[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 113 (Monday, July 16, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9230-S9231]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IRAQ
Mr. REID. Mr. President, after 52 months--about 210 weeks--and about
1,500 days, America finds itself mired in one of the most tragic
foreign policy blunders in our Nation's history. The sad part about it
is, there is no end in sight. In my view, and that of academics and
others, it will take years, and even decades, to finally close the book
on the damage this war has caused our troops, our economy, and our
moral standing in the world.
On May 24, 2007, President Bush said:
We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government.
This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the
polls to approve a constitution. It's their government's
choice. If they were to say leave, we would leave.
That is the quote of President Bush.
This weekend, Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki--for whom President Bush
has expressed consistent support and confidence--said that Iraqi forces
could take control of their security at ``any time'' American troops
want to leave or were to leave.
A recent poll of the Iraqi people showed that 21 percent think the
American presence makes their country safer, while 69 percent say it
puts them, the Iraqi people, at greater risk. That is what the Iraqis
say.
The Iraqi people and their leaders say they are ready for us to end
our combat operation. I think it is time we listen to them.
In the war's soon to be 5 years, our troops have accomplished
everything they have been asked to do. They took down the Iraqi
dictator. They secured the country for not one, not two, but three
elections. They provided the security needed for Iraqi factions to come
together to negotiate peaceful settlement of their differences.
But the Iraqi leaders have not done their part. After these 52
months: more than 3,600 Americans killed, tens of thousands wounded,
and after nearly $600 billion of American taxpayer dollars spent. And
after this sacrifice--52 months of sacrifice--it is long past time for
the Iraqi leaders and the Iraqi people to put their words into action
by taking responsibility for their own future. After 52 months, more
than 3,600 Americans killed, tens of thousands wounded, and nearly 600
billion in taxpayer dollars spent, President Bush continues to tell our
troops and all Americans that we should wait it out, just stay the
course. After 52 months, our troops and our security cannot afford the
President's ``run-out-the-clock'' strategy.
We have an opportunity and an obligation to change course in Iraq
right now. We can remove our brave troops from the front lines of
another country's civil war, a conflict we have no business policing
and little chance to diffuse. We can conduct the kind of tough and
strong diplomacy required to stabilize Iraq and the region, which even
the President's own military experts plead with him to revise.
Remember, General Petraeus has said the war cannot be won militarily.
We can refocus our resources and fight a real war on terror that drives
the terrorists back to the darkest caves and corners of the Earth.
We can choose that path now. We don't have to mark time waiting for
the President to wake up one morning with a change of heart or his term
to run out. We don't have to wait 2 more months for an arbitrary
September deadline when it is so clear a course change is required and
required now. With our courage and our votes, we can rise above the
tragic failure to deliver a new course that our brave troops and all
Americans demand and deserve. We can do that today by voting for the
Levin-Reed amendment to the Defense authorization bill.
What does Levin-Reed do? It sets a firm date and an end date to
transition the mission and begin the reduction of U.S. forces beginning
120 days after enactment and completed by April 30 of 2008. Levin-Reed
limits the U.S. military mission after April 30 to counterterrorism;
the training of Iraqi security forces and protection of U.S. personnel
and assets; requires that the reduction in forces be part of a
comprehensive, diplomatic, regional, political, and economic effort;
and appoints an international mediator to bring together the warring
factions. That provision dealing with appointing an international
mediator to bring together warring factions was newly placed in the
bill. The idea and the language came from Senator Hagel of Nebraska and
is a great addition to this amendment.
To those who say this language is binding on the President, I say it
is, and that is what it is meant to be. It is binding because the
President has resisted every effort we have made to work with him to
change the direction of his failed Iraq policy. The record will show
that binding language was not our first choice. We passed legislation
requiring that 2006 be a year of transition. Instead, the President
ignored this language and dug us in even deeper into an intractable
civil war. We gave the President a chance to develop his own new course
as Commander in Chief. He refused to do that. Instead, he chose to
extend deployments and ask even more of our brave men and women in
uniform.
Earlier this year we passed legislation that would have begun the
phased redeployment while leaving significant discretion to the
President about how and when to execute the redeployment. Instead, the
President vetoed this bill and asserted that only he had the power to
set war policy, even though we have a constitutional obligation to do
so.
So the record is clear, the President's decision to stubbornly cling
to the current course leaves this body no choice but to enact binding
language. He has failed to lead us out of Iraq. We are ready to show
him the way.
I am going to propound a unanimous consent. I have the greatest
respect for my friend, the distinguished junior Senator from Arizona,
but I say that I am going to enforce the rule that when I propound
this, the distinguished Senator from Arizona should either agree to it
or object. This is not the time for speeches because if he objects to
it, I have more to say.
So I ask unanimous consent that if the House further amends H.R. 1
with the text of H.R. 1401 and requests a conference with the Senate--
Mr. President, I misread the first line. I ask unanimous consent that
if the House further amends H.R. 1 with the text of H.R. 1401 and
requests a conference with the Senate, that the Senate agree to the
request and appoint the same conferees which the Senate has already
appointed to H.R. 1.
Mr. KYL addressed the Chair.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, if the Senator could withhold.
I withdraw the unanimous consent request.
[[Page S9231]]
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The unanimous consent request is
withdrawn.
Mr. REID. I apologize to my friend. It was the wrong unanimous
consent request.
I note the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. REID. Mr. President we had a shuffling of unanimous consent
requests, and obviously the wrong one was shuffled to me. I apologize
for holding up my friends.
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