[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 22662-22663]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, a few moments ago, the Iraq Study Group 
presented their report. This is an historic document. It is 142 pages 
long and easily read. Within the confines of this publication is a very 
important message. I want to salute, first, the members of this Iraq 
Study Group. These men and one woman have risen to the call of public 
service in a way that is exemplary for all of us who are involved in 
public life. Former Secretary of State James Baker, former Congressman 
Lee Hamilton, Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Edwin 
Meese, III, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Leon E. 
Panetta, William J. Perry, former Senator Charles S. Robb, and former 
Senator Alan K. Simpson have produced a bipartisan report on a war that 
troubles every single American, and their conclusion in this report is 
clear. Their conclusion is it is time for the American troops to leave 
Iraq and begin coming home. Their conclusion is that we are no longer 
waiting, if we ever were, for the permission of Iraq for this to 
happen. Instead, we are putting Iraq on notice that it is time for them 
to stand and make the important decisions for their future that will 
lead to stability in that nation.
  They have shown, with this report, an impatience and frustration 
which has been shared with the American people. On November 7, Election 
Day, the American people were very clear. They said overwhelmingly by 
their votes across America they want a change in our policy in Iraq. It 
is no longer acceptable to lose so many of our best and bravest 
soldiers, no longer acceptable to be bringing these brave soldiers home 
for communities to grieve and to pray over them, as we should, but we 
must bring this to an end. Twenty thousand or more American soldiers 
were disabled in this war, some of whom will struggle for a lifetime to 
rebuild their lives and their futures. It is also time for us to bring 
an end to the expenditure of money on the war in Iraq; $2 billion to $3 
billion a week that we are spending.
  At a time when we are cutting back on research at the National 
Institutes of Health for medical research; at a time when we are unable 
to fund No Child Left Behind, when we know that our children, our 
future leaders, need a helping hand and we are unable to provide the 
resources; at a time when we cannot help working families pay for their 
health insurance, we are sending billions of dollars over for this war 
in Iraq, a war that has now lasted longer than World War II.
  The report of the Iraq Study Group is a call to action. It is a call 
for change, and, quite frankly, it is a call on the President, our 
Commander in Chief, to move forward with new leadership and with a new 
candor in dealing with the people of Iraq.
  They also make a bold suggestion, which I endorse, that we need to 
open the diplomatic front. We need to bring to the table in the Middle 
East many countries that we have shunned for a long period of time, 
countries that, frankly, we disagree with on many basic things. We need 
to bring to that table Iran, a country which we have very few things in 
common with but a country we need to bring in and discuss the future 
stability in the Middle East. We need to bring Syria to the table as 
well, in the hopes that they will become an agent for positive change 
in the Middle East and for stability. There are some who will disagree 
with that, but I am not one of them. I recall, in the darkest days of 
the Cold War, we would sit down with the Russians, we

[[Page 22663]]

would sit down with Soviet leaders, we would try to work out 
differences, try to find ways to bring a peaceful resolution to many 
contentious problems. That was the American way then, and it should be 
now in the Middle East.
  I salute the Iraq Study Group. They have given us a guidepost. They 
have given us a roadmap, in terms of our future policy in Iraq, and 
now, with the American people calling for change, with the Iraq Study 
Group on a bipartisan basis calling for change, now, the responsibility 
shifts to the President of the United States. I hope that he will 
demonstrate his commitment to change by beginning to redeploy American 
troops out of Iraq starting in January of next year. If we are to meet 
the goal of this Iraq Study Group of the American combat forces 
redeployed out of Iraq by March of 2008, then we need to begin that 
process and begin it as soon as possible. For our soldiers, for their 
families, for the American people, the President needs to begin this 
redeployment.

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