Senate Armed 
Services Committee:

       We've looked for the constitution to be a national compact, 
     and the perception now is that it's not, particularly among 
     the Sunni.

  The Iraqi Constitution itself provides for the appointment of a 
committee to propose amendments to their constitution. That committee 
has 4 months to complete its work and to recommend amendments to the 
constitution to the full Parliament.
  For a long time, I have been calling for President Bush and officials 
of his administration to put pressure on the Iraqis, to meet the 
timetables they have set in their own constitution to form a unity 
government and to make the changes in the constitution that would make 
it a unifying document. I have called for that pressure to be in the 
form of conditioning our continued presence in Iraq on Iraqis meeting 
their self-imposed deadlines.
  The President told me in the presence of several Members of the 
Congress and in the presence of his own security team that position is 
actually helpful. For us to tell the Iraqis that our continued presence 
depends upon their doing what only they can do, which is to meet their 
self-imposed deadlines for a full government to be appointed and for 
them to amend their constitution to make it a unifying document.
  These are critically important matters. There needs to be a 
government of national unity. We can't save Iraqis from themselves. We 
can't form a government of national unity. We can't amend their 
constitution. If they want a nation, it is up to them to get on with it 
according to their own constitutional deadlines.
  It is not going to happen if we just tell the Iraqis we are there as 
long as they need us. That is an open-ended commitment which cannot 
stand because the American people will not stand for it and should not 
stand for it.
  I hope the President and the Secretary of State and the U.S. 
Ambassador are saying privately what they haven't yet said publicly: 
that it is up to the Iraqis to determine their fate and to pull 
together a national unity government because that is the only hope they 
have of defeating the insurgency and avoiding civil war.

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