[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 20, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H2677]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IRAQIS MUST MEET BENCHMARKS

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, American involvement in Iraq should not 
be an open-ended proposition, and we should not be sending more troops 
there to serve as referees in that nation's devastating civil war.
  The status quo simply cannot continue. It is time this Congress 
seriously level with the Iraqi Government that it must meet the 
benchmarks the President himself outlined earlier this year. And if 
they cannot meet those benchmarks, it is time to start bringing our 
troops home.
  It is time the Iraqi Government is held accountable for its actions. 
The Maliki government must realize that it has to meet political, 
economic and diplomatic benchmarks in the region, and that if serious 
improvements are not seen in the coming months, then we will begin the 
process of redeploying our troops out of Iraq.
  This week, we will have an opportunity to exert pressure on the Iraqi 
Government to meet the President's own benchmarks. If the Iraqi 
Government continues to believe that our involvement there is 
indefinite, what kind of pressure are they going to have to make the 
necessary reforms? They are not, and that's why this change in 
direction is much needed at this time.

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