[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19135]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    BUSH ANNOUNCES THAT IRAQ HAS NOT MET ONE OF THE BENCHMARKS THEY 
                            PROMISED TO MEET

  (Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, last week, the President's 
preliminary progress report on Iraq showed no progress at all. In fact, 
the Bush administration admitted that the Iraqi government failed to 
meet any of its targets for political or economic progress.
  You would think that this report would serve as a wake-up call to the 
Bush administration. It hasn't. It's clear that President Bush does not 
want to change a thing. In fact, the Washington Post reported that the 
administration is not considering a strategic change, but simply a 
shift in message.
  Mr. Speaker, the failures in Iraq have nothing to do with message. 
President Bush promised that the Iraqi government would meet these 
benchmarks when he announced his troop escalation plan earlier this 
year. Many of us were skeptical that the Iraqis would actually follow 
through. And now that it's clear that the government has failed to meet 
any of the benchmarks, a shift in message is simply not enough.
  Democrats have a plan to bring our troops home by April of next year. 
It's time for the Iraqis to take accountability for their own country. 
And that's why we passed the Republican Redeployment Act last week, and 
the Senate should follow our lead this week.

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