[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18663-18664]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I have great respect for my colleague, 
Senator Feingold. If I am not mistaken, he opposed the authorization of 
military force in Iraq and has consistently opposed that policy. I am 
not supportive of the Levin amendment. I think it would result in a 
precipitous, irresponsible, and dangerous redeployment of our soldiers, 
confusing to our allies, placing our soldiers who remain in Iraq at 
greater risk, and placing the Iraqi soldiers, many of whom, indeed, are 
standing with us right now to fight al-Qaida in Iraq, making their 
lives more dangerous. In fact, they are taking more casualties than we 
are. It is not correct to say they are not performing. We wish they 
would perform much better. We wish the Government was stronger. But, in 
fact, we are at this very moment shoulder to shoulder in operation 
after operation around Iraq.
  I will note this. This is not a little, bitty nation we are leaders 
of. This is the United States of America, a great nation. Two months 
ago, the Congress of this great Nation voted to fund the

[[Page 18664]]

surge in Iraq, and this Senate voted 99 to 0 to confirm General 
Petraeus to lead that surge. We required an interim report on July 15 
on how things are going and a more serious, comprehensive report from 
General Petraeus himself in September. OK? That is what we did, and 
that is what we are doing.
  For the last, I believe, 3 weeks, the surge has been complete. For 
only 3 weeks have we had the full complement of troops as part of this 
surge. Already some things have happened militarily that are good in 
Iraq.
  So before we get the general's report in September, without anything 
other than our own opinions from reading newspapers and watching TV and 
sitting in our air-conditioned offices, we are now going to come along 
and abrogate what this great Nation did 2 months ago because of some 
political pressure or some spot they saw on the evening news, placing 
our soldiers at risk, undermining the policies we are asking them to 
execute at this very moment. Even pushing for that at this time I think 
is irresponsible.
  I wish to be on record as saying I understand the difficulties we are 
facing in Iraq. I understand the courage our soldiers are displaying. I 
understand the risks they are subjected to right now, and we want to 
see the situation improve. All of us do. But we voted for this policy. 
The surge has just started. We need to give General Petraeus a chance 
to proceed with it and not flop around irresponsibly and come up with a 
withdrawal policy that is so rapid that I am not even sure the military 
can effectively carry it out under the Levin amendment. As a matter of 
fact, they cannot effectively carry it out.
  Mr. President, I guess we are still in morning business. I see my 
colleague, Senator Nelson from Florida, whom I respect so greatly. He 
chairs the Strategic Subcommittee of which I am pleased to be the 
ranking member.
  I believe I am to be recognized in a few minutes on a separate 
amendment, but if Senator Nelson has some comments he would like to 
make at this time, I will consider yielding to him and see what our 
schedule is.

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